This thesis investigates the persistent political instability and institutional fragility of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through the lens of historical institutionalism and path dependency focusing particularly on the potential critical juncture of the 2018 elections and the role of tribalism aiming for a comprehensive and integrated understanding of the DRC's path-dependent trajectory of conflict and governance failure. The study argues that the patterns perpetuated cycles of violence, weak governance, and fragmented sovereignty cannot be fully understood through proximate explanations such as foreign intervention-exploitation or rebel insurgencies alone. Instead, it traces how colonial legacies, the institutionalization of tribalism, and the failures of democratization have entrenched a self-reinforcing trajectory of state weakness and elite-driven politics focusing mostly on the period spanning from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide up to 2025 and the latest M23 rebellion-occupation. Methodologically, the analysis explores how early institutional choices and regional dynamics created feedback loops that continue to shape the Congolese state's political and security landscape. The research posits that the Congolese state's political and security landscape is fundamentally configured by militarized clientelism, external interference, and identity-based power struggles, which have become structurally embedded within its political economy. This dynamic has consistently undermined reform efforts and intensified fragmentation. A core argument is that tribalism, whether strategically instrumentalized or emerging organically, significantly shapes these political dynamics. The 2018 elections are analyzed as a potential critical juncture that, crucially, did not succeed in altering the DRC's path-dependent trajectory of relative democratic shortcomings.