The Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia: From 'Paternaltarianism' to State Collapse, and: Beyond Plunder: Toward Democratic Governance in Liberia (review)

Amos Sawyer, a seasoned Liberian scholar/activist, and Jeremy Levitt, a young African American scholar, contribute in their respective ways to setting the intellectual if not the political stage for governance reform in Liberia. The timeliness of both publications is evident as Liberia extricates itself from a quarter-century of war and dysfunctional governance. In a way, the two books complement one another. Levitt resurrects deadly conflicts in Liberian history to explain root causes of what he calls the "great war," the conflict of 1989–2003. Sawyer sees the roots of conflict in an overcentralized, autocratic, and predatory state. Each book has a prescriptive intent. Levitt advocates democratic inclusiveness as an antidote to "settler nationalism and authoritarianism," while Sawyer speaks of transformational change from a monocentric to a polycentric governance arrangement.

The Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia has a three-fold aim: to address "methodological weakness in conflict studies" as it looks at the origins of the Liberian civil war rather than examining the course of the war; to provide an alternative framework (i.e., to conflict studies literature) for understanding the dynamics of warfare in Liberia; and to offer the first comprehensive study of deadly conflict in Liberia. Levitt adopts a sociopolitical and institutional approach which posits that the "nature of preexisting regime shapes the dynamics and outcomes of political transition" (11–12). Consequently, he identifies and analyzes a "continuum of circular causation between the state of affairs that led to the founding of the Liberian state, the evolution of nationalism and authoritarianism, and deadly conflict" (85). Fifteen conflicts are examined in detail, with a secondary overview of the circumstances that led to the 1980 coup d'etat and the subsequent civil war. He uncovers a system that institutionalized ethnopolitical conflict between immigrants and indigenes from 1822 through 1980, and among all Liberians between 1980 and 2003.

Sawyer's purpose is to explain the path to reconstituting order following state collapse and violent conflict. In this quest he employs a variant of the institutional analysis framework of his intellectual mentors (Vincent and Elinor Ostrom) to uncover "how institutions structure incentives and influence choice within ecological and social environments" (4). His analysis leads him to "guideposts" for constructing "a system of democratic governance based on a theory of limited or shared sovereignty as an alternative to monocentric governance derived from a theory of unitary sovereignty" (11).

For both Levitt and Sawyer, the essential Liberian problem has been the critical choice of the early Liberian leadership for a unitary rather than a confederal state, for immigrant nationalism and authoritarianism rather than political inclusiveness and democracy. Sawyer recalls the loose organization of early county political subdivisions as opposed to concentration of power in Monrovia, while Levitt notes that 65 percent of eligible voters boycotted Liberia's first open preindependence elections, although the leadership proceeded in the absence of a clear mandate. Both suggest no significant departure since then from the founding dispositions. They each recognize half-hearted attempts at political inclusion, Levitt characterizing Tubman's unification policy as "deceptive inclusion" (181), and Sawyer pointing out a "structural flaw" (85) that underpins attempts at governance reform

Among the strengths of Sawyer's well-crafted study are his clear prescriptions for postconflict Liberia. They include a possible replacement of the current 1986 constitution with his National Constitution Commission draft of 1984 ("Framework for Democratic Governance," chapter 5); a radical reordering of the sociopolitical order that incorporates the use of indigenous endowments and knowledge systems; and an empowering of the masses through political devolution of both authority and resources. He wisely adds the need to carefully study past governance failures in addressing current challenges...