ABSTRACT
Institutions and social order are fundamental issues in political science. Not surprisingly, a great deal of research has examined the relationship between political institutions and civil war. Understanding how political institutions can affect the prospects for violence is not only of academic interest, as interventions to change institutions provide a possible way to influence the prospects for peace. It is impossible to do full justice to the enormous literature on these topics here, or even provide a comprehensive review. We instead focus on what we see as the core existing insights and review key unresolved questions that we believe should set priorities for future research. We start with how regimes may influence the possible motivation and opportunities for political violence, before turning to the impact of political change, the plausible effects of institutional change as a strategy to end conflicts and prevent recurrence, and finally the potential role of external actors and democracy promotion in conflict prevention and resolution.
