Professional Documents
Culture Documents
William Reno
Abstract: This essay explains why political order in some places gives way to especially persistent conflict
and prolonged state institutional collapse. State failure is rooted in decades of personalist rule, as leaders
have sought to fragment and disorganize institutions and social groups that they thought would be possi-
ble bases of opposition. This problem was considered particular to sub-Saharan Africa, but now parts of
the Middle East and Central Asia exhibit this connection between a particular type of authoritarian rule
and state failure. State failure in these countries produces multisided warfare that reflects the fragmenta-
tion upon which prewar regimes relied for their protection. Policy-makers are thus faced with the dilem-
ma of propping up personalist regimes that present themselves as bulwarks against disorder at the same
time that their domestic strategies of governance play a central role in creating the conditions of protracted
multisided warfare in the event that they fail.
139
Fictional Fifty years on, the situation in these coun- for rebels to push aside and out-govern the
States & tries is bleak. Liberia’s public health system fragmented and weak incumbent regimes.
Atomized
Public collapsed in the face of the 2014 Ebola epi- But actually, the condition of state failure
Spheres demic, despite more than a decade of inten- produces a distinct type of persistent war-
sive international assistance that followed fare in which many armed groups fight one
the country’s fourteen-year civil war. Sys- another, focusing more on controlling so-
temic failure in Liberia should not be con- cial and commercial networks than on just
fused with disorganized and corrupt ad- ruling particular territories. The armies
ministration. For example, Nigeria’s pub- of these failed states dissolve into militias
lic health service demonstrated the sort of that behave very much like the fragmented
capacity to participate in the shared global rebel forces. Usually there is a prominent
processes that Paul Wise and Michele Bar- role for roving armed groups that plunder
ry identify as critical for dealing with pan- resources. Various external nonstate ac-
demic threats.4 The service was able to lim- tors, including in illicit commercial net-
it the virus’s spread to nineteen confirmed works, play important roles in the strate-
cases (the first being a Liberian diplomat gies of competing armed groups. Civilians
fleeing the epidemic in his home country), are exposed to violence from these multi-
despite the government’s overall poor repu- ple sources, usually resulting in mass dis-
tation for inefficiency and corruption.5 So- placement.
malia, perhaps Africa’s most ethnically ho- This essay explains how and why polit-
mogenous country, has not had an effective ical order in some places gives way to es-
central government since 1991. The Fund pecially persistent conflict and prolonged
for Peace’s Fragile States Index (previous- state institutional collapse. This explana-
ly the Failed States Index) labeled Somalia tion focuses on the domestic factors that
the world’s most failed state for seven of its lead some states to break down. Break-
twelve rankings from 2005 to 2016.6 The down is rooted in decades of personalist
Congo, host to the world’s largest peace- rule and the failure of mid-twentieth-cen-
keeping mission after a deal in 2002 that tury state-building projects, long consid-
was supposed to end a six-year civil war, ered particular to sub-Saharan Africa. De-
was described as exercising “minimal cen- velopments in parts of the Middle East and
tral government control over large parts of Central Asia, however, show that this con-
the national territory, poor transportation nection between a particular type of author-
and electricity infrastructure, challenging itarian rule and state failure that produces a
terrain, and protracted local conflicts.”7 particular type of warfare are not exclusive
The conflicts that accompany these col- to Africa. These conflicts are outgrowths of
lapses of state administration do not fit the failure of high-modernist state-building
classic twentieth-century conceptions of projects as rulers turned away from the ear-
rebel wars in which rebels devote consid- lier institutional bases of political order, re-
erable attention and resources to build- lying instead on personalist networks that
ing a “liberated zone” controlled by their would play critical roles in the character of
alternative government while they fight the warfare to come.
their way from the periphery of the coun-
try to the capital. These three failed states Most rulers, particularly those govern-
and a growing list of others would seem to ing divided populations with legacies of
be easy targets for rebels who wanted to es- political violence, readily understand the
tablish their own zones of governance. At simple paradox of civil-military relations.
