ABSTRACT
Democracy promotion in postconflict states begins with the problem of order. Democracy cannot be in a context where violence or the threat of violence is pervasive and suffuses the political calculations and fears of groups and individuals. The promotion of democracy in postconflict situations cannot succeed without the rebuilding of order in these contexts, and the tasks of democracy building and of peace implementation are inseparable. International interventions that seek to construct democracy after conflict must balance the tension between domination for the sake of implanting democracy and withdrawal in the name of democracy. Simon Chesterman advises that, when the United Nations and other international actors come "to exercise state-like functions, they must not lose sight of their limited mandate to hold that sovereign power in trust for the population that will ultimately claim it". Some theorists and practitioners have been searching for a formula for international intervention to democratize failed states that stops short of full-scale imperial rule.
