Download or read book The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia written by Amos Sawyer and published by ICS Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book illuminates the political process that over the course of six generations brought about the personalization of authority in Liberia; and it links that system of personal rule to the highly centralized structures of the postcolonial state. The book concludes by exploring the future of self-govenance in Liberia and all of postcolonial Africa. The author became president of the Republic of Liberia after the civil war 1989-90.
Download or read book Liberia under Samuel Doe 1980 1985 written by Yekutiel Gershoni and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-28 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers led by Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe executed a bloody coup that put an end to the Americo-Liberian minority regime in Liberia, transforming Africa’s first republic into a military dictatorship. In Liberia under Samuel Doe, 1980-1985: The Politics of Personal Rule, Yekutiel Gershoni examines the evolution and effects of Samuel K. Doe’s reign in Liberia. Gershoni shows Doe’s path to absolute power, corruption, and dictatorship and the economic crises and political turmoil that ensued, even after his murder in 1990. Liberia under Samuel Doe also examines the role of the United States as Liberia’s closest ally, detailing how Doe managed to attract American diplomatic and military support due to U.S. interests in the Cold War. Through in-depth research, primary sources, and interviews with diplomats, politicians, and activists, Gershoni carefully details the timeline of Doe’s rise to power and the lasting effects of his dictatorial legacy.
Download or read book Liberia written by Mary H. Moran and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberia, a small West African country that has been wracked by violence and civil war since 1989, seems a paradoxical place in which to examine questions of democracy and popular participation. Yet Liberia is also the oldest republic in Africa, having become independent in 1847 after colonization by an American philanthropic organization as a refuge for "Free People of Color" from the United States. Many analysts have attributed the violent upheaval and state collapse Liberia experienced in the 1980s and 1990s to a lack of democratic institutions and long-standing patterns of autocracy, secrecy, and lack of transparency. Liberia: The Violence of Democracy is a response, from an anthropological perspective, to the literature on neopatrimonialism in Africa. Mary H. Moran argues that democracy is not a foreign import into Africa but that essential aspects of what we in the West consider democratic values are part of the indigenous African traditions of legitimacy and political process. In the case of Liberia, these democratic traditions include institutionalized checks and balances operating at the local level that allow for the voices of structural subordinates (women and younger men) to be heard and be effective in making claims. Moran maintains that the violence and state collapse that have beset Liberia and the surrounding region in the past two decades cannot be attributed to ancient tribal hatreds or neopatrimonial leaders who are simply a modern version of traditional chiefs. Rather, democracy and violence are intersecting themes in Liberian history that have manifested themselves in numerous contexts over the years. Moran challenges many assumptions about Africa as a continent and speaks in an impassioned voice about the meanings of democracy and violence within Liberia.
Download or read book Liberia s Civil War written by Adekeye Adebajo and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text aims to unravel the tangled web of the conflict by addressing questions including: why did Nigeria intervene in Liberia and remain committed throughout the seven-year civil war?; and to what extent was ECOMOG's intervention shaped by Nigeria's hegemonic aspirations.
Download or read book White Americans in Black Africa written by Eunjin Park and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2002. This compelling book brings to light a disillusioned experiment of biracial missionary labours that were expected to carry the beliefs and cultural values of nineteenth century white Americans to the black continent of Africa.
Download or read book Liberian Democracy written by Thomas Kaydor Jr. and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2014-09-27 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Development is stagnated, and poverty is widespread in Liberia because the Legislature is weak, corrupt and greedy, thereby pursuing self-interested agenda at the detriment of the general public. The Judiciary is also corrupt and subservient to the Executive, which dominates and controls state resources. This writer explains why the Legislature and Judiciary are weak, corrupt, inefficient and ineffective. He proposes how these dormant branches of government could become more effective and robust to curb presidential dominance by upholding the principle of checks and balances in Liberia’s democracy. He also argues that mass illiteracy leads electorates to electing incompetent legislators. The writer further points out that widespread illiteracy undermines most of the citizens’ capacity to critically and rationally analyse National Policies. Hence, they usually fail to hold their legislators or government accountable. The writer maintains that to alleviate poverty and transform Liberia into a developmental state, the Legislature needs to assume its role by becoming robust, efficient and effective. It must promulgate pro-poor laws and policies intended to alleviate widespread poverty. This will engender national development. He concludes that the National Legislature, through prudent budgetary allocation, needs to promote infrastructural development, the right to food, equitable access to quality education, healthcare, safe drinking water, and public housing.
