Dispute Resolution Procedural Problems

3. Factors That Make Conflict Intractable

Another overlay factor is procedural problems. All organizations and communities and nation states have set procedures for how they deal with contentious issues and policies. But when these procedures are seen to be unfair or unevenly applied, this can cause big conflicts.  Immigration is a good example of this. (I find it interesting that I'm revising an article written in 2016, which used immigration as the procedural example then too. It's been an intractable issue for a long time.) Most people in the United States agree that current immigration policy is not fair, it is not efficient, and it also is not being applied evenly. The system is stressed far beyond the breaking point as huge numbers of would-be immigrants show up at America's southern border everyday.  When they are turned away without any consideration, the would be immigrants (and many progressives) in the United States get very angry.  When they are allowed in (or they manage to sneak in illegally), conservatives are in an uproar.  What should the process be?  How can we manage the press of would-be immigrants fairly?  And, this is just one of a great many examples of procedural injustice — the failure to give everyone the right of due process and equal protection of the laws. The polarization seizing our politics is such that we cannot even consider such issues, we just use them as political footballs in election rhetoric.

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