African political orders are not neatly divided into a few resilient democracies and an authoritarian remainder, but the development of political institutions is highly uneven. This project develops the concept of uneven configurations of democratic resilience in a comparative study of Benin and Gabon. It focuses on three dimensions of the political “orders” sub-script: participation, representation, and accountability, operationalized through political recruitment and competition, elite cohesion and representative linkages, and institutional autonomy and executive oversight. The two cases capture contrasting trajectories. Benin combines democratic backsliding with renewed opposition representation, while Gabon combines a recent coup d’état with political reopening and substantial elite continuity. Building on earlier parliamentary surveys in both countries, new survey waves allow us to trace these changes longitudinally. By comparing divergent trajectories within and across the two cases, the project provides a proof of concept and contributes to the broader SCRIPTS agenda on contestation and resilience of the liberal script.