Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests a different approach, one that both highlights the necessity of conflict to democracy and political reconciliation and that draws attention to the multi-level complexity of reconciliation and conflict transformation. It considers the demands of reconciliation across three porous, overlapping and interlinked socio-political levels: the constitutional, the institutional, and the relational. The book attempts to engage with the full complexity of reconciliation and conflict transformation. It suggests that sustaining reconciliation efforts requires visible, tangible progress in spaces of social transformation and reconstruction; processes in which states must invest resources over the long term, ensuring that government departments and civil society organizations are well-funded and endorsed by the central government. The book reviews institutional transformation also reveals the extent of elite resistance to many reconciliation efforts.