ABSTRACT
The previous chapter has offered an empirical window into Rwanda’s attempt at political transformation through democratic transition and the catastrophic repercussion thereof. Overall, it reiterated in a rather tragic manner an undercurrent running throughout the book that when political competition and organisation in deeply divided societies coalesce along ethnic cleavages characterised by weak institutional framework and zero-sum calculations, then the potential for transition is relatively weak and in this case dangerous. This chapter on the other hand fundamentally departs from the previous in two ways: 1) it deals with a post-genocide era that has been marked by an extended period of political stability and a redefinition of identity politics, and 2) it seeks to test the robustness and viability of the integrative model as a basis of transition within postgenocide Rwanda. This empirical analysis aims to gauge to what extent Rwanda has overcome pre-genocide problems and daunting post-conflict challenges in the context of endemic ethnic tensions and social divisions, state structural collapse, unprecedented human loss and systematic politics of exclusion. In doing so, I will seek to address a number of pertinent concerns which not only confronted prior transition efforts but potentially inform and dictate the success or failure of current efforts. If ethnic divisions threaten Rwanda, how has government moved to address this complex problem, if at all? How has it reconciled the problem of equality and equitable political participation? Trust is crucial to the democratic process, how has the regime addressed this crucial requisite within its political reforms, and overall what is its record on habituation of political behaviour through institutional engineering? Methodologically, due to the degree of relative regime continuity, my analysis will start as early as the immediate post-genocide Rwanda primarily because Kagame’s RPF regime has virtually ruled Rwanda since the 1994 genocide and hence a clear pattern of policy continuity is easily discernible.
