How Political Foundations Affect Performance

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the political factors that affect the performance of a sovereignty-sharing venture. It explains the need for a supportive political equilibrium to enable effective implementation of a joint venture that can earn performance legitimacy. Such arrangements usually rest on precarious political foundations, due to the divergent interests of the national and international partners. They are often built on compromised state consent, which leads to ambiguous agreements and to confusion and discord in the field. In particular, the chapter shows why sovereignty-sharing ventures have struggled to move beyond stopgap service provision to meet their second stated objective of advancing domestic institutional reform.