Limits of hybrid political orders: the case of Somaliland

Abstract

Hybrid political orders are in the literature discussed as a heuristic tool to understand how power and legitimacy are negotiated in settings where the Western model of the liberal democratic state does not work. Sometimes they are presented as an alternative model for successful statehood, e.g., by combining ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ political institutions. The Republic of Somaliland is frequently presented as functioning hybrid political order. A cornerstone for Somaliland's success was the integration of traditional authorities in government. These authorities engaged in peace-building and state formation in the early 1990s. Their role was institutionalized in the ‘House of Elders’, the upper house of parliament. This article argues that the hybrid political order of Somaliland has outlived its success. What is left at the beginning of the 21st century is an imbalanced and in many regards ‘crippled’ hybrid. It threatens democratic progress and undermines the authority and legitimacy of the state institutions as well as the leading traditional authorities in the region. These developments in Somaliland show the limits of hybrid political systems in general.

Keywords:

• hybrid political order
• legitimacy
• traditional authority
• state building
• Somaliland

Acknowledgements

This article benefitted from comments made by Helene Maria Kyed and two anonymous referees. The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology facilitated my long-term research in northern Somalia. This research would have been impossible without the generous assistance of many Somali informants and friends.

Notes

1. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered”; Boege et al., “On Hybrid Political Orders and Emerging States”; Clements, Traditional, Charismatic and Grounded Legitimacy; Kraushaar and Lambach, Hybrid Political Orders. Here I wish to clarify that I use the terms ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ as heuristic devices without implying normative judgements or any proposition about the ‘timelessness’ of tradition. They are used to make a distinction for the sake of analysis.

2. Clements, Traditional, Charismatic and Grounded Legitimacy, 13.

3. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered,” 48.

4. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered,”, 56; Clements, Traditional, Charismatic and Grounded Legitimacy, 5.

5. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered,” 47.

6. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered,”, 53; Kraushaar and Lambach, Hybrid Political Orders, 5.

7. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered,” 51–52.

8. Clements, Traditional, Charismatic and Grounded Legitimacy, 27–28.

9. Clements, Traditional, Charismatic and Grounded Legitimacy, 25.

10. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered,” 54.

11. Logan, “Selected Chiefs, Elected Councillors and Hybrid Democrats,” 103.

12. Logan, “Selected Chiefs, Elected Councillors and Hybrid Democrats,”, 103.

13. Logan, “Selected Chiefs, Elected Councillors and Hybrid Democrats,”, 123.

14.Logan, “Selected Chiefs, Elected Councillors and Hybrid Democrats,”, 123–124.

15. Clements et al., “State Building Reconsidered.”

16. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 159.

17. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 160–166.

18. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 167–178.

19. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 179–188.

20. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 157.

21. Lutz and Linder, Traditional Structures in Local Governance, 13.

22. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 166.

23. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 170.

24. Kurtz, Political Anthropology, 49.

25. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 157.

26. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 182–183.

27. For example, Lentz, “Chief, the Mine Captain and the Politician”; West and Kloeck-Jenson, “Betwixt and Between”; van Dijk and van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, “Introduction”; Englebert, “Patterns and Theories of Traditional Resurgence”; Englebert, “Back to the Future?”; Bierschenk and Olivier de Sardan, “Powers in the Village”; Nyamnjoh, “Our Traditions are Modern”; Fanthorpe, “On the Limits of Liberal Peace”; Oomen, Chiefs in South Africa; Gundel, Predicament of the “Oday”; Kyed and Buur, “Introduction”; Leonardi, “Violence, Sacrifice and Chiefship”; Kyed, “‘Traditional’ Leaders Formalization”; Valsecchi, “‘He who Sets the Boundary’”; Logan, “Selected Chiefs, Elected Councillors and Hybrid Democrats.”

28. For example, West and Kloeck-Jenson, “Betwixt and Between”; Fanthorpe, “On the Limits of Liberal Peace”; Ntsebetza, “Democratic Decentralisation and Traditional Authority.”

29. Renders, “Appropriate ‘Governance-Technology’?”; Bradbury, Becoming Somaliland; Jhazbhay, Somaliland; Walls, “Emergence of a Somali State.”

30. Jhazbhay, Somaliland, 19.

31. Hoehne, “From Pastoral to State Politics.”

32. Somali place and personal names in this text follow the Somali orthography (except if Somali authors themselves adopted an anglicized version of their names). The Latin ