Distributive Justice and the Durability of Peace Agreements

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between principles of justice and the durability of negotiated agreements. Sixteen peace agreements negotiated during the early 1990s were coded for the centrality of each of four principles of distributive justice (DJ) - equality, proportionality, compensation, and need - to the core terms of the agreement. The agreements were also assessed on scales of implementation and durability over a five-year period. Another variable included in the analysis was the difficulty of the conflict environment. These data were used to evaluate three sets of hypotheses: the relationship between justice and durability, the role of the conflict environment, and types of DJ principles. The results obtained from both statistical and focused-comparisons analyses indicate that justice moderates the relationship between conflict environments and outcomes: when many principles of justice are included in an agreement, the negative effects of difficult conflict environments are reduced; when only a few principles are included, the negative effects of difficulty are heightened. These relationships are accounted for primarily by the principle of equality. Implications of these findings are discussed along with a number of ideas for further research.