Voting to Peace

Since the end of the Cold War the number of civil wars with following peaceandstate-building attempts has significantly increased. In line with the thirdwave of democratization theory more and more states try to establish a marketdemocracy after the end of domestic conflict. But is a rapid transitionwith immediate elections really the one best way to end domestic conflict?Recent examples of Afghanistan and Iraq show that elections are by nomeans an endpoint for domestic conflict within war-torn societies but ratheran accelerator for ethnic violence. Therefore to introduce primarily stableinstitutions like rule of law and a functioning bureaucracy before organizingdemocratic elections seems to be a more promising strategy. The authorFlorian Kunze investigates this hypothesis first through a quantitativeanalysis of 35 cases and second through an in depth analysis of three casestudies: Namibia Liberia and South Africa.This book addresses researches and students of international relations politiciansdevelopment workers and military staff faced with state building tasksand all other interested in the issue of democratic transition after domesticconflict.