Från traditionella ledare till Big Men: En studie av den hybrida statsbyggnadsprocessen i Somaliland
(2019) STVM20 20191Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- Hybridity as a conceptual tool has been discussed in the literature as a means to understand how power and legitimacy are negotiated in settings where the Western model of the liberal democratic state does not work. Somaliland on the horn of Africa is frequently presented as functioning hybrid political order. A cornerstone for Somaliland’s success was the integration of traditional authorities in the form of clan elders in government. These clan elders were engaged in peace-building and state formation in the early 1990s. Their role was later institutionalized in the Guurti, the upper house of parliament. Through a case study of Somaliland, this essay examines the potentials and limits of a hybrid approach to advancing peace and... (More)
- Hybridity as a conceptual tool has been discussed in the literature as a means to understand how power and legitimacy are negotiated in settings where the Western model of the liberal democratic state does not work. Somaliland on the horn of Africa is frequently presented as functioning hybrid political order. A cornerstone for Somaliland’s success was the integration of traditional authorities in the form of clan elders in government. These clan elders were engaged in peace-building and state formation in the early 1990s. Their role was later institutionalized in the Guurti, the upper house of parliament. Through a case study of Somaliland, this essay examines the potentials and limits of a hybrid approach to advancing peace and democracy. The analysis engages with the issue of how political legitimacy is constructed and maintained. It does so by applying path-dependence and networks theories on the political history of Somaliland. The essay argues that the clan elders in the Guurti enjoyed a high degree of legitimacy during the first half of the 1990s but subsequently lost legitimacy because the population started to view them corrupt and to attached to the state apparatus. However the hybrid system has shown to be resilient and the potential dilemmas that could arise during the transition between war and democracy were in essence avoided. The analysis offers an attempt of empirical anchoring of the concepts of hybridity however I echo calls for a more empirically informed analysis and development of the concept of hybridity. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8964601
- author
- Dexborg Kristensson, Martin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVM20 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Somaliland, Hybriditet, Big Men
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8964601
- date added to LUP
- 2019-09-06 09:17:02
- date last changed
- 2019-09-06 09:17:02
@misc{8964601,
abstract = {{Hybridity as a conceptual tool has been discussed in the literature as a means to understand how power and legitimacy are negotiated in settings where the Western model of the liberal democratic state does not work. Somaliland on the horn of Africa is frequently presented as functioning hybrid political order. A cornerstone for Somaliland’s success was the integration of traditional authorities in the form of clan elders in government. These clan elders were engaged in peace-building and state formation in the early 1990s. Their role was later institutionalized in the Guurti, the upper house of parliament. Through a case study of Somaliland, this essay examines the potentials and limits of a hybrid approach to advancing peace and democracy. The analysis engages with the issue of how political legitimacy is constructed and maintained. It does so by applying path-dependence and networks theories on the political history of Somaliland. The essay argues that the clan elders in the Guurti enjoyed a high degree of legitimacy during the first half of the 1990s but subsequently lost legitimacy because the population started to view them corrupt and to attached to the state apparatus. However the hybrid system has shown to be resilient and the potential dilemmas that could arise during the transition between war and democracy were in essence avoided. The analysis offers an attempt of empirical anchoring of the concepts of hybridity however I echo calls for a more empirically informed analysis and development of the concept of hybridity.}},
author = {{Dexborg Kristensson, Martin}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Från traditionella ledare till Big Men: En studie av den hybrida statsbyggnadsprocessen i Somaliland}},
year = {{2019}},
}