Voting to Peace: how to manage democratic transitions in post conflict states

Since the end of the Cold War the number of civil wars with following peaceand state-building attempts has significantly increased. In line with the third wave of democratization theory more and more states try to establish a market democracy after the end of domestic conflict. But is a rapid transition with immediate elections really the one best way to end domestic conflict? Recent examples of Afghanistan and Iraq show that elections are by no means an endpoint for domestic conflict within war-torn societies, but rather an accelerator for ethnic violence. Therefore to introduce primarily stable institutions, like rule of law and a functioning bureaucracy, before organizing democratic elections, seems to be a more promising strategy. The author Florian Kunze investigates this hypothesis, first through a quantitative analysis of 35 cases, and second through an in depth analysis of three case studies: Namibia, Liberia, and South Africa.