least it seems that it would not be difficult They realize that creating an armed force
140 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
protects against outside armed challenges, cal juncture occurred in Somalia in 1978 af- William
but that the ambitions of the members of ter the country’s president survived a coup Reno
this armed force also represent a threat.8 attempt among officers embittered by the
Through the second half of the twentieth Somali army’s defeat in a failed irredentist
century, rulers of independent states in effort to unite all ethnic Somalis in a single
sub-Saharan Africa experienced the reali- state. The president cast aside the pretens-
ties of this risk. Between 1956 and 2001, all es of a socialist-inspired development proj-
but six of the region’s forty-eight countries ect and a strong army that would unite all
had experienced military interventions into Somalis, doubling down instead on build-
politics. Successful coups occurred in thir- ing patronage networks that he would pit
ty countries (62.5 percent of the total), and against each other as they competed for
eighteen (37.5 percent) experienced multi- his favor.
ple successful coups.9 Economist Paul Col- Bonds of dependence via personal or fam-
lier has noted that coups tend to legitimate ily ties and shady business offer rulers less
further coups, and that “societies can col- risky means to manage the ambitions of
lapse into political black holes of repeated military officers, state officials, and other
regime change generated from within the important individuals. State institutions
army.”10 Since coups, whether successful are still needed, but more as a façade to
or not, often result in the death of the in- draw in foreign aid, loans, and the support
cumbent leader, this risk tends to be taken of diplomatic partners, and as platforms to
seriously indeed. launch and shield insider deals, as Stephen
Prudent rulers recognize that their own Biddle observes in his essay in this volume.11
survival might require them to undermine Skillful manipulation of these prerogatives
the formal institutions of the military that of state sovereignty generates the resourc-
they also need for protection. This fear of es that the ruler needs to buy the support
the ambitions of skillful subordinates may of those whose cooperation is necessary,
extend to other state institutions, particu- such as individuals who control resources
larly ones that are critical to providing ser- in their own right or who have powerbases
vices to citizens. Determined politicians within their own communities. The status
and civil servants might use these resourc- as leader of a sovereign state gives the rul-
es to build their own powerbases from er the capacity to enforce laws selectively,
which to launch challenges against the in- to label those who fall out of favor as cor-
cumbent leadership. In short, the state in- rupt and subject them to prosecution while
stitutions that the ruler requires to further shielding those who were more favored
the process of what one used to call mod- from prosecution. Governments that are
ernization can become the most immedi- run in this manner can become a focus of
ate threats to the ruler’s political and even concern from foreign security officials,
physical survival. Some rulers ignored or such as when rulers go so far as to provide
minimized this risk, preferring instead to international criminals with passports and
focus on building state capacities in a bet shield financial transactions. This can al-
that efficient state institutions and grow- low them to garner more resources and ex-
ing prosperity would translate into popu- tend control of economic opportunities to
lar legitimacy soon enough to protect the include those in the illicit realm in an ef-
regime. But the shock of a coup or uprising fort to limit the options and increase the
that nearly topples the regime often marks dependence of political clients.
a decisive shift from building state institu- By the 1980s, Liberia’s system of per-
tions to undermining them. One such criti- sonalist rule had become the center of
142 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
ing in this light that many of the leaders double as enforcers and operatives in their William
of armed groups in Somalia, the Congo, bosses’ shady illicit commercial pursuits. Reno
and Liberia in the 1990s had previous ca- In most cases, this threat of violence across
reers as government ministers and busi- broad political and economic dimensions
ness partners of former presidents. They that intrude into people’s everyday lives
are not rebels in the old sense of fighting makes everyone less secure and prompts
to construct alternative systems of gover- them to appeal to elements of these same
nance to challenge the state. The focus of personalist networks for protection. This
their fighting is the control of the networks parochialization of political contention and
of power that sustained the old personalist the intentional fostering of insecurity offer
regime. In this regard, the conflicts that ac- rulers opportunities to turn what normal-
company state failure are more violent ver- ly would be private and even personal ten-
sions of the politics that preceded the col- sions of limited concern to a bureaucratic
lapse of a centralized personalist order. The state into a powerful tool to disrupt societal
patterns of violence in these conflicts also capacities to act collectively. This is a crucial
reflect the distinctive exercise of authori- paradox of failed and failing states: Their
ty in these precollapse political systems.19 political systems are very bad at perform-
ing tasks conventionally associated with the
Patron-client politics is not enough to en- state, such as providing security and basic
sure political survival, particularly in poor services. At the same time, these political
countries where governments do not have systems are very good at interfering in even
enough resources to buy off supporters. minor details of people’s lives. They sweep
Selective applications of violence and di- up otherwise private or intensely local rival-
vide-and-rule tactics help to drive down the ries and disputes, turning them into points
costs of patronage. Paradoxically, this vio- of tension that rulers manipulate to under-
lence does not have to come from the top mine cooperation. These parochial divides,
of the political hierarchy to be effective. along with the flow of resources in person-
It is even more effective if the ruler’s sub- alist networks, poison efforts to organize
ordinates are allowed to exercise violence peaceful and violent political opposition
for their own purposes. The delegation of alike, as they are intended to do. This po-
the exercise of violence in this manner is litical context also helps to further explain
very different from using effective securi- why the armed groups in conflicts associat-
ty forces to forcefully repress challengers. ed with state collapse appear to be so frag-
The critical benefit to the ruler is that this mented.
