ANALYSE SOCIOLOGIQUE DES PERCEPTIONS DES JEUNES BENINOIS SUR LA MODERNITE POLITIQUE DES ELITES

Political modernity is a negotiated reality, which requires adaptation, innovation. The representations or perceptions of young Beninese constitute variables of recognition of political modernity, even of the modernity of political figures or elites. These are criteria for the recognition and validation of political leadership. How do young Beninese build their criteria of political modernity? In addition, how do they state their perceptions of the modernity of elites or political figures in Benin? Essentially qualitative and based on comprehensive interviews carried out in Benin from a survey integrating about thirty (30) people, this research appropriates the dynamics of interpretative sociology and adopts the model of analysis based on the social construction of reality, with an opening on interactionism and strategic analysis. By postulating that the perceptions of young people on political modernity structure the relationships between their expectations and the behavior of elites or political figures in society, this work has made it possible to elucidate the social representations which guide the modernity of political elites in Benin. It revealed the over-intellectualization of the political arena, the pervasiveness of the bó or gris-gris, the emergence of a new relationship to way of life, to technology, then the modernization of public action and marginalization of the opposition.