Power Sharing, Political Goods Provision & Post-Conflict Stability

Gettysburg College, Gettysburg PA

Investigators

Abstract

General Summary This study seeks to better understand how power-sharing arrangements foster peace in the aftermath of civil war. Power-sharing institutions, rules to apportion political, military, economic, and territorial power among former belligerents, are an increasingly prevalent feature of civil war settlements. Academics have posited that power-sharing institutions secure the commitment of elites and the masses to stability by providing key political goods: security for both elites and masses, inclusion for elites, and basic services for the masses. In the absence of data appropriate for testing those hypotheses, however, previous research has been unable to identify the exact causal mechanisms through which power sharing fosters stability after civil war. This study addresses this gap in our understanding of power sharing by collecting micro-level data on elites' and masses' knowledge about and perceptions of the effects that these institutions have on the delivery of political goods. Data collection in the form of interviews and surveys will be conducted in the Mindanao region of the Philippines, where efforts at civil war resolution have at times featured the use of power-sharing mechanisms. The principal investigators will use these data to conduct statistical analyses of the effects that power sharing has on different groups' commitment to the peace. The information obtained from this study will serve to inform policymakers about the best practices for the design and implementation of power-sharing arrangements in the aftermath of civil war. Technical Summary This study seeks to better understand how power-sharing arrangements may foster peace in the aftermath of civil war. Powers sharing institutions, rules to apportion political, military, economic, and territorial power among former belligerents, are an increasingly prevalent feature of civil war settlements. This research will critically examine the hypothesis that power-sharing arrangements promote peace by providing citizens with important political goods such as security and access to basic services. This will be accomplished by focusing on the Mindanao region of the Philippines, where efforts at civil war resolution have at times featured the use of power-sharing mechanisms. Conducting open-ended interviews with key informants, semi-structured interviews with focus groups, surveys of the population in conflict-affected areas, and survey experiments, the principal investigators will gather micro-level data that make it possible to answer two key questions. First, do individuals residing in regions included in a post-civil war power-sharing arrangement have greater access to political goods relative to comparable populations excluded from power sharing? Second, is there a correlation between access to political goods and an individual's support for the post-conflict peace process?