alternative political strategy undermines This instrumental use of privatized vio-
the capacity for those who wield violence lence appeared in Sierra Leone through the
to cooperate among themselves. This po- 1970s. Paramilitary groups under the con-
litical strategy also atomizes the wider soci- trol of politicians emerged in force in allu-
ety, which undermines the ability of leaders vial diamond mining areas of that coun-
from outside of this political establishment try. These politicians enjoyed the protec-
to mobilize social movements or build an tion of then-President Siaka Stevens to set
armed alternative political force. up mining operations in partnership with
Violence in these settings often takes the Lebanese merchants in defiance of official
form of politician partnerships with crim- regulations and to smuggle diamonds with
inal gangs. Gangs that politicians use as impunity. The president expected these
vigilante forces to defend their supporters politicians to use these paramilitaries,
and to assert claims against local rivals can which doubled as diamond-digging gangs,
144 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
instruments to fragment otherwise threat- nature of this fragmentation is reflected in William
ening political environments.27 the finding that conflict agents other than Reno
Violence during Kenya’s 2007 election government and rebel forces accounted for
led to the deaths of more than one thou- about 25 to 30 percent of violent acts in Af-
sand people in the Rift Valley area and dis- rica’s conflicts in the mid- to late 1990s–
placed up to half a million people, adding already a significant proportion–and in-
to the estimated three hundred fifty thou- creased to about half of all violent acts two
sand people who were still displaced from decades later.31
earlier violence.28 An official inquiry into The reality of the failing and failed state
these events noted that the “gangs are de- political environment is one of multitudes
void of ideology and operate on a willing of violent local tensions that poison larger
seller basis. Given the hierarchical nature political organizations from within. This is
of gangs and the upward mobile hopes of manifest in the proliferation of a series of
their members to become as well off as their segmented and competing armed groups,
leaders, youth can be mobilized for a vari- usually rooted in increasingly rigid ethnic
ety of reasons.”29 Subsequent investigation or narrowing kinship identities, the very
points to deeper and more durable effects presence of which is designed to inhibit
of this political strategy on Kenyans. The attempts to organize broad-based polit-
cycle of electoral ordeals reduces Kenyans’ ical opposition. In addition to providing
desire to hold elections, makes them more the contours of how political order will
likely to identify in ethnic terms, and more fragment in the event that the central au-
likely to accept the use of violence in sup- thority collapses, this situation creates a
port of what one considers a just cause.30 deep-rooted social (dis)order that is the
These findings suggest that particular polit- common critical element that defines con-
ical strategies, rather than degrees of pover- temporary state failure and the character
ty or latent hatreds, are drivers of conflict, of violence that accompanies this failure.
and that ethnic fragmentation is a conse-
quence rather than a cause of this violence Effective broad-based armed opposition
in the first instance. requires areas that are socially insulat-
This fragmented exercise of violence ed from the incumbent regime’s control.
on the part of multiple competing armed These social spaces are where movements
groups that participate in Africa’s conflicts are built to mobilize populations that will
is a by-product of the strategies of precon- harbor and support rebels. But the disper-
flict personalist authority. Gone are the sal of the exercise of violence and incorpo-
classic rebels who fight the incumbent ration of parochial conflicts into personal-
government while administering “liberat- ist systems of political control intrudes into
ed zones,” in which rebel leaders are able to this social space, even if the formal insti-
build their social control of civilians, co-opt tutional capacity of a state is very weak or
local notables, discipline their own fighters, even absent. These tactics of governance in
and chase away or kill their armed rivals. failed and failing states severely limit pub-
That model of rebel governance is difficult lic space in which people can debate and or-
to organize in the contemporary fragment- ganize between the regime, the politicized
ed environment. Agents of conflict now in- economy (including its illicit sectors), and
clude many more competing armed gangs the ordinary household. Activists have to
attached to various politician-patrons, operate amidst the instrumental mobiliza-
communal militias, vigilantes, and armed tion and the politicization of community di-
illicit commercial actors. The pervasive visions that tend to intrude into their orga-
146 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
ward what they called the “mental slavery” of parochial conflicts appeared in commu- William
of their previous associations with politi- nities that had histories of opposing the pre- Reno
cians and their struggles was part of a search collapse regimes in Somand Libya. In these
for a distinct political narrative that would cases, too, many of the most prominent
supersede the violent ethnic divisions that “warlords” in the conflicts that followed
had become such a prominent element of state collapse were drawn from the ranks
the country’s existing political system.37 In- of those who appropriated and built upon
sulation from and mastery of this social en- their favored positions in commercial net-
vironment proved to be beyond the capacity works and in regime-sanctioned communal
of this leadership, as opportunities in petty violence to field armed groups of their own.
