Democratization is supposed to arrange for intrastate peace in post-war societies. But a democracy is only functional, as long as state institutions are intact and if all former conflict parties accept the joint state.
However, many ethnically divided post-war societies lack these prerequisites, as state institutions have either collapsed or are controlled by one of the conflicting parties.
In PRIF Study No. 17 "Ohne Staat und Nation ist keine Demokratie zu machen. Bosnien und Herzegowina, Kosovo und Makedonien", Thorsten Gromes analyzes in how far the peace strategy of democratization can work after all.
He evaluates the post-war development in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as in Macedonia; Bruno Schoch assesses the developments in Kosovo.
All these cases combined favorable basic conditions for democratization with remarkable efforts by external powers. So if democratization even failed in these states, its chances for success would be even worse elsewhere.
This Study of PRIF is available at Nomos publishing house.