A provisional government, also called an interim, emergency, or transitional government is a temporary government formed to manage a period of transition, often following state collapse, revolution, civil war, or some combination thereof.
Provisional governments generally come to power in connection with the sudden, catastrophic and irreversible collapse of the previous political system, resulting from revolution, coup d'état, civil war, military defeat so catastrophic as to result in political disintegration, economic collapse, the death of a strongman ruler, or other circumstances which have resulted in a nonfunctional national government. Questions of democratic transition and state-building are often fundamental to the formation and policies of such governments.