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Jeremy I. Levitt. The Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia: From 'Paternaltarianism' to State Collapse. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. xvi + 257 pp. Maps. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $45.00. Cloth.
Amos Sawyer. Beyond Plunder: Toward Democratic Governance in Liberia. Boulder, CoIo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005. xiv + 201pp. Tables. References. Index. $49.95. Cloth.
Amos Sawyer, a seasoned Liberian scholar/activist, and Jeremy Levitt, a young African American scholar, contribute in their respective ways to setting the intellectual if not the political stage for governance reform in Liberia. The timeliness of both publications is evident as Liberia extricates itself from a quarter-century of war and dysfunctional governance. In a way, the two books complement one another. Levitt resurrects deadly conflicts in Liberian history to explain root causes of what he calls the "great war," the conflict of 1989-2003. Sawyer sees the roots of conflict in an overcentralized, autocratic, and predatory state. Each book has a prescriptive intent. Levitt advocates democratic inclusiveness as an antidote to "settler nationalism and authoritarianism," while Sawyer speaks of transformational change from a monocentric to a polycentric governance arrangement.
The Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia has a three-fold aim: to address "methodological weakness in conflict studies" as it looks at the origins of the Liberian civil war rather than examining the course of the war; to provide an alternative framework (i.e., to conflict studies literature) for understanding the dynamics of warfare in Liberia; and to offer the first comprehensive study of deadly conflict in Liberia. Levitt adopts a sociopolitical and institutional approach which posits that the "nature of preexisting regime shapes the dynamics and outcomes of political transition" (11-12). Consequently, he identifies and analyzes a "continuum of circular causation between the state of affairs that led to the founding of the Liberian state, the evolution of nationalism and authoritarianism, and deadly conflict" (85). Fifteen conflicts are examined in detail, with a secondary overview...