Another interesting discussion of Somalia is in the comments here, http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=975#comments , where Eric discusses how Somalia isn’t as bad as he would have expected given what he had previously thought the necessary prerequisites for a successful anarchy to be.
Doesn’t Somalia simply have lots of mini-dictators in the form of local warlords and strongmen, instead of actual anarchy? In other words, something more like the feudalism that evolved in Europe after the fall of Rome, or Japan’s Warring States period? (At least, that’s what I’d assume you’d have, in the absence of a central authority: lots of little, local authorities.)
The blog post makes it sound like it cherry-picks 1991 “the last year of government” as representative of government, when it’s the last year of war, and thus the conditions one would expect to be worst. Actually, the article acknowledges that rebellion broke out in 1988, but it still averages 1985-1990 as five years of government.
Surprised no one linked to this yet on Somalia.
Another interesting discussion of Somalia is in the comments here, http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=975#comments , where Eric discusses how Somalia isn’t as bad as he would have expected given what he had previously thought the necessary prerequisites for a successful anarchy to be.
Doesn’t Somalia simply have lots of mini-dictators in the form of local warlords and strongmen, instead of actual anarchy? In other words, something more like the feudalism that evolved in Europe after the fall of Rome, or Japan’s Warring States period? (At least, that’s what I’d assume you’d have, in the absence of a central authority: lots of little, local authorities.)
The blog post makes it sound like it cherry-picks 1991 “the last year of government” as representative of government, when it’s the last year of war, and thus the conditions one would expect to be worst. Actually, the article acknowledges that rebellion broke out in 1988, but it still averages 1985-1990 as five years of government.