ABSTRACT
In April 2010 the Kyrgyz Republic experienced a non-institutional transfer of power for the second time since its independence in 1991, considering the so-called Tulip Revolution (March 2005) as the first one. Hence, taking the USSR disintegration (1991) as a first critical juncture (Pierson and Skocpol 2002; Mahoney 2000), and the Tulip Revolution as a second one, where institutional persistence neutralized both the stabilization and democratization of the regime, this chapter aims to frame the ongoing situation after April 2010 as the third critical juncture since Bakiyev's ouster opened a period of institutional redefinition.
