Power-Sharing in the Global South in Comparative Perspective: Patterns and Practices

This chapter employs a comparative perspective to analyze the practice of power-sharing in the Global South. The contrast between the European phenomenon of power-sharing, which employs institutions that stem from consociational and consensus models of conflict management, and the Global South’s use of power-sharing as a means of ending civil wars forms the central basis of this comparison. Focusing on the role that intrastate conflict has played in shaping the Global South’s approach to power-sharing, the chapter describes the types of power-sharing measures that have been adopted by a variety of countries in the Global South. This forms the basis for a discussion of the implications that power-sharing arrangements have had for who exercises power as well as some of the political and economic effects they have generated. The chapter concludes by describing trends in the adoption and evolution of power-sharing institutions in the Global South, noting what these might imply for the future of power-sharing in the Global South.