Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Armed opposition groups into political parties: Comparing Bosnia, Kosovo, and Mozambique

  • Articles
  • Published:
Studies in Comparative International Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, the overwhelming majority of negotiated peace settlements have been premised on the establishment of competitive, multiparty politics. The success of such settlements depends in turn on the degree to which the warring parties can make the adjustment from battlefield to political arena. This article addresses the question of how armed opposition groups are transformed into functional civilian political parties in the aftermath of civil conflict. It argues that the character and degree of commitment such parties make to the post-war political settlement depends on the kinds of challenges that adaptation to the settlement presents for them, as organizations. This article examines the cases of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Croatian Democratic Union, and the Serbian Democratic Party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Renamo (Mozambique National Resistance Movement) in Mozambique.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ajello, Aldo. 1999. “Mozambique: Implementation of the 1992 Peace Agreement.” InHerding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World, Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela R. Aall, eds. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alden, Chris. 2001.Mozambique and the Construction of the New African State: From Negotiations to Nation-Building. New York: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berdal, Mats and David M. Malone. 2000.Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Michael. 1996.The International Dimensions of Internal Conflict. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cahen, Michel. 1995. “Dhlakama é Maningue Nice: An Atypical Former Guerrilla in the Mozambican Presidential Race.” InL’Afrique Politique. Paris: Karthala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chan, Stephen and Moises Venancio. 1998.War and Peace in Mozambique. London: MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cousens, Elizabeth and Chetan Kumar. 2001.Peacebuilding as Politics: Cultivating Peace in Fragile Societies. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela R. Aall. 1999.Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, Larry and Richard Gunther. 2002.Political Parties and Democracy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doyle, Michael W. 2002. “Strategy and Transitional Authority.” InEnding Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements. Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens, eds. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doyle, Michael W. and Nicholas Sambanis. 2000. “International Peacebuilding: A Theoretical and Quantitative Analysis.”American Political Science Review 94, 4 (December): 779–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doyle, Michael, Ian Johnstone, and Robert Orr. 1997.Keeping the Peace: Multidimensional UN Operations in Cambodia and El Salvador. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esman, Milton. 1994.Ethnic Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esping-Anderson, Gosta. 1985.Politics Against Markets: The Social Democratic Road to Power. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geffray, Christian. 1991.A Causa das Armas: Antropologia da Guerra Contemporanea em Mocambique. Porto, Portugal: Edicoes Afrontamento.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glenny, Misha. 1994.The Fall of Yugoslavia. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gurr, Ted Robert. 1997.Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Margaret and Tom Young. 1997.Confronting Leviathan: Mozambique Since Independence. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hampson, Fen Osler. 1990.Nurturing Peace: Why Peace Settlements Succeed or Fail. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamzaj, Bardh. 2000.A Narrative About War and Freedom: Dialogue with Commander Ramush Haradinaj. Pristina, Kosovo: Zeri.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hume, Cameron. 1994.Ending Mozambique’s War: The Role of Mediation and Good Offices. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • International Crisis Group. 1999. “Republika Srpska—Poplasen, Brcko, and Kosovo: Three Crises and Out?”Balkans Report No. 62.

  • International Crisis Group. 2000a. “Bosnia’s Municipal Elections 2000: Winners and Losers.”Balkans Report no. 91

  • International Crisis Group. 2000b. “Bosnia’s November Elections: Dayton Stumbles.”Balkans Report No. 104.

  • International Crisis Group. 2001a. “The Wages of Sin: Confronting Bosnia’s Republika Srpska.”Balkans Report No. 118.

  • International Crisis Group. 2000b. “Kosovo: Landmark Election.”Balkans Report No. 120.

  • International Crisis Group. 2002. “Implementing Equality: The ‘Constituent Peoples’ Decision in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”Balkans Report No. 128.

