Radical groups often agree to trade in their revolutionary ways in return for democratic reforms which give them a greater stake in power or increased opportunity to gain power. Huntington argued that in return for greater political inclusion radical groups may agree to ‘abandon violence and any commitment to revolution, to accept basic social, economic and political institutions … and to work through elections and parliamentary procedures in order to achieve power and put through their policies’. Revolutionary and ruling elites engage in quid pro quo exchanges which result in the moderation of radicalism in return for increased inclusion. This is not just true of leaders and elites, the mobilised masses may also be willing to limit the demands they make of the state if inclusive gains are won. Incentives and disincentives influence whether such bargains are sought, including the need to stave off a crisis in a regime; pressure from allies to find agreement; material or political gains for the elites; realising the potential rewards of new institutional rules; tackling the grievances and injustices that led to the attempted revolution in the first instance; and whether coexistence has a lower cost than adversarial existence. Additionally, a normative commitment to democratic rule above and beyond a group's immediate strategic interests can also explain why democratic bargains are struck and why groups are willing to compromise and accommodate each other.

Using the concept of democratisation can seem anachronistic in the Northern Ireland context given that Britain is one of the longest-standing democracies in the world. Yet the conflict in Northern Ireland was a conflict over self-determination and contestation over the status of Northern Ireland between two competing nationalisms. For republicanism this was about democratic bargaining where an important part of the peace process was about challenging the democratic character of Northern Ireland. It is possible to identify clear stages in republican strategy that entailed extensive moderation in return for what republicans perceived as the democratisation of political opportunities for nationalists. These stages closely parallel Walter's stages of ending civil wars: deciding to negotiate, striking a mutually agreeable bargain, and implementing the agreed bargain. Initially republicans went through a phase which led them to make the decision to negotiate.