Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the contrast between the claim to reconstitute political authority embedded in post-conflict statebuilding policy documents with the practice of sharing sovereignty and the existence of plural authority that takes place in practice in post-conflict environments.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores the contrast between the claim to reconstitute political authority through post-conflict statebuilding with the practice of sharing sovereignty and the existence of plural authority in post-conflict statebuilding contexts. Looking at the example of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the ways in which the political authority is asserted contradicts the image of the centralised rational sovereign state that is embedded in post-conflict statebuilding policy documents. The paper argues that this is partly the representation of the challenges post-conflict statebuilding finds on the ground, but also a natural consequence from the actual policies. These are in themselves a reflection of the ways state authority is mediated in contemporary times. Although this has been hailed as a particular feature in African politics, the paper argues that this practice has a much longer and wider standing.