Political leadership, conflict, and the prospects for constitutional peace

Colin Jennings

No 4196, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The emphasis on constitutional political economy has been that new rules and institutions can be devised that improve the welfare of a society. Given the number of societies that are infected with political conflict and, as a result, lower levels of welfare, this paper attempts to analyze why we do not see more constitutional conventions aimed at eliminating conflict. The key idea is that expressively motivated group members may create incentives for instrumentally motivated group leaders such that it leads them to choose conflict rather than compromise. Nonetheless, it is not argued that such a peace is impossible to obtain. This leads to a further question, that if such a constitutional agreement could be found, would the expressive perspective alter the conventional instrumental perspective on the sort of constitutional reform that should be undertaken?

Keywords: Education and Society; Post Conflict Reintegration; Peace&Peacekeeping; Social Conflict and Violence; Services&Transfers to Poor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-04-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-dev and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Journal Article: Political Leadership, Conflict and the Prospects for Constitutional Peace (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4196

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