ABSTRACT
This chapter explores in detail one of the three state building research cluster subjects identified by the authors: that concerned with political settlements. The analysis is centred on fifteen pieces of core Department for International Development (DfID) sponsored research output judged as particularly important and which directly tackle the subject of political settlements in relation to fragile states. According to DfID, policy organisations can be understood as: the forging of a common understanding, usually among elites, that their interests or beliefs are served by a particular way of organising 'political power'. The insights derived from the literature on political settlements is widely seen as moving development discourse beyond a limited focus on the design of institutions associated with the school of New Institutional Economics (NIE) which informed the 'good governance' agenda of the 2000s. Inclusion is a consistent theme throughout the Building Peaceful States and Societies (BPSS) paper.
