Although most systems rely on voting and majority rule processes to make decisions, these processes have the disadvantage that they institutionalize a win-lose conflict structure. The requirement of any democratic system is the commitment by the parties to pursue their interests in non-violent ways, and a political system which provides fair mechanisms for addressing everyone's grievances. If elections are utilized, the next key to success is some mechanism for preventing cheating and giving everyone confidence that the results of elections are fairly tabulated. Here trusted international observers can play an important role by monitoring the fairness of campaigns, voting, and ballot counting. Since observers can be drawn from a number of political perspectives it should be possible for all sides to recruit observers that they trust.
Observers derive their power to ensure fair elections in two ways.
First, if observers report problems which are sufficiently serious to influence the outcome of an election, then the election loses its legitimacy and the parties may not feel obligated to abide by its results. In this case, the most desirable outcome is a restructuring of the election process to further limit cheating and a repeat of the election. The alternative is to return to unlimited and probably violent confrontation. The holding of fair elections can also be the key to international acceptance of the legitimacy of any new government and the ability of the government to conduct business with and receive aid from other countries. The authors observe that conflicts may be either destructive or productive.