Democratization and Ethnic Peace

This text addresses democratic peace studies by exploring the complex web of interrelationships between democratization and ethnic peace through the integration of insights from comparative and international politics. A cross-perspective conceptual framework is constructed linking the ethnic dimensions of the democratic peace proposition with issues of constructive conflict management under democratization. The democratic peace proposition is about the fact that free peoples make good neighbours, if this is true at an international level, can it also be attainable at sub-national level? Does the democratic peace proposition have an ethnic dimension? Does the establishment of a constructive pattern of ethnic conflict management relate to the type of rule? How can ethnic conflict situations be managed to prevent the turn to violence and be subsequently transformed into constructive arrangements based on democratic principles? What issues must be dealt with at the stage of democratic consolidation to promote a more positive and stable relationship for peace in multi-ethnic systems?
The book seeks answers to these questions, revisiting structural theories of political development and applying politico-institutional analysis to underscore the link between ethnopolitical crises, change and choice.