Processes of political transformation and external assistance in fragile states have received increasing attention in the academic literature over the past decade. This literature, however, has not yet adopted a multidimensional categorization of fragility. This article discusses the evolution of the concept of fragility, and assesses the growing literature on processes of political transformation in fragile states, with a special focus on the quantitative literature and on the effectiveness of external democracy-support policies. Its novelty lies in its contribution to drawing links between these parallel bodies of literature. Furthermore, this article argues that, by incorporating a more complex definition of fragility, future research could reach more nuanced approaches on how fragility influences both processes of democratization and the effectiveness of democracy-support policies.Over the past decade, the interest in aid effectiveness has grown exponentially, with a proliferation of both praxis-oriented evaluations and academic studies. At the same time, the rising interest in "fragile states" has prompted the aideffectiveness literature to turn its attention to this category of states. Leading questions include whether development aid contributes to economic growth or to a political turnaround in fragile states (Chauvet and Collier 2008), and whether the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of development aid in general have the same impact when looking at fragile states (Baliamoune-Lutz 2009).The usage of the term "fragile states," however, has evolved faster than the academic literature has explicitly accounted for. In particular, the contemporary literature has continued to embrace an aggregate one-dimensional definition of fragility that does not specifically examine distinct dimensions of statehood, from the state's capacity to its authority and legitimacy.Parallel to the development of the aid-effectiveness literature, the literature on the impact of aid in specific development sectors has also surged. Notably, the increasing number of analyses on the impact of external policies contributing to processes of political transformation, namely democratization or stabilization, has been remarkable. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses have multiplied in trying to gauge the effectiveness of democracy-support policies in developing countries, as well as the effectiveness of peacebuilding missions in post-conflict 1 For helpful comments on previous versions of this work, I would like to thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers;
Ce document d’orientation a pour objectif de combler une lacune importante dans la littérature politique et universitaire concernant les processus d’élaboration et le contenu des constitutions provisoires dans des contextes de conflit. Il explique que, à la différence des accords de paix et des dispositifs provisoires, les constitutions provisoires tirent leur force de leur caractère exécutoire. Il se penche sur la diversité des constitutions provisoires post-1990 en termes de structure et de rôle joué dans les processus de paix. Une des principales conclusions que l’on peut tirer est que, malgré des différences majeures liées à la relation entre le contexte national et les choix en matière de procédure et de conception, les constitutions provisoires peuvent offrir le temps ou l’opportunité pour parvenir, à terme, à un consensus. Elles sont susceptibles de contribuer à une culture de constitutionnalisme participatif et traitent les questions de séquencement des élections et de renforcement des institutions clés dans la mise en place de cadres institutionnels.