Building Democracy After Conflict
Building Democracy After Conflict
THE CASE FOR SHARED SOVEREIGNTY
Stephen D. Krasner
Stephen D. Krasner is Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. His books include Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (1999) and Problematic Sovereignty (2001).
ne of the major foreign policy challenges of the contemporary era, indeed perhaps the major challenge, is how to encourage the development of well-functioning polities that provide security, social services, and opportunities for economically remunerative work. Democracy, a system of governance that allows citizens to express their views and, more importantly, hold government officials accountable for their actions, is the most effective although not the only way to achieve and sustain such a polity. The most important determinants of democratic development have been underlying socioeconomic conditions and institutional changes initiated by strategically calculating political elites. In countries that suffer from some combination of internal strife, poverty, limited governmental capacity, or a dearth of liberal institutions even if elections take place, the prospects for developing full-fledged democracy based solely on domestic resources and actors are poor—and the perverse incentives generated by the contemporary international environment often make matters worse. The fixity of borders, the near-absence of violent state death since 1945, and the availability of revenues from raw-materials exports and foreign aid have reduced the incentives for political leaders in badly governed and postconflict countries to craft deals with their own citizens that could give rise to self-enforcing institutions of the sort that improve life generally for a society and all those living within it. The leaders of today’s powerful democratic states have a large stake in promoting better governance in failed, failing, and
THE CASE FOR SHARED SOVEREIGNTY
Stephen D. Krasner
Stephen D. Krasner is Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. His books include Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (1999) and Problematic Sovereignty (2001).
ne of the major foreign policy challenges of the contemporary era, indeed perhaps the major challenge, is how to encourage the development of well-functioning polities that provide security, social services, and opportunities for economically remunerative work. Democracy, a system of governance that allows citizens to express their views and, more importantly, hold government officials accountable for their actions, is the most effective although not the only way to achieve and sustain such a polity. The most important determinants of democratic development have been underlying socioeconomic conditions and institutional changes initiated by strategically calculating political elites. In countries that suffer from some combination of internal strife, poverty, limited governmental capacity, or a dearth of liberal institutions even if elections take place, the prospects for developing full-fledged democracy based solely on domestic resources and actors are poor—and the perverse incentives generated by the contemporary international environment often make matters worse. The fixity of borders, the near-absence of violent state death since 1945, and the availability of revenues from raw-materials exports and foreign aid have reduced the incentives for political leaders in badly governed and postconflict countries to craft deals with their own citizens that could give rise to self-enforcing institutions of the sort that improve life generally for a society and all those living within it. The leaders of today’s powerful democratic states have a large stake in promoting better governance in failed, failing, and