Post--war power sharing

This project aims at improving our understanding of the implications of introducing power-sharing arrangements in post-war multi-ethnic states – how such settlements in combination with the historical, political and socio-economic contexts may contribute to the enhancement or the undermining of the chances of peaceful co-existence between ethnic groups after a civil war. Power sharing arrangements can be of true value in conflict settlement, as we have seen in the recent developments in Kenya after the election turmoil in 2007. The point of departure for this project, however, is that power sharing arrangements alone are by no means a quick fix to the successful accommodation of ethnic diversity. All according to context, similar institutional models may have detrimentally different outcomes in different states and among different sub-communities within states. Through a comparative case study of the multi-ethnic polities of Ethiopia and Sudan, this project will explore how the institutional arrangements introduced at the end of civil wars (1991 in Ethiopia and 2005 in Sudan) are interplaying with the two countries’ past and present politics, power constellations and socio-economic situations, together producing the potential for peaceful co-existence between ethnic groups. Ethiopia serves as an example of a country which has had the time to consolidate its power sharing system through seventeen years of implementation, while Sudan with its recent peace deal is illustrating the immediate problems of post-war power sharing in a multi-ethnic state.