Political stability in deeply divided and post-conflict societies
Authors: Vukojevic Stefan 
Published: August 2020

Political stability is one of the paramount concepts in deeply divided and
post-conflict societies, and its clearer determination in scientific
literature is questionable for several reasons. First, the difference in
political-social contexts of political stability is neglected, that is, the
difference between the consolidated democratic societies and deeply
divided/post-conflict societies with newly established or renewed democratic
institutions, or a recently ended war. Secondly, due to the frequent
normative elements, the ways of the operationalization of concepts are
difficult to identify. Thirdly, political stability often serves as a synonym
for the substantially different concepts, such as democratic stability,
long-lasting peace and democratization. Political stability is a fundamental
concept that more precisely emphasizes the problems faced by deeply divided
and post-conflict societies, and precedes other concepts that can only be
subsequently tested, provided there is a satisfactory level of stability. In
this paper, we have applied a conceptual reconstruction of the term by
extracting from the authoritative definitions forming a background concept of
political stability, those basic elements that create a systematized concept
adaptable to the generalization of cases of divided and post-conflict
societies. Considering that the authoritative definitions refer to the
political stability in stable democratic societies, we have extracted the
most significant characteristics from the named definitions and inserted them
into an appropriate theoretical framework. That theoretical framework emerges
from debate on the institutional engineering and conflict management in
deeply divided and post-conflict societies where institutional mechanisms of
the distribution of political power take central place. In that way, we have
reached a systematized concept of the stability of political institutions,
where political institutions mean institutions which enable political elites
of opposing groups to share the power. In the most general sense, it is a
comprehensive concept of power sharing, containing sub-types,
consociationalism and centripetalism. We have defined the concept of
stability of political institutions as a stability of institutions of
horizontal and vertical power which, as basic elements of institutional
arrangements of power-sharing, enable its functioning and longevity. We have
specified the meaning of stability of political institutions through the
presence of three attributes or defining characteristics that attach meaning
to the concept. Those three attributes are: 1) acceptance of the
power-sharing political arrangement by political elites; 2) continuity of its
constituent parts; 3) system?s ability to cope with changes coming from
within or outside the system and which are aimed at its constituent parts.
The concept of stability of political institutions, systematized in this way,
is a guideline for a more accurate emphasis of a particular segment of
political reality; it enables a theoretically more informative and distinct
analysis.