politics
Somalia: 20 years of anarchy
POLS 104 (gr.5)
Gulbahar Seitniyazova
Student number: 127320
Somalia, from 1991 to 2006, is cited as a real-world example of a stateless society and legal system. Since the fall of Siad Barre's government in January 1991, there had been no permanent national government in Somalia until the current Transitional Federal Government. Large areas of the country such as Puntland, and Galmudug are internationally unrecognized autonomous regions, while Somaliland is a de facto sovereign state. The remaining areas, including the capital Mogadishu, were divided into smaller territories ruled by competing warlords.
Somalia is currently claimed as the sovereign territory of the Transitional Federal Government, internationally recognized as the Government of Somalia (since 2006).
Benjamin Powell argues that statelessness has led to more order and less chaos than had the previous state, and economist Alex Tabarrok has claimed that Somalia in its stateless period provided a "unique test of the theory of anarchy" .
The rule of law
Following the downfall of the Siad Barre regime, there was effectively no formal monocentric government law in Somalia. While some urban areas such as Mogadishu had private police forces, many Somalis simply returned to the traditional clan-based legal structures for local governance and dispute resolution. The absence of any effective coast guard to enforce maritime law has resulted in Somalian international waters becoming an "international free-for-all", with piracy off the coast of Somalia in particular being the subject of international attention
Social conditions
The international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières stated that the level of daily violence during this period was "catastrophic. A statistic from 2000 indicated that only 21% of the population had access to safe drinking water at that time, and Somalia had one of the highest child mortality rates in the world with 10% of children dying at birth
POLS 104 (gr.5)
Gulbahar Seitniyazova
Student number: 127320
Somalia, from 1991 to 2006, is cited as a real-world example of a stateless society and legal system. Since the fall of Siad Barre's government in January 1991, there had been no permanent national government in Somalia until the current Transitional Federal Government. Large areas of the country such as Puntland, and Galmudug are internationally unrecognized autonomous regions, while Somaliland is a de facto sovereign state. The remaining areas, including the capital Mogadishu, were divided into smaller territories ruled by competing warlords.
Somalia is currently claimed as the sovereign territory of the Transitional Federal Government, internationally recognized as the Government of Somalia (since 2006).
Benjamin Powell argues that statelessness has led to more order and less chaos than had the previous state, and economist Alex Tabarrok has claimed that Somalia in its stateless period provided a "unique test of the theory of anarchy" .
The rule of law
Following the downfall of the Siad Barre regime, there was effectively no formal monocentric government law in Somalia. While some urban areas such as Mogadishu had private police forces, many Somalis simply returned to the traditional clan-based legal structures for local governance and dispute resolution. The absence of any effective coast guard to enforce maritime law has resulted in Somalian international waters becoming an "international free-for-all", with piracy off the coast of Somalia in particular being the subject of international attention
Social conditions
The international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières stated that the level of daily violence during this period was "catastrophic. A statistic from 2000 indicated that only 21% of the population had access to safe drinking water at that time, and Somalia had one of the highest child mortality rates in the world with 10% of children dying at birth