Somalia: A case where Libertarian ideals have failed?

It’s difficult to say how the Somalia as a libertarian paradise meme started, but suffice to say, it’s been spread around quite a bit. However, Somalia has a long history of being controlled by imperialist and tyrannical interests. Even still, when Somalia did finally end up in a state of anarchy in 1991, there were marked improvements in key social and economic indicators.

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Somilia: A case where Libertarian ideals have failed? This is definitely the rhetoric I hear from supporters of big government. However, if you do some quick research, you’ll find out that Somalia is not a libertarian state by choice but by consequence. First, let’s look at the climate conditions in Somalia. Somalia has rainy seasons and dry seasons, yet even with the rainy seasons, the total amount of rainfall is low. This makes agriculture very difficult in the region. Of course advanced technologies can mitigate this under the right circumstances. Next, if we look at the past hundred years or so, we can see that Somalia has been ruled by foreign nations being tossed around from leadership to leadership due to wars. It wasn’t until the early 70s that Somalia gained a stable self governance. However this was possibly not for the best. Somalia came under rule of a national socialist dictator named Siad Barre. In order to keep control under a socialist regime, he suppressed the populations freedoms and that life continued until 1991 when a rebellion threw the country into civil war. That civil war has not ended to this day, and so Somalia has no central government not because the Somalians decided to remove government, but because no central government can survive under the constant civil war. ** Edit: As another poster noted, most Somalis are nomads, which is another reason why the government is pretty much nonexistent. Nomadic tribes generally don’t have central leadership but instead at most tribal leaders.

I feel that it’s required that I put this post here even though it’s on my old Tumblr blog. So often when I’m discussing the benefits of a decentralized government over that of a national government I come across the argument of Somalia. The argument used is that Somalia is a pure libertarian state and since it’s not successful libertarian philosophy must be wrong.

Well is it wrong?

This is definitely the rhetoric I hear from supporters of big government. However, if you do some quick research, you’ll find out that Somalia is not a libertarian state by choice but by consequence.

Environment

First, let’s look at the environmental conditions in Somalia. Somalia has rainy seasons and dry seasons, yet even with the rainy seasons, the total amount of rainfall is low. This makes agriculture very difficult in the region. To cope with such conditions, most of Somalia has been, at least traditionally, nomadic.

Imperialism

Next, if we look at the past hundred years or so, we can see that Somalia has been ruled by foreign nations and has been tossed around from leadership to leadership due to imperialism and warfare. It wasn’t until the early 70s that Somalia gained a stable self governance.

Tyranny

However this was possibly not for the best. Somalia came under rule of a national socialist dictator named Siad Barre. In order to keep control under a socialist regime, he suppressed the populations freedoms and that life continued until 1991 when a rebellion threw the country into civil war. To some extent, that civil war has not ended to this day. Somalia does have a makeshift government, which was established in 2000.

Improvement under Anarchy

So we can see that Somalia has never been a “libertarian paradise” and never achieved a stateless system by choice. However, it is important to note that during its brief period of statelessness, Somalia’s economic and social condition did indeed improve! According to Peter T. Leeson, while all indicators remained low, as was typical of least developed nations like Somalia, 14 of the 18 key development indicators showed marked improvement.

Well is it wrong?

Environment

Imperialism

Tyranny

Improvement under Anarchy

Further Reading