This study focuses on the relationship between reconciliation and democracy within post-conflict contexts. The unprecedented increase in the number of intrastate conflict in the recent decades and the explosion of civil wars has increased the attention devoted to issues of conflict management and peace promotion. The issue of post-conflict reconstruction has attracted the attention of both scholars (Simonsen 2005; Call and Cousens 2008; Horowitz 2008) and policy-makers who have focused on the question of how to create the social and political conditions that will lead to sustainable peace. Central to discussions surrounding the reconstruction process has been the issue of reconciliation and democratization. While there is considerable attention on reconciliation and democratization separately, what is missing is the extent to which these two processes are interrelated. Conceptualized broadly as the process of restoring the relationship between former adversaries, reconciliation is now seen as the main engine for the promotion of sustainable peace (Pankhurst 1999; Brouneus 2008). This paper contributes to the literature by showing how these two processes can help or hinder each other as well as how they can individually and jointly contribute to the attainment of sustainable peace. I rely upon the carefully matched cases of post-war Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina and conduct both qualitative and quantitative research. Preliminary findings are underscoring the importance of the persistence of the societal divisions in affecting the prospects of sustainable peace.
