ABSTRACT
This chapter documents some of the challenges and compromises in economic reform that have underpinned-or undermined-reconciliation efforts. It argues that in many cases the conversations must be reopened in order to challenge an economic status quo that has failed to effect any meaningful material transformation for the most marginalized members of society. The chapter analyses the institutional level of conflict transformation efforts as part of the multi-level framework. The Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) attempted to redistribute wealth through a pseudo-market scheme that would 'appeal to the black aspirational community while remaining palatable to business'. Both South Africa and Guatemala face more extreme forms of elite resistance to the kind of redistributive policies that might advance reconciliation efforts. Thus, although achieving more equitable socioeconomic redistribution was a central plank of the Peace Accords, the promised reforms have never eventuated.
