Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
75
result(s) for
"Democratization Liberia."
Sort by:
Local leadership in democratic transition : competing paradigms in international peacebuilding
\"Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations has become increasingly involved in peacebuilding. However, the often questionable results have led to much mistrust of the methods employed by international organizations. The current transition paradigm assumes that local leaders which participate in the process will assist in the democratic transition and are themselves an output of the process. This assumption appears to be fundamentally wrong. This book examines whether the inclusion of non-democratic leadership in post-conflict transition induces democratic principles and sustainable peace, or if it in fact undermines the values which the international community attempts to promote and contribute towards the solidification of non-democratic regimes. Using an in-depth analysis of local leadership before, during and after democratic transition in three key case studies, namely Burundi, Cambodia and Liberia, the author provides a unique insight into the type of leadership required for transitioning a country to democracy. Delivering a new framework that assists scholars, policymakers and practitioners in understanding the roles of local leaders in democratic transition, it also includes recommendations for future peacebuilding operations. \"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
At War's End
All fourteen major peacebuilding missions launched between 1989 and 1999 shared a common strategy for consolidating peace after internal conflicts: immediate democratization and marketization. Transforming war-shattered states into market democracies is basically sound, but pushing this process too quickly can have damaging and destabilizing effects. The process of liberalization is inherently tumultuous, and can undermine the prospects for stable peace. A more sensible approach to post-conflict peacebuilding would seek, first, to establish a system of domestic institutions that are capable of managing the destabilizing effects of democratization and marketization within peaceful bounds and only then phase in political and economic reforms slowly, as conditions warrant. Peacebuilders should establish the foundations of effective governmental institutions prior to launching wholesale liberalization programs. Avoiding the problems that marred many peacebuilding operations in the 1990s will require longer-lasting and, ultimately, more intrusive forms of intervention in the domestic affairs of these states. This book was first published in 2004.
eBook
Bridging the Capabilities-Expectations Gap: Lessons Learned from Post-Conflict Democracy Assistance to Liberia
The unfulfilled expectations of post-conflict democracy assistance are palpable and disconcerting. The backsliding of several post-conflict states from democracy to authoritarianism, or even to violent conflict, has prompted a serious revision of the merits of democracy assistance. The lack of engagement with the very values and assumptions attached to democracy assistance can precipitate a debilitating gap between what assistance is capable of accomplishing through its strategic instruments and what people and partner organizations expect and demand assistance to deliver in post-conflict countries. Positively, the practice of post-conflict democracy assistance is responding to these challenges, showing signs of maturity and sophistication. The case of Liberia demonstrates that enhanced financial resources, improved peacekeeping, a broader conception of democracy, and a more refined use of instruments can bridge the capabilities-expectations gap on critical themes. Gaps, however, remain, including the conflation of democracy building and peacebuilding, unrealistic expectations of the benefits of democracy aid, and the often-exaggerated importance that international organizations proclaim for their work. These gaps ought to be addressed as they may not only undermine the successes and credibility of peacebuilding, but also shatter the hopes of local citizens who believe that international involvement will help them achieve democracy and peace.
Journal Article
Demagogues of hate or shepherds of peace? Examining the threat construction processes of warlord democrats in Sierra Leone and Liberia
How are threat images framed and constructed by the so-called warlord democrats (WDs)? Societies that have suffered from large-scale civil wars are commonly permeated by inter-group fear and hate. In these contexts, former military or political leaders of armed groups sometimes become involved in post-war politics. These WDs can act as reconciliation spoilers by making securitising moves, i.e. they construct threat images that are potentially very costly for fragile post-conflict democratisation processes. It is therefore crucial to explore WDs’ speech acts. Yet, the literature on post-war politics has largely overlooked these individual aspects. This article argues that the central components of securitisation theory can be useful in understanding this phenomenon if adjusted to the contextual circumstances of post-war societies. By analysing speech acts by seven WDs in post-war Liberia and Sierra Leone, two forms of framing strategies stand out as particularly relevant. First, WDs’ securitising moves are often framed as veiled threats of violence, as it is often deemed too risky for these individuals outside formal power positions to overtly express threats in a generally de-securitised setting. Second, when WDs construct threats, they often chose to frame themselves or their constituencies or followers as the referent object of security.
