TERMS - 2

Peacebuilding: Originally conceived in the context of post-conflict recovery efforts to promote
reconciliation and reconstruction, the term peacebuilding has more recently taken on a broader
meaning. It may include providing humanitarian relief, protecting human rights, ensuring security,
establishing non-violent modes of resolving conflicts, fostering reconciliation, providing traumahealing
services, repatriating refugees and resettling internally displaced persons, and aiding in
economic reconstruction. As such, it also includes conflict prevention in the sense of preventing
the recurrence of violence, as well as conflict management and post-conflict recovery. In a larger

sense, peacebuilding involves a transformation toward more manageable, peaceful relationships
and governance structures—the long-term process of addressing root causes and effects,
reconciling differences, and normalizing relations.
* Patronage: Refers to the support or sponsorship of a patron (wealthy or influential guardian).
Patronage is used, for instance, to make appointments to government jobs, promotions, contracts
for work, etc. Most patrons are motivated by the desire to gain power, wealth, and status through
their behavior. Patronage transgresses the boundaries of legitimate political influence, and
violates the principles of merit and competition.
* Petty Corruption: The everyday corruption that takes place where bureaucrats meet the public
directly. It’s a form of corruption which is pursued by junior or mid-level agents who may be
grossly underpaid and who depend on relatively small but illegal rents to feed and house their
families and pay for their children's education. Petty corruption disproportionately hurts the
poorest members of society, who may experience requests for bribes regularly in their encounters
with public administration and services like hospitals, schools, local licensing authorities, police,
taxing authorities, and so on.
* Political Corruption: The term "political corruption" is conceptualized in various ways through
the recent literature on corruption. In some instances, it is used synonymously with "grand" or
high-level corruption and refers to the misuse of entrusted power by political leaders. In others, it
refers specifically to corruption within the political and electoral processes. In both cases, political
corruption not only leads to the misallocation of resources, but it also perverts the manner in
which decisions are made.
Post-conflict Recovery: Also known as post-conflict reconstruction and war-to-peace
transitions: The long-term rebuilding of a society in the aftermath of violent conflict. It includes
political, socioeconomic, and physical aspects such as disarming and reintegrating combatants,
resettling internally displaced persons, reforming governmental institutions, promoting trauma
work and reconciliation, delivering justice, restarting the economy, and rebuilding damaged
infrastructure. The term “recovery” has a broader connotation than reconstruction, which implies
an emphasis on physical aspects.
Power: The ability to influence others to get the outcomes one wants. It may involve coercing
them with threats, inducing them with payments, or co-opting them. Hard power refers to the use
of military and economic means to influence the behavior of others through coercion or
inducements. Soft power refers to the ability to attract or co-opt others through one’s values,
policies, and performance to “want what you want,” in Joseph Nye’s words. The term smart power
encompasses both hard and soft power, emphasizing the need to employ whatever tools—
diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural—are appropriate for the situation.
Power Sharing: A system of governance in which all major segments of society are provided a
permanent share of power. Traditionally, that has meant coalition governments; protection of
minority rights; decentralization of power; and decision-making by consensus. Because of its
emphasis on group rights and consensus, power sharing can lead to deadlock, so some analysts
argue that it should be seen as a short-term measure that helps prepare a society for the
transition to multiethnic parties.
* Public Official: As defined in international law, a public official is a “person who holds a
legislative, executive, administrative, or judicial office” (appointed or elected). It also includes a
person who “performs a public function” or provides a public service.
Rule of Law: A principle of governance in which all persons and institutions, public and private,
including the state itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly announced, equally enforced
and independently adjudicated, and consistent with international human rights norms and
standards. The drafting of laws must be transparent, and they must be applied fairly and without

arbitrariness. In addition, all persons must have access to justice—the ability to seek and obtain a
remedy through informal or formal institutions of justice.
Social Contract: The notion that individuals and nation-states tacitly agree to a set of mutually
binding stipulations and obligations. The social contract has long served as a philosophical
foundation for understanding modern conceptions of citizenship and constitutionalism, whereby
individuals willingly submit some of their personal freedoms to political authority in return for the
general benefit of all members of a given society.
* Systemic Corruption: Occurs when corruption is an integrated and essential aspect of the
economic, social and political system. Systemic corruption is not a special category of corrupt
practice, but rather a situation in which the major institutions and processes of the state are
routinely dominated and used by corrupt individuals and groups, and in which most people have
no alternatives to dealing with corrupt officials.
* Transparency: Visibility or accessibility of information regarding government decision-making
and financial practices, such that stakeholders not only have access to the decision-making
process but also the ability to influence it. Transparency is considered an essential element of
accountable governance, leading to improved resource allocation, enhanced efficiency, and
better prospects for economic growth in general.