Somalia: Hope in Statelessness?

Somalia: Hope in Statelessness?


Today’s idea: The lesson we should learn from Somalia is that a stateless society “isn’t so bad” when compared with the often ghastly alternatives, an economist says.

Africa | O.K., maybe calling Somalia an economic success “overstates the situation slightly,” Benjamin Powell concedes in an essay in The Freeman. But poor as it is, Somalia has improved living standards faster than the average sub-Saharan African country since the early 1990s, he says. That’s thanks to rule by decentralized clan networks relying on legal custom, he contends, and no thanks to chaotic outside efforts to impose centralized rule.

Even the recent scourge of Somali piracy is “a tribute to the internal effectiveness of Somali customary law,” Mr. Powell argues, since the pirates don’t target Somali ships. So, yes, combat piracy, but not with the imposition of an internationally “friendly” government likely to plunder its people:

Associated Press
Pirates are said to respect Somali customary law.

State Department

Somalia’s lesson should not be overstated — it is no libertarian utopia. I certainly don’t plan to move there anytime soon. But Somalia does demonstrate that a reasonable level of law and order can be provided by nonstate customary legal systems and that such systems are capable of providing some basis for economic development.

This is particularly true when the alternative is not a limited government but instead a particularly brutal and repressive government such as Somalia had and is likely to have again if a government is re-established.
[The Freeman]