Go Big or Go Home: An Appeal to Let Power-Sharing Do More Not Less

Power-Sharing: Empirical and Normative Challenges (2017) provides expert analysis of the challenges facing power-sharing across a diverse range of settings. It represents a good faith attempt by two admitted advocates of the theory to bring together evaluations and analyses which assess its real word impacts and engage with its weaknesses. It highlights the difficulty in making general claims about the consequences of power-sharing political systems underlining the unique conflict and peace-making dynamics at play in different cases at different times. The individual case studies are engaging and the deep knowledge which the respective authors possess in relation to them is impressive and illuminating. However, the real challenge facing such a volume is whether broader conclusions can be drawn from empirical analysis of such a diverse set of cases. McGarry is largely successful in his attempt to do so in the Conclusion, drawing four broad lessons from the preceding chapters which provide fertile ground for the development of power-sharing theory.