Download or read book Competitive Authoritarianism written by Steven Levitsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.
Download or read book Reconstructing the Authoritarian State in Africa written by George Klay Kieh, Jr. and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work seeks to examine the nature and dynamics of authoritarianism in Africa and to suggest ways in which the states covered in the book can be democratically reconstituted. In 1990, a wave of euphoria greeted the "third wave of democratization" that swept across the African Continent. The repression-wearied subalterns were hopeful that the "third wave" would have set into motion the process of democratically reconstituting the authoritarian state on the continent. More than two decades thereafter, although some progress has been made, by and large, the authoritarian state remains the dominant construct in the region. Even in some of the countries in which democratic transitions have taken place, the process of democratic consolidation remains an elusive quest as these states are sandwiched between authoritarianism and democracy. Against this background, the purpose of this book is to examine the travails of the authoritarian state in Africa, including the Herculean task to democratically reconstruct it. In order to do this, six of Africa’s perennial authoritarian states—Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Liberia, Rwanda and Uganda—are used as the case studies. The book has two major objectives. First, the various chapters probe the nature and dynamics of authoritarianism in Africa. Second, the chapters suggest ways in which the various authoritarian states covered in the book can be democratically reconstituted.
Download or read book Travel Sketches from Liberia written by Henk Dop and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-10-04 with total page 918 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Büttikofer’s Travel Sketches from Liberia details the development of the Liberian nation and the intricate, often volatile, relationships between the country’s indigenous peoples and its black colonists from America. In remarkable detail, it provides vivid images of the country's past.
Download or read book The Modern African State written by Godfrey Mwakikagile and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2001 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the modern African State as a fragile institution because of its structural flaws. It focuses on a number of African countries whose combined analyses provide a focal point for looking at the whole continent as one giant place with crumbling state institutions whose fragility threatens the very existence of several African countries. Even in rich African countries, peace and stability is threatened and rampant corruption and dictatorship. Nothing better demonstrates the weakness and cruelty of the modern African State than its willingness to instigate tribal violence in a number of African countries and its inability to contain such hostilities in many others. In an attempt to put such weakness in proper perspective, the author focuses on analyses of case studies, as the context for a better understanding of the modern African State, as the most dominant institution on the African continent.
Download or read book Customary Justice and the Rule of Law in War torn Societies written by Deborah Isser and published by US Institute of Peace Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The major peacekeeping and stability operations of the last ten years have mostly taken place in countries that have pervasive customary justice systems, which pose significant challenges and opportunities for efforts to reestablish the rule of law. These systems are the primary, if not sole, means of dispute resolution for the majority of the population, but post-conflict practitioners and policymakers often focus primarily on constructing formal justice institutions in the Western image, as opposed to engaging existing traditional mechanisms. This book offers insight into how the rule of law community might make the leap beyond rhetorical recognition of customary justice toward a practical approach that incorporates the realities of its role in justice strategies."Customary Justice and the Rule of Law in War-Torn Societies" presents seven in-depth case studies that take a broad interdisciplinary approach to the study of the justice system. Moving beyond the narrow lens of legal analysis, the cases Mozambique, Guatemala, East Timor, Afghanistan, Liberia, Iraq, Sudan examine the larger historical, political, and social factors that shape the character and role of customary justice systems and their place in the overall justice sector. Written by resident experts, the case studies provide advice to rule of law practitioners on how to engage with customary law and suggest concrete ways policymakers can bridge the divide between formal and customary systems in both the short and long terms. Instead of focusing exclusively on ideal legal forms of regulation and integration, this study suggests a holistic and flexible palette of reform options that offers realistic improvements in light of social realities and capacity limitations. The volume highlights how customary justice systems contribute to, or detract from, stability in the immediate post-conflict period and offers an analytical framework for assessing customary justice systems that can be applied in any country. "
Download or read book Ghana Armed Forces in Lebanon and Liberia Peace Operations written by Emmanuel Wekem Kotia and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-04-22 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa Nations have contributed to peace operations in conflict zones across the world since the deployment of the United Nations Operations in the Congo in 1960. This has placed Africa as a major stakeholder in the maintenance of peace and security. For over fifty years Ghana has earned the international reputation as one of the largest and consistent Troop Contributing Country in United Nations mandated peace operations. While Ghana has long been an active contributor to peace operations, there are few or no comparative studies that systematically analyze the actual roles played by troops in many of the different conflict context where they have served. This book therefore, focuses on a comparison of two peace operations undertaken by the forces of an African Nation in two different missions in Lebanon and Liberia.
