Political Settlement
Political settlement refers to the formal and informal process of bargaining between elites as well as between the state and organised groups in society regarding the organising of power. Political settlement underpins state and state-society relations and forms the relationship between formal and informal institutions and the distribution of power in society. See also sections on peace processes.
Categories
Documents
The Politics of Poverty: Elites, Citizens and States
| Date added: | 22/02/2011 |
Author:DFID Research and Evidence Division
Institution:Department for International Development
Publication Date:2010
Keywords:Political Settlement, Governance
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This paper looks at the importance of understanding political dynamics in order to ensure development can happen. Based on evidence and research carried out from 2001-2010, the paper explores the importance of constructing interventions based on understanding the local and national contexts and the challenges that face donors as a consequence. There is a focus on the difficulties within fragile and failed states and on the importance of understanding the incentive structures of key interlocutors.
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Supporting Statebuilding in Situations of Fragility and Conflict - Policy Guidance
| Date added: | 09/09/2011 |
Institution: OECD Publishing
Publication Date: 2011
Keywords: Stabilisation, Peacebuilding, Conflict
Read Full Text Here: http://browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/free/4311031e.pdf
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The publication presents new thinking on statebuilding and clear recommendations for better practice. Drawing from best practices from the field, it offers guidance on how donors can better facilitate positive endogenous statebuilding processes and strengthen the foundations upon which capable, accountable and responsive states are built. The recommendations in this guidance address critical areas for better international engagement from strategy development, and programme design and delivery to day-to-day operations in the field and at headquarters.
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Renegotiating the Political Settlement
| Date added: | 06/04/2011 |
Author: Catherine Barnes
Institution: Conciliation Resources and DFID
Publication Date: March 2009
Keywords: Political Settlement; Governance; Peace Processes
Read Full Text Here: http://www.c-r.org/resources/occasional-papers/documents/CR_2Renegotiating_Settlement_20Mar09-2.pdf
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This paper is produced by the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Conciliation Resources, which specialises in fostering peace talks. It tries to explain the emerging discourse on political settlements and to locate it in the context of various peacebuilding measures. Specifically, the paper offers guidance for how peace negotiators and others involved in reducing conflict can use the... Read More
Politics is at the Heart of Stabilisation
| Date added: | 22/02/2011 |
Author:The Lessons Team
Institution: Stabilisation Unit
Publication Date: 2010
Keywords:Political Settlement, Governance
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This short paper is drawn from the Stabilisation Unit’s 'Top Lessons from Stabilisation and Conflict’, which contains eight similar lessons. ’ Politics is at the Heart of Stabilisation’ summarises the conclusion of this paper, and there is a deliberate emphasis on the practical rather than the theoretical.
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This paper draws on the experience of stabilisation work in several settings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it reports that stabilisation effo... Read More
Political Settlements and the Governance of Growth-Enhancing Institutions
| Date added: | 13/01/2012 |
Author: Mushtaq Khan
Institution: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Publication Date: 2010
Keywords: Political Settlement, Governance, Growth, Power, Institutions
Read Full Text Here: http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/9968/1/Political_Settlements_internet.pdf
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The publication presents new thinking on the discourse on political settlements by developing an analytical framework of the ‘political settlement’. The analytical framework is applied to five case study countries to outline how their political settlements evolved over time in terms of these characteristics. This evolution is shown to be closely related to changes in their formal growth-enhancing institutions and the performance of these institutions. It also illustrate... Read More
Political Settlements
| Date added: | 06/04/2011 |
Author: Johnathan Di John and James Putzel
Institution: Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC)
Publication Date: June 2009
Keywords: Political Settlement; Governance
Read Full Text Here: http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/EIRS7.pdf
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This paper is produced by the Governance and Social Development Centre (GSDRC); the DFID-funded centre of academic excellence based at Birmingham University. It sets out GSDRC’s understanding of 'Political Settlement', including definitions and initial conclusions, and places the concept alongside other political ideas using examples in Botswana, Costa Rica and Malaysia.
This paper considers how political settlements impact upon development and is not specifi... Read More
Political Economy Analysis - How to Note
| Date added: | 22/02/2011 |
Author:Department for International Development (DFID)
Institution:Department for International Development (DFID)
Publication Date: 2009
Keywords:Political Settlements, Governance, Economic Recovery
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This paper offers a practical approach to seeking political settlements. Although it is ostensibly about political economy analysis, and aimed at improving the effectiveness of aid, it is directly relevant to political settlements, and the process of going through the actions detailed in this note can help many practitioners in the field better understand the political settlements in the country in which they work.
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This paper explains w... Read More
Lessons Learned from Power-sharing in Africa
| Date added: | 23/09/2011 |
Authors: Havard Strand and Scott Gates
Institution: The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
Publication Date: 2008
Related: Political Settlement; Governance; Conflict
Read Full Text Here: http://www.prio.no/misc/Download.aspx?file=%2fadmin%2fPublication+Files%2fComparative+Policy+Brief+Lessons+learned.pdf
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The publication makes an important contribution to the work on political settlements because it examines key aspects of power-sharing agreements reached in Africa over the last decades, including the negotiation and bargaining processes leading up to power sharing arrangements in post-conflict environments. The publication concludes that power-sharing institutions have proven themselves... Read More
From Power Struggles to Sustainable Peace: Understanding Political Settlement
| Date added: | 07/03/2012 |
Author: OECD
Institution: OECD Publishing
Publication Date: 2011
Related Categories: Political Settlement, Statebuilding, Peacebuilding, Conflict
Read Full Text Here: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/48/48631503.pdf
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This paper does three main things: first, it brings greater conceptual clarity to the current debate on political settlements. It discusses different conceptualisations of the notion itself – highlighting the two-dimensional nature of the term – and its connection to the two key challenges at stake, namely conflict and fragility. The paper further examines the dynamics of settlements (in its various forms), the importance of inclusiveness and the actual content covered by political settlements. Second, the paper looks at the... Read More
Dollarised
| Date added: | 06/04/2011 |
Author: Alex De Waal
Institution: London Review of Books (Vol. 32 No. 12)
Publication Date: 24 June 2010
Keywords: Political Settlement; Sudan
Read Full Text Here: http://www.ssronline.org/edocs/alex_de_waal_dollarised_240610.pdf
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This article provides a thought-provoking account of how the political marketplace - and in particular informal patronage systems - impact upon international interventions to support state building and vice versa. It uses Sudan as its primary case study and touches upon other examples, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Afghanistan.
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The article posits that state building is not working largely because (international) state builders igno... Read More