Democratic Governance and Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Leiden Journal of International Law, Vol. 20, pp. 669-693, 2007
26 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 2009 Last revised: 28 Jan 2012
Date Written: July 1, 2007
Abstract
The concept of democracy has long fuelled controversy among international legal scholars, especially concerning its definition. This article is an attempt to single out three constitutive elements of democracy that have been subject to extensive scrutiny in the practice of electoral assistance and the more comprehensive peace-building and state-building missions that the UN has taken up or supported since the end of the twentieth century: free and fair elections, freedom of association - with emphasis on the freedom to establish political parties - and freedom of expression. In doing so, this paper examines the role and the importance of each of these three constitutive elements in the practice pertaining to post-conflict reconstruction of Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Keywords: democracy, free and fair elections, freedom of association, freedom of expression, human rights
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