War Politics Clause Samples

War Politics. As there are little studies on war politics, interpreting war politics has become a daunting task for any student of politics. However, surveying of literature on civil war is helpful in identifying certain features and characteristics inherent in war politics. The literature on civil war has shed light on associated features of war politics which include state crisis, emergence of dual authority system instead of singular authority, militarized politics, repeated internal displacements, culture of violence, coexistence of electoral politics and war politics, war economy etc. The concept of war politics remains poorly conceptualized in the literature of political science and conflict resolution. For the purpose of present study, ‘war politics’ is defined as the emergence of a specific form of politics in time of protracted civil war. For the purpose of clarity, politics can be grouped into two as normal politics and war politics. The distinguishing feature of war politics from that of normal politics is the transformation of political process leading to break down of governmental politics in part or full. The specificity of war politics is that it prevents normal governmental politics and forces it to change routine operational styles. Protracted civil war challenges the power of the state. Consequently, there emerges a dual power system which challenges the sovereignty of the state together with its agent called government. The democratic practices and institution associated with normal politics such as rule of law, legitimacy of the government, accountability of decision making and implementing bodies, competitive political party system and pressure group activities, periodical free and fair elections and functioning of healthy civil society organizations are put into jeopardy and risk during wars (Imai & ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, 2000). This situation of breaking down of normal politics requires reinterpretation of governmental politics in the context of war.