Download or read book Liberia s Political Economy written by Stephen H. Gobewole and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since it was founded for freed blacks in the early 1800s, Liberia has been a country of extremes, whether comparing wealth and poverty; the lifestyles of urban elites and rural tribal communities; or corrupt national government and familial trust. This book uses Liberia’s history as the background and ongoing source of the current political and social situations, as revealed by Afrobarometer data. The study considers the ethnicity, gender, and residential location of Liberian citizens and their attitudes regarding the country’s rule of law, state authority and democratic accountability – it’s government and economic health. After presenting the history and the current data, the author makes recommendations for changing the future of this African nation. If implemented, these changes could have a profound and positive effect on the future of this country that is rated as the third-poorest in the world.
Download or read book Sovereignty without Power written by Leigh A. Gardner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did independence mean during the age of empires? How did independent governments balance different interests when they made policies about trade, money and access to foreign capital? Sovereignty without Power tells the story of Liberia, one of the few African countries to maintain independence through the colonial period. Established in 1822 as a colony for freed slaves from the United States, Liberia's history illustrates how the government's efforts to exercise its economic sovereignty and engage with the global economy shaped Liberia's economic and political development over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing together a wide range of archival sources, Leigh A. Gardner presents the first quantitative estimates of Liberian's economic performance and uses these to compare it to its colonized neighbors and other independent countries. Liberia's history anticipated challenges still faced by developing countries today, and offers a new perspective on the role of power and power relationships in shaping Africa's economic history.
Download or read book Monopoly of Force The Nexus of DDR and SSR written by Michael Miklaucic and published by NDU Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) and Security Sector Reform (SSR) have emerged in recent years as promising though generally poorly understood mechanisms for consolidating stability and reasserting state sovereignty after conflict. Despite the considerable experience acquired by the international community, the critical interrelationship between DDR and SSR and the ability to use these mechanisms with consistent success remain less than optimally developed. The chapters in this book reflect a diversity of field experience and research in DDR and SSR, which suggest that these are complex and interrelated systems, with underlying political attributes. Successful application of DDR and SSR requires the setting aside of preconceived assumptions or formulas, and should be viewed flexibly to restore to the state the monopoly of force."--Page 4 of cover.
Download or read book Africa s Peacemakers written by Adekaye Adebajo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-02-13 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Africa and its diaspora commemorate fifty years of post-independence Pan-Africanism, this unique volume provides profound insight into the thirteen prominent individuals of African descent who have won the Nobel Peace Prize since 1950. From the first American president of African descent, Barack Obama, whose career was inspired by the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles promoted by fellow Nobel Peace laureates Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Albert Luthuli; to influential figures in peacemaking such as Ralph Bunche, Anwar Sadat, Kofi Annan, and F.W. De Klerk; as well as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, Wangari Maathai, and Mohamed El-Baradei, who have been variously involved in women's rights, environmental protection, and nuclear disarmament, Africa's Peacemakers reveals how this remarkable collection of individuals have changed the world - for better or worse.
Download or read book The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy written by William Nikolakis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-30 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a global analysis of policies to address deforestation, an important driver of climate change.
