Question

How much is political contestation??​

Answer 1

Explanation:

Coercive capacity, a reliable support base that provides influence, human resources and legitimacy, and adequate financial means are key resources to acquire and maintain power in fragile political orders. Rule of law promotion strategies that directly seek to reduce elite control over these resources will probably fail. A more gradual approach towards establishing ‘rule of law for elites’ is more likely to work. This means accepting there are classes of citizens with different legal rights and possibilities.

Coercive capacity, a reliable support base that provides influence, human resources and legitimacy, and adequate financial means are key resources to acquire and maintain power in fragile political orders. Rule of law promotion strategies that directly seek to reduce elite control over these resources will probably fail. A more gradual approach towards establishing ‘rule of law for elites’ is more likely to work. This means accepting there are classes of citizens with different legal rights and possibilities.Once it has been established that legal means – however unequal their quality and access – are the accepted framework/norm for (political) dispute resolution, their principles can be gradually extended across social classes and groups. There is no automaticity to this process. It is a protracted political fight for the slow expansion of rights and institutions.

Answer 2

A political settlement is shorthand for the (in)formal agreement between elite groups that encapsulates the key norms, behaviours and ‘rules’ on the basis of which a country is governed at a particular point in time.‍ In particular, it contains a set of (in)formal representation, control and distribution rules between national political elites that guide governance and resource allocation. In the process of getting to or revising a political settlement, elite groups are understood to negotiate the extent to which they can pursue their interests on the basis of their relative power and skill within the boundaries of what their constituencies tolerate.

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