ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a study that demonstrates that the combined application of historical institutionalism and prospect theory to the topic of regime change and communal violence in Rwanda and Burundi provides an answer to the puzzles. The purpose of the study was to resolve two interrelated puzzles pertaining to the violence that took place in Burundi and Rwanda in 1993 and 1994, respectively. The puzzle has to do with the remarkable similarities that exist between these two countries. The use of the integrative approach permits the study to demonstrate that the outcome of institutional change in Rwanda and Burundi is not merely a matter of each country's past institutional experiences. The chapter provides the ways in which the data provided by the content analysis support the secondary hypotheses and disconfirm the rational choice alternative hypothesis. It concludes with the implications the findings that have for the study of regime change and collective violence.
