The Cases: Rwanda and Burundi

Abstract

Although Rwanda and Burundi might be adequately described as “false twins”, (Lemarchand 2006c: 4, emphasis added) they share similarities in terms of the “ethnic map” (Lemarchand 2006c: 4) and the very violent conflicts in postindependence political history that in both cases evolved along ethnic cleavages. The two countries opted for different political institutional models to overcome these cleavages (Vandeginste 2006: 27). While Rwanda introduced a political system that I label as ‘denial of’ ethnic cleavages, Burundi opted for a system called ‘power sharing along’ ethnic cleavages. In this respect the two countries are, as René Lemarchand (2006b: 4) puts it, most “unlike each other from the standpoint of their emergent polities”. Intending to contribute to the ‘institutional engineering’-debate about which of the two models is appropriate to overcome ethnic cleavages and reach a stable and peaceful society (see 4.2), I selected these two countries.