Compromised Coalitions: The Paradox of Postconflict Power Sharing in Africa

A demonstration of how the negatives of power-sharing accords all-too-often outweigh the positivesPower-sharing pacts are a key tool for resolving wide-ranging violent conflicts, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and with a particular concentration in sub-Saharan Africa.Historically tried in countries experiencing civil war, power sharing has been increasingly deployed to end less bloody and shorter conflicts like election violence.But does this tool actually work? Does postconflict power sharing mitigate conflict and deliver democratic reforms? Or are these elite pacts a form of coup that constrain democratic competition, allow losing incumbents to stay in power, and incentivize violence?Both, it turns out.Despite their extensive use, the dynamics and outcomes of power-sharing accords after low-level conflicts have yet to be comprehensively examined.Here, in the first systematic investigation of postelection power sharing across Africa, political scientist Alexander Noyes argues that powe