Analytical Tools to Understand and Evaluate Democratic Authority and Rule of Law Institutionalization after War

Chapter 1 builds directly on the Introduction by defining the main features of this study's conceptual framework, including qualitative and quantitative measurement tools. Specifically, it juxtaposes democratic legal authority alongside competing forms of authority and shows why international peacebuilders view democratic authority and the rule of law as central to the formation and functioning of a state. For them, the legitimacy of state authority is rooted in democratic institutions and practice (the consent of the governed). Although a broad range of factors influence success or failure in institutionalizing democratic legal authority after war, the chapter elaborates on one largely overlooked problem that stems from the divergent conceptions, between international peacebuilders and the local population, of authority and its sources of legitimacy. Failure to bridge the diverse conceptions of authority is argued to lead to contradictions and unintended negative consequences during a peacebuilding operation, such as the creation of perverse incentives within government and the crowding out of domestic political space.