Arusha at 15: reflections on power-sharing, peace and transition in Burundi

Fifteen years after the signature of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, this paper presents a state of the art of power-sharing in Burundi. Used both for the purpose of war termination and of constitutional transformation, power-sharing played a critical role in Burundi’s transition from conflict to peace. With the benefit of hindsight, this paper, first of all, sheds some light on how Burundi managed to overcome the adoption problem. Next, it looks into the – so far – sustainable respect for power-sharing, in particular in its ethnic dimension. At the same time, some more light is shed on the impact of recent developments, including the 2010 general elections, on the erosion of one of the pillars of power-sharing in Burundi. In order to understand its dynamics, power-sharing must be placed in the context of stubborn, context specific historical political and institutional features. This paper explains recent developments of power-sharing in Burundi against the background of a tradition of single party rule, state centralism, militarism and neo-patrimonialism.