ABSTRACT Following Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement in 2015 that he would run for a third term, Burundi was thrust into violence and instability as his eligibility was contested. This contribution argues that the regional and subregional responses to the crisis exposed the inadequacy of what the literature refers to as the African Governance Architecture (AGA). It asserts that although the normative component of the AGA is sound, the institutional component lacks the requisite ‘teeth’ to contribute meaningfully to the promotion of good governance on the continent. The article points to the characterisation of the AGA platform as a ‘free-space’ as evidence that the AGA is inferior to its individual organs and organisations. It argues that in assessing the AGA, there are two pertinent sets of questions, namely; what are Africa’s needs in light of its history, its present reality and its future aspirations?; secondly, what is the African Union’s promise to the continent vis-à-vis democracy and good governance as captured in the AU Constitutive Act?

中文翻译：

---

布隆迪危机和非洲治理架构的海市蜃楼

摘要 皮埃尔·恩库伦齐扎 (Pierre Nkurunziza) 于 2015 年宣布他将竞选第三个任期后，布隆迪因其资格受到质疑而陷入暴力和不稳定之中。这一贡献认为，区域和次区域对危机的反应暴露了文献所称的非洲治理架构 (AGA) 的不足。它断言，虽然 AGA 的规范部分是健全的，但机构部分缺乏必要的“牙齿”来为促进非洲大陆的善治做出有意义的贡献。文章指出，将 AGA 平台定性为“自由空间”是 AGA 不如其个别机构和组织的证据。它认为，在评估 AGA 时，有两组相关的问题，即：考虑到非洲的历史、目前的现实和未来的愿望，非洲的需求是什么？其次，非洲联盟在《非盟组织法》中所体现的民主和善政方面对非洲大陆的承诺是什么？