This book explores Samuel K. Doe's evolution of power in Liberia and the economic crises and political turmoil that ensued. Through primary sources and interviews with diplomats, politicians, and activists, Gershoni carefully details the timeline of Doe's rise to power and the lasting effects of his dictatorial legacy.

Development is stagnated, and poverty is widespread in Liberia because the Legislature is weak, corrupt and greedy, thereby pursuing self-interested agenda at the detriment of the general public. The Judiciary is also corrupt and subservient to the Executive, which dominates and controls state resources. This writer explains why the Legislature and Judiciary are weak, corrupt, inefficient and ineffective. He proposes how these dormant branches of government could become more effective and robust to curb presidential dominance by upholding the principle of checks and balances in Liberia's democracy. He also argues that mass illiteracy leads electorates to electing incompetent legislators. The writer further points out that widespread illiteracy undermines most of the citizens' capacity to critically and rationally analyse National Policies. Hence, they usually fail to hold their legislators or government accountable. The writer maintains that to alleviate poverty and transform Liberia into a developmental state, the Legislature needs to assume its role by becoming robust, efficient and effective. It must promulgate pro-poor laws and policies intended to alleviate widespread poverty. This will engender national development. He concludes that the National Legislature, through prudent budgetary allocation, needs to promote infrastructural development, the right to food, equitable access to quality education, healthcare, safe drinking water, and public housing.

Liberia, a small West African country that has been wracked by violence and civil war since 1989, seems a paradoxical place in which to examine questions of democracy and popular participation. Yet Liberia is also the oldest republic in Africa, having become independent in 1847 after colonization by an American philanthropic organization as a refuge for "Free People of Color" from the United States. Many analysts have attributed the violent upheaval and state collapse Liberia experienced in the 1980s and 1990s to a lack of democratic institutions and long-standing patterns of autocracy, secrecy, and lack of transparency. Liberia: The Violence of Democracy is a response, from an anthropological perspective, to the literature on neopatrimonialism in Africa. Mary H. Moran argues that democracy is not a foreign import into Africa but that essential aspects of what we in the West consider democratic values are part of the indigenous African traditions of legitimacy and political process. In the case of Liberia, these democratic traditions include institutionalized checks and balances operating at the local level that allow for the voices of structural subordinates (women and younger men) to be heard and be effective in making claims. Moran maintains that the violence and state collapse that have beset Liberia and the surrounding region in the past two decades cannot be attributed to ancient tribal hatreds or neopatrimonial leaders who are simply a modern version of traditional chiefs. Rather, democracy and violence are intersecting themes in Liberian history that have manifested themselves in numerous contexts over the years. Moran challenges many assumptions about Africa as a continent and speaks in an impassioned voice about the meanings of democracy and violence within Liberia.

Liberian Politics tells the fascinating story of Liberia's early nation-building efforts, its attempts to establish democracy, and the pivotal role played by African Americans in exporting the American democratic experiment to Liberia. The story of the rise of Africa's oldest democracy is told through the writings of J. Milton Turner, an African American diplomat who served in Liberia from 1871 to 1878. Turner's official diplomatic correspondence--superbly organized and edited by Walton, Rosser, and Stevenson--document Liberia's struggle to define its political institutions and processes. They chart Liberia's struggle to establish its relationship with the wider world and offer an intimate portrait of Turner's role as the agent of U.S. foreign policy in Liberia. A comparative study in the best tradition of Tocqueville and Myrdal, this pathbreaking work reveals the global dimensions of nineteenth-century African American politics and offers rich insight into the direction of early U.S. diplomacy in Africa.

Can a stable political order be established in Liberia in the aftermath of the collapse of governance and a period of pillage and carnage? Amos Sawyer draws deeply on his experience as head of state as he explores new ways of establishing constitutional foundations for democratic governance.

George Weah: Liberia's most celebrated world icon and elected president is on a mission. He positions himself to take on 170-year social inequality, economic, political, corrupt, and other institutional challenges of Liberia. Would Weah accomplishes his vision for Liberia?

Development is stagnated, and poverty is widespread in Liberia because the Legislature is weak, corrupt and greedy, thereby pursuing self-interested agenda at the detriment of the general public. The Judiciary is also corrupt and subservient to the Executive, which dominates and controls state resources. This writer explains why the Legislature and Judiciary are weak, corrupt, inefficient and ineffective. He proposes how these dormant branches of government could become more effective and robust to curb presidential dominance by upholding the principle of checks and balances in Liberia’s democracy. He also argues that mass illiteracy leads electorates to electing incompetent legislators. The writer further points out that widespread illiteracy undermines most of the citizens’ capacity to critically and rationally analyse National Policies. Hence, they usually fail to hold their legislators or government accountable. The writer maintains that to alleviate poverty and transform Liberia into a developmental state, the Legislature needs to assume its role by becoming robust, efficient and effective. It must promulgate pro-poor laws and policies intended to alleviate widespread poverty. This will engender national development. He concludes that the National Legislature, through prudent budgetary allocation, needs to promote infrastructural development, the right to food, equitable access to quality education, healthcare, safe drinking water, and public housing.

This work focuses on deeply embedded political values that are shared by the vast majority of Liberia's population. Its conclusions are that Liberian politics failed because of civil society's illiberal overemphasis on stability and order at the expense of tolerance and accountability.

The book examines how ex-combatants in post-war and peacebuilding settings engage in politics, as seen in the case of Liberia. The political mobilization of former combatants after war is often perceived as a threat, ultimately undermining the security and stability of the state. This book questions this simplified view and argues that understanding the political voice of former combatants is imperative. Their post-war role is not black and white; they are not just bad or good citizens, but rather engage in multiple political roles: spoilers, victims, disengaged, beneficiaries, as well as motivated and active citizens. By looking at the political attitudes and values of former combatants, and their understanding of how politics functions, the book sheds new light on the political reintegration of ex-combatants. It argues that political reintegration needs to be given serious attention at the micro-level, but also needs to be scrutinized in two ways: first, through the level of political involvement, which reflects the extent and width of the ex-combatants’ voice. Second, in order to make sense of political reintegration, we also need to uncover what values and norms inform their political involvement. The content of their political voice is captured through a comparison with democratic ideals. Based on interviews with over 100 Liberian ex-combatants, the book highlights that their relationship with politics overall should be characterized as an expression of a 'politics of affection'. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, African politics, democratization, political sociology, conflict resolution and IR/Security Studies in general.