Liberia’s ‘Guarantors of Instability’

MONROVIA, Liberia — I haven’t read Paul Collier’s new book, “Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places,” but I did catch Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth’s review in the Sunday Times. Sitting here in Monrovia, a chill went up my spine, because according to Roth/Collier, Liberia has many of the elements that are guarantors of instability: a weak press, poor performing legal structures, ineffectual civic institutions, high levels of corruption and extreme poverty. There is no doubt that the Sirleaf government is legitimate, even in the eyes of its harshest critics. Its big test, however, will come […]