Addressing legitimacy issues in fragile post-conflict situations to advance conflict transformation and peacebuilding

The project was funded by the Berghof Foundation. It analysed the different types and sources of legitimacy of state- and non-state actors in post-conflict hybrid political orders, taking Max Weber’s three ideal types of legitimate authority – rational-legal, traditional, and charismatic – as starting point. Mainstream research and policymaking has so far either ignored or underestimated issues of legitimacy or has over-emphasized the rational-legal type of legitimacy, neglecting the significance of traditional and charismatic as well as hybrid forms of legitimacy. This research build a case for the meaningful engagement with non-state actors who enjoy non-rational-legal forms of legitimacy in multi-track processes of conflict transformation, peacebuilding and state formation. Research was be empirically-based, addressing domestic empirical legitimacy – both in the process and performance dimension of legitimacy – in post-conflict situations in Asia (East Timor), Africa (Somaliland) and the Pacific (Bougainville, Papua New Guinea). It generated findings that are of practical relevance for multi-dimensional approaches to conflict transformation. In particular, it provided policy-relevant recommendations for external actors engaged in peacebuilding initiatives, based on a more contextualized understanding and more effective responses to the complexity of legitimacy issues in post-conflict situations.