How Political Foundations Affect Performance

SOVEREIGNTY-SHARING ARRANGEMENTS generally need to perform well to be justified. That performance hinges largely on the strength of their political foundations, which have profound effects on how joint ventures are designed and implemented. This chapter outlines the conditions for effective performance and the major challenges that sovereignty-sharing schemes encounter when national elites and their external partners do not see eye to eye, with one another or with the fragile state’s residents whom the arrangement purports to serve. Sovereignty-sharing ventures can perform effectively when the aims of domestic elites and their international partners align reasonably well. This can occur when rampant