4 - Les Gouvernements de transition comme sites d’institutionnalisation de la politique dans les ordres politiques en voie de sortie de crise en Afrique ?*

Abstract

Transition Government, as a politico-institutional technique for conflict resolution, is often referred to and utilized on the continent. It is presented as the magical recipe. Its use in the crises in Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire, and very recently in DRC, Liberia, Burundi, Rwanda, etc. have finally made it a ‘ready for use model for conflict resolution and transitions’. Can the transition government transform conflict physical violence to symbolic violence through the institutionalization of compromise between political groups that are generally hostile against each other in order for them to become inreturn mutually legitimate and legitimizing groups  hence ushering in the transition to a new political order? Transition government, which is hereby regarded as the key for the establishment of the political order in reconstruction and its
institutional emblem beyond the peace agreements, is par excellence the basis of a parliamentarian and institutional civilization of political ethos. This study demonstrates in the final analysis that it is misleading to consider Transition Government as part and parcel of an enchanting process that provides a bright future. In reality, it is an ambiguous process that is punctuated by a dynamic power relationship which either facilitates or hijacks conflict resolution.