crime and protection rackets continued to
draw Mungiki members to collude with the The social atomization of failed and fail-
politicians who shielded these and larger ing states shows how the recession of the
criminal pursuits. This failure of the Ken- formal institutions of the state does not
yan group to escape the gravitational pull of simply leave ungoverned spaces in its wake.
this crime-politics nexus suggests that the The dense networks of personalist political
risks of radicalization may be overstated, systems occupy that social space: ungov-
such that many would-be jihadist groups ernable in a conventional sense, but an im-
collapse back into this degenerative polit- portant element of a political system that is
ical milieu before they can pose a serious based upon using indirect means of domi-
threat. nation to limit peoples’ capacities to orga-
The failed and failing state pattern of so- nize politically. These regime strategies also
cial fragmentation endures after the col- highlight how what seem like flare-ups of
lapse of central authority. This effect tends ancient and recurrent ethnic or sectarian
to be strongest in the communities that conflicts really are intended consequences
bore the brunt of the precollapse regime’s of the instrumental use of violence by fail-
most intense suspicions, and thus the ing state regimes. It is more accurate to por-
most concerted efforts to undermine col- tray the parochial bases of these conflicts
lective action at the broadest social level. as “neotraditional,” in line with the dom-
The eastern regions of the Congo, host to inant discourses to define group interests,
several armed rebellions against Mobutu’s rather than actual holdovers from the past.
rule in the 1960s, provide such an example. This alternative system of governance can
Through the years of the Mobutu regime maintain what seems like a significant mea-
(1965–1997), particularly as domestic and sure of stability, at least so long as a ruler
foreign pressures for political reforms grew, is able to uphold coordinated control over
Mobutu intensified his instigation of local these disparate and contending elements.
disputes over land tenure and the rights of At first glance, these regimes may seem
citizenship. He took particular care to se- much like any other authoritarian regime.
lectively empower and then shift his sup- But the internal workings of these regimes
port for local strongmen who would use vi- differ from old-style authoritarian regimes
olence in ways that would widen these paro- that rely upon capable institutions to sup-
chial divides and ensure their centrality in press political challenges. Old-style author-
politics. These strongmen featured prom- itarians are less inclined to create the kinds
inently among the leaders of armed “reb- of webs of insecurity and dependency that
els” that dominated the region after the characterize failed and failing state regime
fall of Mobutu’s regime. Similar patterns strategies. Their institutional strategy, how-
of intense politicization and militarization ever, leaves more ground for insurgencies
148 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
prolonged violence. Mobutu warned for- er. The death or the ouster of the ruler cre- William
eign officials who pressured him to hold ates a free-for-all as the different armed el- Reno
democratic elections: Après moi, le déluge. ements of these networks compete to rene-
No doubt Mobutu reflected on the dan- gotiate their places in this hierarchy and to
gers of empowering subordinate members gain more exclusive control over resourc-
of patronage networks to challenge their es, with the possibility of violent stale-
central patron. The sudden introduction mate. These problems should give pause to
of competitive elections in this setting is a state-builders, particularly when conven-
powerful accelerant of instability, as some tional solutions such as democratic elec-
have observed.39 Tanja Börzel and Sonja tions and institutional reform risk sparking
Grimm highlight similar negative conse- multisided conflict. The historical solution
quences of poorly thought-out democratic to this problem is to routinize these person-
reforms in the Western Balkans.40 This sit- al connections so that they survive the rul-
uation leaves foreign officials and local ac- er’s demise. Because generational succes-
tivists with a quandary of whether to sup- sion maintains continuity in the control of
port risky elections or support a dictator personalist networks and thus reduces un-
who has created what is a very dangerous certainty, monarchy makes sense in this sit-
situation in the long run but is a guarantor uation. This may explain why republican
of a rough stability in the short run. monarchies appear as features of the con-
What are the future prospects of seem- temporary political landscape. Gabon and
ingly stable regimes that employ tactics Togo, for example, saw sons of presidents
such as the decentralization of violence assume office after the deaths of their pres-
alongside insider networks, including in idents-for-life, as did Syria when Bashar
illicit commerce to disrupt collective ac- Hafez al-Assad became president in 2000
tion through the promotion of intense so- after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad,
cial fragmentation? To the extent that these president since 1971. Republican monarchi-
precollapse patterns are prominent features cal lineages can include daughters. This is
of political life in Central Asian countries, suspected to be the intention of Nursultan
these countries may face a risk sudden col- Nazarbayev, the current president of Ka-
lapse and protracted conflict like those in zakhstan, a man who came to power un-
Somalia, the Congo, and Libya. The rulers der very different circumstances in 1989 as
of these countries are allergic to the institu- First Secretary of the Communist Party of
tions of their own states and tend to favor the Kazakh ssr.
