From Beirut to Belfast: How Power-Sharing Arrangements Affect Ethnic Tensions in Post-Conflict Societies

Could we analyze power-sharing through the rear-view mirror? The politics of Lebanon and Northern Ireland are relevant case studies to answer this question. Using Pierre Nora’s lieux de memoire scheme of historical memory, this book crafts a theory of sites of social interaction (SSI) and strategies of social cohesion in power-sharing institutions. SSIs and cohesion strategies that increase tensions will cause power-sharing failure in the long run, and vice versa. Thus, there is a causal li...