3 - State of the Art: Power Sharing, Democracy, and Democratization in Scholarship and Practice

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of what currently constitutes the state of the art in scholarship and practice concerning power sharing, democracy, and democratization. We begin by identifying four distinct types of power-sharing measures – political, military, territorial, and economic – that have been adopted by civil war rivals in an effort to peacefully resolve conflict. We compare our understanding of power sharing to that of other scholars and describe patterns in the use of power-sharing institutions at the conclusion of civil wars. We then turn our attention to the outcomes of central interest to this volume: post-civil war democracy and democratization. After defining and providing a rationale for our choice to focus on the transition to minimalist democracy following the end of civil war, we consider alternative means of conceptualizing and measuring democracy, discussing their relevance and limitations as applied to the post-conflict context. We conclude by critically assessing the international community’s democracy promotion efforts.