1.Introduction
This study presents the analysis of the historical errors of governance practices, its consequences and theaftermaths on the Liberian Society. It tries to explain the effect and relevance of the crowding effect on behavior in Public Management and pinpoints the conditions at hand from an economic governance spectrum projecting necessary remedies in adverting possible regression to war after 25yrs of sociopolitical instabilitiesand 14-yrs of civil war and promoting the inevitable transition to peace, prosperity and sustainabledevelopment. It suggests that corruption has become but an endemic ill-behavioral practice that can only besubstantially minimized through a vigorous combination of systemic approaches to reform steamed in thesocietal structural diversion from a low to a high-context culture built on the tenants of good-governance, bridging the present generational gap that persists as a challenge to current national development efforts, the behavioral refinement of future generations through the early cultivation of the tenants of nationalism andsocial responsibility, development of a strategy for public-private sectors engagements and collectiveresponsibility in national agenda setting and implementation and promoting communal participation andsustainable development through national integration.
2.Liberia: A failed state in perspective:
A.
Analysis of the Recent political-economic history
Practices and studies of governance around the world have shown that when there is good governance, thenatural resources (iron ore, gold, diamond, timber, etc) of a nation can be important stimuli for growth andsustainable development; while, when governance is bad, the misuse of these resources can lead to abject poverty, corruption, and consequently conflict. And this has been the case with Liberia ever since.Historical accounts reveal that at the beginning of the 19th century, groups of free-born blacks, freed slavesand mulattoes from the Americas immigrated to the west coast of Africa. In 1847, 25 years after the firstsuccessful colonization, they proclaimed an independent Republic, which they named Liberia, a land whichwas originally inhabited by natives of indigenous descant, but were denied citizenship and excluded fromactive participation in running the state of affairs of what came to be the “New and 1st African Republic”.Hence, the
1st fundamental governance and economic problem
was borne.As an immediate result of the above problem, the indigenous population vehemently rejected the settlers ontwo major accounts. First, they view them as aggressors who came to forcefully occupy their ancestral landand second, the indigenous perceived the presence of the new government as a form of renewed slavery asthey would be forced to abandon their original traditional form of governance and economic activities for eminent control as power would be relinquished to the strangers.
Threats of Existence and the Closed-Door Policy
The situation as accentuated above soon exposed the New State to two major threats which hampered her existence. Internally there were riots and wars staged by the indigenous population which the state had tocounter through expensive military actions. A foremost consequent was the deep social divide that permeatedthe early adhesive possibilities and eroded the capacity for national resilience which was required at the timein forging a common national agenda of the nation-state. This presented a significant lack of control of theinterior, preventing the exploitation of natural resources. Externally, the English, French and Portuguesemerchants who, supported by their governments, refused to acknowledge the political sovereignty of Liberia,evaded its import and export duties to a large extent but retained significant trading and economic activitieswith the indigenous population which was perceived by the New Republic as illegal and defiant to itssovereignty. Furthermore, during the last 25 years of the 19th century, external threats increased as the NewLiberian Nation witnessed the colonization of the areas surrounding the Republic by England and France.Specifically, since 1880, the political independence of Liberia was threatened by the increasing colonialimperialism of Europe. This, including the refusal on the part of European merchants to cooperate with thegovernment of the day was one of the reasons which motivated the New State to partially close the country toforeigners. Hence, foreign trade activities were limited by the “Ports of Entry” Law in 1864 to six areas alongthe coast. This protective policy was also based on the desire to safeguard the economic interests of the state.
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