personalist networks. They exercise author- Monarchism is small comfort for those
ity through controlling people’s access to who worry about the collapse of authori-
economic opportunities and, in some cases, tarian regimes of the type discussed in this
manipulating community tensions while essay. Gaddafi’s effort to groom a son to in-
preserving presidential roles as arbiter. herit the residential office in Libya did not
A nonviolent transition from failed state work as planned, for example. Most peo-
politics is very difficult, given the overlap- ple really are not that enamored with mon-
ping and fragmented nature of armed net- archies, at least not with new ones, in an
works and the danger to rulers of build- age in which people expect to have some
ing strong institutions that are able to rein choice about who leads them. The genie of
them in. Anxieties about leadership suc- popular sovereignty is hard to put back in
cession plague these regimes, as stabili- the bottle. The difficulty of implementing
ty rests increasingly on the networks and even this unconventional (from a contem-
personal discretion of the incumbent rul- porary perspective) state-building strategy
endnotes
1 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Liberia: Growth with Development, Re-
port No. 426a-lbr (Washington, D.C.: International Bank for Reconstruction and Develop-
ment, 1975), i.
2 David Laitin, “The Political Economy of Military Rule in Somalia,” Journal of Modern African
Studies 14 (3) (September 1976): 455.
3 Jean-Claude Willame, Patrimonialism and Political Change in the Congo (Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 1972), 133.
4 Paul H. Wise and Michele Barry, “Civil War & the Global Threat of Pandemics,” Dædalus 146
(4) (Fall 2017).
5 Mary Moran, “Surviving Ebola: The Epidemic and Political Legitimacy in Liberia,” Current
History 114 (772) (May 2014): 179.
6 Fund for Peace, Fragile States Index, http://fsi.fundforpeace.org/.
7 Alexis Arieff, Democratic Republic of Congo: Background and U.S. Policy (Washington, D.C.: Con-
gressional Research Service, 2014), 7.
8 Peter D. Feaver, “Civil-Military Relations,” Annual Review of Political Science 2 (1999): 211–241.
9 Patrick McGowan, “African Military Coups d’État, 1956–2001: Frequency, Trends, and Dis-
tribution,” Journal of Modern African Studies 41 (3) (September 2003): 345.
10 Paul Collier, Coup Traps: Why Does Africa have so many Coups d’État? (Oxford: Centre for the Study
of African Economics, Oxford University, 2005), 3.
11 Stephen
Biddle, “Building Security Forces & Stabilizing Nations: The Problem of Agency,”
Dædalus 146 (4) (Fall 2017).
12 Vanda
Felbab-Brown, “Organized Crime, Illicit Economies, Civil Violence & International
Order: More Complex Than You Think,” Dædalus 146 (4) (Fall 2017).
13 “Liberia: Towards Collapse,” Africa Confidential, April 10, 1985.
14 United States Agency for International Development, Final Report of the Liberia Economic Sta-
bilization Support Project (Washington, D.C.: usaid, 1989), http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/
PDABP324.pdf.
15 United Nations Security Council, Midterm Report of the Panel of Experts on Liberia Submitted Pursu-
ant to Paragraph 5 (b) of Security Council Resolution 2128 (2013), April 25, 2014, 20.
16 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “Transnational Organized Crime in West Africa: A Threat
Assessment,” press release, February 25, 2013, http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases
/2013/February/transnational-organized-crime-continues-to-affect-vulnerable-west-african
-countries-says-new-unodc-report.html; and Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, “The Sting: An Ameri-
can Drugs Bust in West Africa,” The Guardian, March 17, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/
world/2015/mar/17/the-sting-american-drugs-bust-liberia.
17 Mark Shaw, “Drug Trafficking in Guinea-Bissau, 1998–2014: The Evolution of an Elite Pro-
tection Network,” Journal of Modern African Studies 53 (3) (September 2015): 339–364.
18 Adam Nossiter, “Leader Ousted, Nation Not a Drug Haven,” The New York Times, November
1, 2015.
150 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
19 This finding is explored in greater detail in Stephen Heydemann, “Civil War, Economic Gov- William
ernance & State Reconstruction in the Arab Middle East,” Dædalus 147 (1) (Winter 2018). Reno
20 “Sierra Leone: The Unending Chaos,” Africa Confidential, October 20, 1982.
21 Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument (Oxford: James
Currey, 1999).
22 Jimmy Kandeh, “Ransoming the State: Elite Origins of Subaltern Terror in Sierra Leone,” Re-
view of African Political Economy 26 (81) (1999): 349–366.
23 Lanre Adeleke, “The Attack Was Sponsored,” Tell, July 26, 1999.
24 “Resurgence of Campus Cults,” Daily Times [Lagos], June 29, 2004.
25 Human Rights Watch, Criminal Politics: Violence, “Godfathers” and Corruption in Nigeria (New York:
Human Rights Watch, 2007).
26 Quoted in Mwangi Kagwanja, Killing the Vote: State Sponsored Violence and Flawed Elections in Kenya
(Nairobi: Kenya Human Rights Commission, 1998), 10.
27 David Anderson, “Vigilantes, Violence and the Politics of Public Order in Kenya,” African Af-
fairs 101 (405) (2002): 531–555.
28 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Displaced Populations Report,
no. 3, January–June 2008, 2.
29 Republic of Kenya, Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence [The Waki Report] (Nairobi:
Government Printer, 2008), 35.
30 Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero, “An Inquiry into the Use of Illegal Electoral Practices and Effects
of Political Violence and Vote-Buying,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58 (8) (2014): 1500–1527.
31 Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, “Proportional Violence by Conflict Agent,
Africa, 1997–2016,” http://www.acleddata.com/trend-2-agents-of-violence-in-2016/.
32 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Report of The United Na-
tions Joint Human Rights Office on Human Rights Violations committed by Agents of the PNC during Oper-
ation Likofi in Kinshasa between 15 November 2013 and 15 February 2014 (Geneva: Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2014).
33 Krossy Mavakala Kalunseviko, Etude de la perception du phénomène Kuluna par les habitants de la
commune de Kinshasa (Kinshasa: UPN-CEPRISE, 2013).
34 Pierre Boisselet, “rd Congo: lefoot, ce business politique, ” Jeune Afrique, August 20, 2016,
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/mag/347186/politique/rd-congo-foot-business-politique/.
35 Freedom House, “Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa),” in Freedom in the World, 2016
(Washington, D.C.: Freedom House, 2016), https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom
-world/2016/congo-democratic-republic-kinshasa.
36 James Scott, “Revolution in the Revolution: Peasants and Commissars,” Theory and Society 7
(1) (January 1979): 97–134.
37 Margaret Gecaga, “Religious Movements and Democratization in Kenya: Between the Sacred
and Profane,” in Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy, ed. Godwin Murunga and Shadrock Nasong’o
(London: Zed Books, 2007), 80–81.
38 Clint Watts, Jacob Shapiro, and Vahid Brown, Al-Qaida’s (Mis)Adventures in the Horn of Africa
(West Point, N.Y.: Combating Terrorism Center, 2007).
39 Paul Collier, Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places (New York: Harper Perenni-
al, 2007); and Jack Snyder, From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (New
York: W. W. Norton, 2000).
40 Tanja A. Börzel and Sonja Grimm, “Building Good (Enough) Governance in Postconflict So-
cieties & Areas of Limited Statehood: The European Union & the Western Balkans,” Dædalus
147 (1) (Winter 2018).
146 (4) Fall 2017 151