Political stability in deeply divided and post-conflict societies

Abstract

Political stability is one of the paramount concepts in deeply divided and post-conflict societies, and its clearer determination in scientific literature is questionable for several reasons. First, the difference in political-social contexts of political stability is neglected, that is, the difference between the consolidated democratic societies and deeply divided/post-conflict societies with newly established or renewed democratic institutions, or a recently ended war. Secondly, due to the frequent normative elements, the ways of the operationalization of concepts are difficult to identify. Thirdly, political stability often serves as a synonym for the substantially different concepts, such as democratic stability, long-lasting peace and democratization. Political stability is a fundamental concept that more precisely emphasizes the problems faced by deeply divided and post-conflict societies, and precedes other concepts that can only be subsequently tested, provided there is a satisfactory level of stability. In this paper, we have applied a conceptual reconstruction of the term by extracting from the authoritative definitions forming a background concept of political stability, those basic elements that create a systematized concept adaptable to the generalization of cases of divided and post-conflict societies. Considering that the authoritative definitions refer to the political stability in stable democratic societies, we have extracted the most significant characteristics from the named definitions and inserted them into an appropriate theoretical framework. That theoretical framework emerges from debate on the institutional engineering and conflict management in deeply divided and post-conflict societies where institutional mechanisms of the distribution of political power take central place. In that way, we have reached a systematized concept of the stability of political institutions, where political institutions mean institutions which enable political elites of opposing groups to share the power. In the most general sense, it is a comprehensive concept of power sharing, containing sub-types, consociationalism and centripetalism. We have defined the concept of stability of political institutions as a stability of institutions of horizontal and vertical power which, as basic elements of institutional arrangements of power-sharing, enable its functioning and longevity. We have specified the meaning of stability of political institutions through the presence of three attributes or defining characteristics that attach meaning to the concept. Those three attributes are: 1) acceptance of the power-sharing political arrangement by political elites; 2) continuity of its constituent parts; 3) system?s ability to cope with changes coming from within or outside the system and which are aimed at its constituent parts. The concept of stability of political institutions, systematized in this way, is a guideline for a more accurate emphasis of a particular segment of political reality; it enables a theoretically more informative and distinct analysis.