How Do Elites Think about Citizen Inclusion in Peace Settlement?

• In Event: Building a Lasting Peace

Abstract

The importance of making peace settlement processes, institutions and policy making more inclusive is a central idea in peace and conflict studies. Research on peace settlement inclusion underlines how inclusive practices can make peace more durable and effective post conflict. Yet there is limited scholarship that investigates how, when, and under which conditions elites seek to include citizens as they negotiate to adopt or adapt peace settlements. We also still know little about their perceptions of the value and content of citizen perspectives. Yet this is essential if we are to understand the elite level opportunities and barriers to securing inclusive peace. Drawing on a rich set of elite interviews focusing on elite conceptualizations of citizen opinion this paper outlines a conceptual and theoretical framework for identifying when and how elites will have interests and incentives to integrate citizen opinion as they negotiate peace settlements, as well as the conditions under which they feel free to ignore them. Placing particular emphasis on the character of electoral competition and party-citizen links in post-conflict democracies, this framework provides a guide for researchers and practitioners as they seek to understand when and how elites are responsive to citizen opinion as they design or redesign peace settlement institutions.

Authors

• Allison McCulloch, Brandon University

• Edward Morgan-Jones, University of Kent