Abstract:
This article places the political economy of Liberian timber in the context of
the theory of state failure. It explores the relationship between private
investment, state failure and war, highlighting how Charles Taylor exploited
timber concessions to foreign firms as a proxy for effective state institutions
in Liberia. It examines the reasons why foreign investment – particularly in
Liberia’s timber industry – prolonged the civil war and destroyed the country’s
formal economy. And it challenges the neoliberal assumption that increased
economic activity provides incentives for rulers to build stable institutions
and to provide security to investors. Neoliberal prescriptions coupled with a
changing global economy produced no incentive for Charles Taylor, a faction
leader from 1989 and Liberia’s president from 1997 until exile in 2003, to
attempt to develop state institutions or to prevent the collapse of the formal
economy.
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