Registration Regime Theory and the Rwandan Genocide Identity, Bureaucracy, and the Temporal Infrastructure of Mass Violence

This paper applies Registration Regime Theory (RRT) to the Rwandan genocide, examining how identity registration, bureaucratic documentation, and state record infrastructures functioned as temporal mechanisms enabling mass violence. The study analyzes how colonial-era identity classifications and postcolonial administrative records stabilized ethnic categories across time, transforming social distinctions into fixed, actionable targets. By embedding identity into durable documents and bureaucratic routines, registration regimes reduced contingency and facilitated systematic violence. By conceptualizing genocide through the lens of temporal infrastructure, the paper demonstrates that mass violence is not only a moment of rupture but the outcome of long-term inscriptional processes. This approach contributes to genocide studies, political ontology, and critical analyses of state bureaucracy by foregrounding the role of registration in the temporal organization of violence.