Timber Booms, State Busts: The political economy of Liberian timber

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 neo-liberal assumption that increased economic activity provides incentives for rulers to build stable institutions and to provide security to investors. Neo-liberal 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.