The paper seeks to show the communalization process in the department of Douroula located in the Mouhoun province in Burkina Faso. It is part of a teamwork made up of Burkinabè and French academics. Communalization as framework for the exercise of local power is the result of a decentralization and devolution process aiming at providing dynamism to local development. The study consisted in identifying forms of governance in the twelve villages forming the municipality on the basis field survey and a review of experiences reported in books. The main theme was the search for past forms of power, which were based only on internal decision-making centres. During the first decades of the postcolonial period, the search of national unity overrode any other consideration, which limited attempts aiming at a true decentralization As implemented in 2006, decentralization is an institution that was initially tested in cities in the form of communalization While showing its implementation in Douroula, the paper clarifies of the concepts, and then deals one after the other with the installation of communal institutions in Douroula, the resulting changes as well as difficulties inherent to the operation.
