Reassuring weaker parties after civil wars: The benefits and costs of executive power-sharing systems in Africa

Abstract

This article begins with a discussion of power-sharing institutions in terms of their short- and long-term implications, examining the possible lack of fit between power sharing as an incentive to reach agreements during the negotiation phase while proving a source of conflict during the longer-term consolidation phase. In the next section, I analyse Africa's real world experiences with power sharing, looking at the details of experiments in the 1990s after civil wars. I then discuss the question of reassuring weaker parties, linking the search for increased political, economic and strategic security during the negotiation phase with the changed circumstances that prevailed during the consolidation phase. Finally, in the conclusion, I probe the anticipated and unanticipated consequences that may follow from the adoption of power-sharing systems in Africa.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Nikolas Emmanuel, Camille Sumner and Eileen Ortiga for their help on research and Stefan Wolff, Daniel Posner, Steven Saidman, Marie-Joe¨lle Zahar and two anonymous readers for their useful suggestions on revising and developing the manuscript.

Notes

1. DR Congo rebels leave government, BBC News, 23 August 2004, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3592174.stm, accessed 26 January 2005.

2. Statement by M. Manwangari.

3. Trouble mounts for Ivory Coast leader, BBC News, 29 January 2003, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2706431.stm, accessed 26 January 2005; and Rebels boycott Ivory Coast peace talks, BBC News, 10 February 2003, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2743323.stm, accessed 26 January 2005.

4. Cote d'Ivoire: rebel leader explains withdrawal, condition for return to cabinet, Foreign Broadcast Information Service (Radio France International), 24 September 2003.

5. Ivorian leader ridicules rebels, BBC News, 24 September 2003, available at http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/africa/3135728.stm, accessed 26 January 2005.

6. Fresh bombardments in Ivory Coast, 5 November 2004, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3984955.stm, accessed 26 January 2005.

7. Ivorian New Forces end meeting: to present ‘Comprehensive Peace Plan’ to Mbeki, Agence France Presse, 14 December 2004.

8. Arend Lijphart, a leading advocate of the consociational democracy approach, states, for example, that “it is nobody's preferred ideal” (1985, p. 133). See also O'Leary (2001, pp. 81–82).

9. In November 2004 it was announced that both LURD and Model were disbanded. See Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Liberia's three ex-warring factions officially disband after disarmament, at http://www.boston.com/dailynews/309/world.Liberia, 4 November 2004.

10. Carter Dougherty, Peace precarious in eastern Congo: tensions simmer a year after pact ended civil war, Washington Times, 5 May 2004, available at Public International Law and Policy Group website, http://www.publicinternationallaw.org/docs/PNW4/PNW.10May_04.html.

11. Mandisi Majavu, The failure of an African political leadership, Interview with Professor Wamba dia Wamba, 18 July 2003, available at www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/congo.2003/0718failure.htm.

12. This table represents the interactions between the majority (i.e. the group in power) and minorities (i.e. the groups out of power) in a given peace agreement. It asks two questions: first, does the majority make an offer of credible reassurances to the minority; second, does the minority find this offer reassuring and acceptable? For details on the agreements mentioned, see Appendix 1.