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Citizen-State Relations? Expectations - Trust: Introducing the Public Sphere Concept into the State-Building Debate
High expectations for a quick "peace-dividend"; a public not trusting its state;
and state-citizen relations severed by years of exclusion are among the most
challenging issues national governments, and the international community
supporting them, encounter in planning and executing post-conflict recovery
programs. These issues are too often neglected by policy makers. Experience has
shown the cost of this oversight. In their direct relation to long-term
stability and governance, dealing with these issues needs to be at the very
heart of post-conflict work. Introducing the public sphere as a framework to
deal with the "connective tissue" of state-building - a call for change in
current post-conflict assistance policy and practice.
and state-citizen relations severed by years of exclusion are among the most
challenging issues national governments, and the international community
supporting them, encounter in planning and executing post-conflict recovery
programs. These issues are too often neglected by policy makers. Experience has
shown the cost of this oversight. In their direct relation to long-term
stability and governance, dealing with these issues needs to be at the very
heart of post-conflict work. Introducing the public sphere as a framework to
deal with the "connective tissue" of state-building - a call for change in
current post-conflict assistance policy and practice.
Impressions 
