This study describes the international intervention within states as ritualized in the context of the rise of democracy as a matter of global concern. The formation of an international benchmark for the democratic management of the state in Africa constrains « entrepreneurs of intervention » as well as the as « importers » of institutional models in this continent. The implementation of international policy instruments to promote democracy opens the possibility to observe realistic logic at work in the various forms of intervention. It also allows perceiving interventionism and reception of « institutional models » in Africa as « interaction rituals » in the sense that Goffman sees it.