Over the years, the literature on peacebuilding has predominantly focused on the study of post-armed conflict countries that have experienced international intervention. In these contexts, democracy or the process of statebuilding is something to be (re)built. The liberal peace agenda posits that democracy, security sector reform and solid economic institutions are key elements to build strong resilient states and societies, thus preventing the recurrence of armed conflict. However, this emphasis on post-armed conflict societies ignores peacebuilding analysis in other contexts that are also violent, but where strong (and often democratic) state institutions also exist. It also gives little attention to other contexts where, despite the absence of armed conflicts, localised violent conflicts and several peacebuilding efforts exist. This is the case of many countries in the Global South (for example Brazil, India, Mexico, Kenya and Nigeria). More importantly, while there are many comparative studies relating to post-armed conflict peacebuilding interventions, there has been no systematic effort to compare these cases with other types of violent contexts that warrant peacebuilding interventions. There is also little discussion regarding the role that democracy or democratic processes such as elections play in initiating, containing or preventing violence in these settings. Such an approach is important in helping us interrogate the relationship between democracy and peace/violence. This special issue seeks to fill this gap.

The Collection aims to:
1) Problematize the relationship between democracy and peaceful societies;
2) Bring together the study of post-armed conflict countries and countries considered ‘peaceful’, and therefore perceived to be democratic (at least formally or nearly there) but which have high levels of violence; and
3) Bring together cases and scholars, especially early career scholars from the Global South to discuss peace, violence and democracy.

We are interested in original research papers, reviews and policy reports that aim to:
• Interrogate local ‘everyday’ understanding and views of peace, violence, and democracy and their relationship and how they relate to dominant mainstream views
• Problematise the relationship between violence, peace and democracy in different case studies
• Interrogate similarities and differences between post-armed conflict countries and countries that have high levels of violence but are considered ‘peaceful’
• Explore local, national and international peacebuilding activities in these different settings (reviews)

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Frontiers in Political Science

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