The Politics of Association: Power-Sharing and the Depoliticization of Ethnicity in Post-War Burundi

The article studies how power-sharing institutions can foster the depoliticization of ethnicity after ethnic conflicts. Building on a constructivist and neo-institutionalist theoretical framework, it argues that the depoliticization of ethnicity can be fostered by power-sharing systems combining: (1) guarantees for the ethnic representativeness of political institutions and the security of all ethnic categories, and (2) institutional mechanisms that incentivize the reorientation of political alliances on a multi-ethnic basis. The case of Burundi provides a plausibility probe for the argument. The article suggests the existence of an ‘associational’ model of power-sharing, where ethnic conflict is transformed by the depoliticization of ethnicity.