IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/compsc/v31y2014i5p521-540.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to make democracy self-enforcing after civil war: Enabling credible yet adaptable elite pacts

Author

Listed:
  • T. Clark Durant

    (McKinsey and Company, USA)

  • Michael Weintraub

    (Yale University, USA)

Abstract

While many recommend electoral democracy as a way to avoid or resolve civil conflict, the empirical record of electoral democracy as an alternative to civil conflict is decidedly mixed. We apply recent work from new organizational economics on the nature of elite pacts to add to both sides of the debate. On the one hand, we argue that we should be more pessimistic about the ability of existing electoral institutions to help rather than hurt the prospects for a stable peace. We argue that the new organizational economics reveals a design dilemma—a forced trade-off between the credible commitment to an elite pact in the short term and the adaptability of an elite pact in the long term—that plagues the most commonly considered alternatives. On the other hand, we tentatively argue for optimism if institutional designers work with criteria that explicitly take the dilemma into account. We propose novel design criteria that would allow a polity to address the design dilemma.

Suggested Citation

  • T. Clark Durant & Michael Weintraub, 2014. "How to make democracy self-enforcing after civil war: Enabling credible yet adaptable elite pacts," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 31(5), pages 521-540, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:31:y:2014:i:5:p:521-540
    DOI: 10.1177/0738894213520372
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0738894213520372
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0738894213520372?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Linda Babcock & George Loewenstein, 1997. "Explaining Bargaining Impasse: The Role of Self-Serving Biases," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 109-126, Winter.
    2. Fearon, James D., 1995. "Rationalist explanations for war," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 379-414, July.
    3. Chhibber, Pradeep & Kollman, Ken, 1998. "Party Aggregation and the Number of Parties in India and the United States," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 92(2), pages 329-342, June.
    4. Hyde, Susan D. & Marinov, Nikolay, 2014. "Information and Self-Enforcing Democracy: The Role of International Election Observation," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 329-359, April.
    5. James A. Robinson, 1998. "Theories of “bad policy”," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1-46.
    6. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Weingast,Barry R., 2013. "Violence and Social Orders," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107646995, January.
    7. James A. Robinson & Daron Acemoglu, 2000. "Political Losers as a Barrier to Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 126-130, May.
    8. Bethany Lacina & Nils Petter Gleditsch, 2005. "Monitoring Trends in Global Combat: A New Dataset of Battle Deaths," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 145-166, June.
    9. Heckathorn, Douglas D & Maser, Steven M, 1987. "Bargaining and the," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 69-98, Spring.
    10. Paul Collier & V. L. Elliott & Håvard Hegre & Anke Hoeffler & Marta Reynal-Querol & Nicholas Sambanis, 2003. "Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13938, December.
    11. Branislav L. Slantchev & Ahmer Tarar, 2011. "Mutual Optimism as a Rationalist Explanation of War," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(1), pages 135-148, January.
    12. Robert Powell, 2012. "Persistent Fighting and Shifting Power," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(3), pages 620-637, July.
    13. Fearon, James D., 1998. "Bargaining, Enforcement, and International Cooperation," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 269-305, April.
    14. Steven Brams, 2006. "The normative turn in public choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 245-250, June.
    15. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Webb,Steven B. & Weingast,Barry R. (ed.), 2013. "In the Shadow of Violence," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107684911.
    16. Bednar,Jenna, 2009. "The Robust Federation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521703963.
    17. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Webb,Steven B. & Weingast,Barry R. (ed.), 2013. "In the Shadow of Violence," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107014213.
    18. Mehmet Gurses & T. David Mason, 2008. "Democracy Out of Anarchy: The Prospects for Post‐Civil‐War Democracy," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(2), pages 315-336, June.
    19. Bednar,Jenna, 2009. "The Robust Federation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521878999.
    20. Steven J. Brams & Todd R. Kaplan, 2004. "Dividing the Indivisible," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 16(2), pages 143-173, April.
    21. James D. Fearon, 2004. "Why Do Some Civil Wars Last So Much Longer than Others?," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 41(3), pages 275-301, May.
    22. B Bigombe & P Collier & N Sambanis, 2000. "Policies for building post-conflict peace," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 9(3), pages 323-348.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vahabi,Mehrdad, 2019. "The Political Economy of Predation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107591370, January.
    2. T. Durant, 2011. "Making executive politics mutually productive and fair," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 141-172, June.
    3. Maxime Menuet & Petros G. Sekeris, 2021. "Overconfidence and conflict," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(4), pages 1483-1499, October.
    4. Haass, Felix & Ottmann, Martin, 2017. "Profits from Peace: The Political Economy of Power-Sharing and Corruption," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 60-74.
    5. Clayton Thyne, 2017. "The impact of coups d’état on civil war duration," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(3), pages 287-307, May.
    6. T Clark Durant & Michael Weintraub, 2014. "An institutional remedy for ethnic patronage politics," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 59-78, January.
    7. Wegner, Gerhard, 2013. "Capitalist transformation without political participation: German capitalism in the first half of the 19th century," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 13/14, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    8. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2017. "A critical survey of the resource curse literature through the appropriability lens," CEPN Working Papers hal-01583559, HAL.
    9. Topi Miettinen & Olli Ropponen & Pekka Sääskilahti, 2020. "Prospect Theory, Fairness, and the Escalation of Conflict at a Negotiation Impasse," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(4), pages 1535-1574, October.
    10. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2020. "Introduction: a symposium on the predatory state," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 233-242, March.
    11. Halvard Buhaug & Jonas Vestby, 2019. "On Growth Projections in the Shared SocioeconomicPathways," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 19(4), pages 118-132, November.
    12. Gerhard Wegner, 2015. "Capitalist transformation without political participation: German capitalism in the first half of the nineteenth century," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 61-86, March.
    13. Robert Cameron & Brian Levy, 2016. "The potential and limits of performance management: Improving basic education in the Western Cape," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-062-16, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    14. Alfred Reckendrees, 2015. "Weimar Germany: The first open access order that failed?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 38-60, March.
    15. Olivier Bomsel, 2018. "Mineral rents and social orders: when Radetzki meets Douglass North," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 31(1), pages 7-11, May.
    16. Farla, Kristine & de Crombrugghe, Denis & Verspagen, Bart, 2016. "Institutions, Foreign Direct Investment, and Domestic Investment: Crowding Out or Crowding In?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-9.
    17. Yakovlev, Andrei, 2016. "What is Russia trying to defend?," BOFIT Policy Briefs 2/2016, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    18. Nadiia GRAZHEVSKA & Tetiana GAIDAI & Alla MOSTEPANIUK & Andrii ZAVAZHENKO, 2021. "Institutional dysfunctions as a factor of convergent-divergent institutional development of post-socialist countries," Access Journal, Access Press Publishing House, vol. 2(3), pages 290-308, September.
    19. Lisa Hultman & Jacob D. Kathman & Megan Shannon, 2016. "United Nations peacekeeping dynamics and the duration of post-civil conflict peace," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(3), pages 231-249, July.
    20. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Ekonomia kontra polityka: niebezpieczne rady w kwestiach polityki ekonomicznej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 11-12, pages 113-136.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:31:y:2014:i:5:p:521-540. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.