Many conflict studies link the sources of social conflicts to sentiments of relative deprivation. They typically regard formal democratic institutions as states’ most important vehicle to reduce deprivation-motivated armed conflict against their governments. We argue that the wider concept of good governance is better suited to analyze deprivation-based conflict. The paper shows that the risk of renewed conflict in countries with good governance drops rapidly after the conflict has ended. In countries characterized by poor governance, this process takes much longer. Hence, improving governance is an important part in reducing the onset and incidence of conflict, and good governance will in turn decrease the likelihood of conflict. We also estimate models that decomposes the effect of good governance into what can be explained by formal democratic institutions and less formal aspects of governance, and into what can be explained by economic development and what is due to how well countries are governed. We find informal aspects of good governance to be at least as important as formal institutions in preventing renewed conflict, and also find that good governance has a clear effect over and beyond economic development.
Autores y editores
Havard Hegre
Havard Mokleiv Nygard
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) conducts research on the conditions for peaceful relations between states, groups and people.
Researchers at PRIO seek to understand the processes that bring societies together or split them apart. We explore how conflicts erupt and how they can be resolved; we investigate how different kinds of violence affect people; and we examine how societies tackle crises – and the threat of crisis. We document general trends, seek to understand processes, and inform concrete responses.
University of Oslo (UiO)
The University of Oslo was founded in 1811 as the first in Norway.
Located mainly on Blindern Campus in the northern part of Oslo, UiO has eight faculties: