More on Somalian Anarchy

Brian Doherty | November 19, 2004

An addendum to Julian's post below about telecom in anarchic Somalia: this World Bank study has some qualified praise for various aspects of Somalian life:

To cope with the absence of the rule of law, private enterprises have been using foreign jurisdictions or institutions to help with some tasks, operating within networks of trust to strengthen property rights, and simplifying transactions until they require neither. Somalia's private
sector experience suggests that it may be easier than is commonly thought for basic systems of finance and some infrastructure services
to function where government is extremely weak or absent.

The short paper looks at not only telecom, but how Somali society deals with water, air travel, currency, and electricity. (In some cases, like using U.S. dollars, they could be seen as in effect free riding on government efforts elsewhere.) The paper does fault the lack of decent primary education and roads, but does not look on the stateless Somalis as a pure chaotic disaster.