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Paper short abstract:

The paper explores how local power has been re-organised in two authoritarian settings, Burundi and Rwanda, since the end of the civil war and the genocide. It focuses on the everyday practices of power, the origins of these practices, and their evolution overtime.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores how local power has been re-organised in two authoritarian settings, Burundi and Rwanda, since the end of the civil war and the genocide. Going beyond the usual analyses highlighting the lack meaningful space for citizens’ engagement, it focuses on the everyday practices of power, the origins of these practices, and their evolution overtime. Both countries are post-conflict with authoritarian governments that have embraced decentralisation reforms. However, local governance in Burundi and Rwanda have been markedly different. Through systematic comparison, the paper shows that this difference is mainly the result of differing strategies of institutional change, clientelism, and rent capture (including aid money) in the pursue of regime maintenance. Empirically, the paper focusses on the political and financial relations between the periphery and the central state, the sociology of local bureaucrats and politicians, the incentives they are facing, as well as their relationship with the local population.