  • Jett, Dennis. 2000.Why Peacekeeping Fails. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judah, Tim. 2000.Kosovo: War and Revenge. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 2000.The Serbs: History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. New Haven: Yale Nota Bene.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, Barbara and James G. March. 1996. “Organizational Learning.” InOrganizational Learning. Lee S. Sproull and Michael D. Cohen, eds. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, Paul G. 2001. Party Development and Democratic Change in Post-Communist Europe. London: Frank Cass & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Licklider, Roy. 1993.Stopping the Killing: How Civil Wars End. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1995. “The Consequences of Negotiated Settlements in Civil Wars, 1945–1993.”American Political Science Review 89, 3: 681–690.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mainwaring, Scott. 1998.Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malcolm, Noel. 1998.Kosovo: A Short History. London: Perennial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manning, Carrie. 1998. “Constructing Opposition in Mozambique: Renamo as Political Party.”Journal of Southern African Studies 24, 1: 161–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • —. 2002. “Conflict Management and Elite Habituation to Democracy in Post-War Conflicts: The Case of Mozambique.”Comparative Politics 35, 1: 63–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 2002.The Politics of Peace in Mozambique: Post-Conflict Democratization, 1992–2000. Westport CT: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James and Johann Olsen. 1989.Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mertus, Julie. 1999.Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michels, Roberto. 1962.Political Parties: A Sociological study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minter, William. 1994.Apartheid’s Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and mozambique. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Numanovic, Sead. 2002. “Farewell Interview: Wolfgang Petritsch, High Representative in BiH.”Dnevni Avaz, 21 May 2002.

  • Office of the High Representative. 2001. “High Representative removes Mr. Ante Jelavic and other HDZ officials from office.” OHR press release 7 March 2001.

  • Olson, Mancur. 1965.The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panebianco, Angelo. 1988.Political Parties: Organization and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pridham, Geoffrey. 1996.Stabilising, Fragile Democracies: Comparing New Party Systems in Southern and Eastern Europe. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothchild, Donald. 1997.Managing Ethnic Conflict in Africa: Pressure and Incentives for Cooperation. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rustow, Dankwart A. 1970. “Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model.”Comparative Politics 2: 337–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shugart, Matthew Soberg. 1992. “Guerrillas and Elections: An Institutionalist Perspective on the Costs of Conflict and Competition.”International Studies Quarterly 36: 121–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silber, Laura and Allan Little 1997.Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Herb. 1996. “Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning.” InOrganizational Learning. Lee S. Sproull and Michael D. Cohen, eds. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sisk, Timothy D. 1996.Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stedman, Stephen John. 1997. “Spoiler Problems in Peace Processes.”International, Security 22 (2): 5–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Synge, Richard. 1997.Mozambique: UN Peacekeeping in Action. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, Robert. 1999.Serbia Under Milosevic: Politics in the 1990s. London: Hurst and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vines, Alex. 1991.Renamo: Terrorism in Mozambique. York: James Currey.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1994.No Democracy Without Money. London: Catholic Institute for International Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, Barbara F. and Jack Snyder. 1999.Civil Wars. Insecurity, and Intervention. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weller, Marc. 1999.The Crisis in Kosovo 1989–1999. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodward, SusanBalkan Tragedy; Noel Malcolm,A Short History of Bosnia;

  • Zartman, I. William. 1993. “The Unfinished Agenda: Negotiating Internal Conflicts.” InStopping the Killing: How Civil Wars End. Roy Licklider, ed. New York University Press.

  • —. 1995.Elusive Peace: Negotiating an End to Civil Wars. Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zejnullahu, Safet. 2001.War for Kosova: Commander Remi Speaks. Pristina, Kosovo: Zeri.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Carrie Manning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Carrie Manning is assistant professor of political science at Georgia State University. Her book,The Politics of Peace in Mozambique: Post-Conflict Democratization, 1992–2000 (Praeger), appeared in 2002.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Manning, C. Armed opposition groups into political parties: Comparing Bosnia, Kosovo, and Mozambique. St Comp Int Dev 39, 54–76 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686315

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686315

Keywords

Search

Navigation