Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Timber Booms, State Busts: The Political Economy of Liberian Timber
Author:Johnston, PatrickISNI
Year:2004
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:31
Issue:101
Period:September
Pages:441-456
Language:English
Geographic term:Liberia
Subjects:civil wars
foreign investments
economic development
economic policy
wood industry
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Politics and Government
Economics and Trade
External links:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305624042000295530
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=TC5Q77JXW8C733KWDRFK
Abstract:This article places the political economy of Liberian timber in the context of the theory of State failure. It explores the relationship between private investment, State failure and war, highlighting how Charles Taylor exploited timber concessions to foreign firms as a proxy for effective State institutions in Liberia. It examines the reasons why foreign investment - particularly in Liberia's timber industry - prolonged the civil war and destroyed the country's formal economy. And it challenges the neoliberal assumption that increased economic activity provides incentives for rulers to build stable institutions and provide security to investors. Neoliberal prescriptions coupled with a changing global economy produced no incentive for Charles Taylor, a faction leader from 1989 and Liberia's president from 1997 until exile in 2003, to attempt to develop State institutions or to prevent the collapse of the formal economy. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
Views
Cover