Democracy and Conflict

Democracy often provides the means for the peaceful management of different and competing group claims. It acts to prevent the tensions and conflicting interests that exist within society from erupting violently by allowing them to be managed peacefully through democratic institutions and processes. Ideally, decisions taken reflect the will of the majority, while protecting the interests of minorities.

However, democracy is more than simply sophisticated, impersonal machinery. It is also a political process involving the struggle for power, which generates human passions that are liable to challenge peace and stability. Every ‘building block’ of democracy can also contain the seeds of violence. Elections are divisive events which can induce violence at any stage of the process: from the registration of voters to the proclamation of results. Political parties can focus on fighting each other rather than pursuing the broader interests of society. Transitional processes involving major changes in the power structure and a major reshuffling of the social order are also conducive to violence. Constitutions can be imposed on unwilling minorities.

International IDEA seeks to strengthen the ‘conflict management’ capa­city of democratic institutions and processes and to reduce the potential for violent confrontation by including peace building and conflict prevention as objectives of all of our programme activities.

Conflict mainstreaming involves, in particular:

• Developing further and distilling comparative knowledge of how different democratic institutions and processes (elections, constitution building processes, political party developments) may relate to actual or potential violent conflict.
• Deepening the understanding of the local context of the countries in which International IDEA is supporting democratic reforms.
• Understanding the interaction between this context and International IDEA’s democracy-support activities.
• Providing all International International IDEA key programmatic activities with inputs and guidance that will help to minimise potentials for violence and maximise the positive peace-building outcomes of democratic processes.

In carrying out its work on conflict mainstreaming International IDEA will use its own comparative resources and will also seek to build thematic partnerships and synergies with other international organizations and institutions working on conflict and security.

Highlight

•  Reconciliation and Traditional Justice: Learning from African Experience. This International IDEA project examines the role played by local/traditional justice mechanisms (TJMs) in addressing the legacy of large-scale, violent conflict in countries across the African continent.

Knowledge Resources

Publications

• Dialogue for Democratic Development (2007) provides decision-makers, dialogue promoters and practitioners with a practical guide on how to organize, facilitate and assess dialogue processes.
• Democracy, Conflict and Human Security (2006) is a two-volume set publication that explores ways in which democratic practice can contribute to the management of contemporary conflicts and promote the realization of security and development objectives.
• Sustainable Reconciliation. The International IDEA Handbook Reconciliation After Violent Conflict (2003) presents a range of tools that can be, and have been, employed in the design and implementation of reconciliation processes.
• Democracy and Deep-Rooted Conflict: Options for Negotiators (1998) offers a framework for democracy-building in post-conflict settings.
• Democracy at the Local Level (2001) Offers practical suggestions for designing systems of local governance and principles and policies for managing culturally diverse cities.
• Verdad, Justicia y Reparación: Desafios para la Democracia y la Convivencia Social (Truth, Justice and Reparations: challenges for democracy and social coexistence - 2005), produced in co-operation with the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, it takes forward the analysis contained in the Reconciliation after Violent Conflict Handbook and focuses on the relationship between processes of reconciliation and agendas for democratization in the Latin American context.

Websites and Networks

The Reconciliation Resource Network (RRN) - addressed to the diverse and geographically dispersed community of reconciliation practitioners, analysts and policy makers, the RRN – accessible via the main International IDEA website - is intended to serve as an online forum for sharing information, best practices, links and other resources.