Journal Article
The 2001 ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy in Light of Recent Developments in the Sub-Region of Africa
The democracy-peace building nexus, beyond its traditional foothold in the liberal theory of International Relations, is a two-sided theoretical equation, resting on two plausible arguments. Developed by Immanuel Kant in the nineteenth century and subsequently popularized in the twentieth century by Woodrow Wilson and his heir, Michael Doyle, on one side of the equation is the traditional Kantian thesis that democracies do not go to war with one another, suggesting that, the wider the democratic space within a subordinate state system, the greater the prospect for peace. On the other side is a contemporary variant, which gained ascendancy and popularity immediately after the Cold War and conceptualized by the former United Nations Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, which contends not only that democracies do not go to war but democracies, because of inbuilt institutional mechanisms embedded in them, do equally widen the zones of peace within states.
Journal Article
Peacebuilding and Critical Forms of Agency: From Resistance to Subsistence
The dominant paradigm of liberal peacebuilding is often applied in developing states even where such processes of mobilization are practically implausible and intellectually or culturally alien. Inevitably, each peace intervention is contested, resisted, re-shaped/shaped and responded to—hybridized—by local actors and forms of agency that are unique to each setting. This article explores these processes in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia, Mozambique, Namibia, and Liberia, in order to assess how far \"subsistence peacebuilding\" agency is able to affect the liberal peacebuilding framework.
Journal Article
Neoliberal democratisation, colonial legacies and the rise of the non-state provision of social welfare in West Africa
This article explores the rise of the non-state provision of social welfare in West Africa. Over the past three decades, a range of non-state actors, including secular non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations, for-profit businesses and informal networks have provided access to basic social services such as education and health care even more extensively than states. The article asks: why has the number of non-state providers increased so markedly across Africa, and why do the predominant types of non-state providers vary in different countries? The author argues that neoliberal democratisation during the 1980s and 1990s created new opportunities and spaces for non-state providers. Yet, an analysis of Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia shows that colonial legacies have mediated the numbers and types of non-state actors on the ground. The conclusion highlights how this growth in non-state provision has significant negative consequences for citizens' ability to obtain equitable access to and accountability for social welfare services.
Journal Article
Second time around: Ex-combatants at the polls in Liberia
A precondition for sustainable peace and democracy is the acceptance of new ways of solving political problems without resorting to arms. Post-war elections are an important point for testing the legitimacy of the new regime, highlighting the depth of micro-level support for democracy. In the case of Liberia, the most notable problem of the elections of 2005 related to the issue of legitimacy. The ex-combatants did not trust the results and felt abandoned after the elections. Such experiences stand in the way of further deepening democracy in Liberia and may offer the grounds for mobilising anew. Yet, it is only by repeated experiences with elections that a process of democratisation takes place. This article addresses how the second experience with elections has changed ex-combatants' relation with democracy and experience of legitimacy, through re-interviewing a number of ex-combatants concerning their electoral experience from 2005 and 2011.
Journal Article
ECOWAS and the Regulation of Regional Peace and Security in West Africa
This article attempts to understand the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the regulation of regional security in West Africa. In doing this, it takes a critical look at the internal dynamics of West Africa and how they shape the organization, as well as at ECOWAS’ responses to a highly volatile and unpredictable region. It also examines the responses of ECOWAS to some of the security challenges it has faced and attempts to determine to what extent the organization has been able to act as a regional regulator of security. The article uses two critical case studies; the first, Liberia, represents the nature of responses in the immediate post-Cold War era, and the second, Côte d’Ivoire, represents the evolution of ECOWAS’ security thinking and architecture in the contemporary period. This approach to analyzing ECOWAS’ role in subregional security allows us to appropriately map not just the peculiar international conditions that shape the organization, but also the way its institutions have responded to this dynamic. In concluding, the article points to institutional and legal advancements like the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF) and the growing emphasis on democratization and responsible governance as evidence of ECOWAS policymakers having learned some lessons from years of tortuous conflict management. However, it also points to the need to broaden the space for civil society participation to include social movements outside traditional expert networks and to further deepen the growing commitment to development as a tool of conflict management.
Journal Article
The Political Participation of the U.S.-Based Liberian Diaspora and Its Implication for Peace Building
The political participation of the U.S.-based Liberian diaspora represents an archetypical case in the debate about the role of the diaspora as conflict drivers and peacemakers. This is because the U.S.-based diaspora supported armed rebellion against the Doe and Taylor regimes. However, the postwar democratic transition in Liberia has offered the U.S.-based Liberian diaspora the space to be active political participants-——which has serious implications for peace building. The political participation of the U.S.-based diaspora does not guarantee a benign outcome; nevertheless, noncontentious political activities aimed at lobbying host-country support for peace building, building rational legal institutions, and financially supporting moderate political parties instead of belligerent homeland forces bode well for peace building. In contrast, contentious politics that pitch diaspora Liberians against home-based Liberians over the issue of dual nationality, perceived diaspora dominance in public office, and diaspora corruption are counterproductive to peace building.
Journal Article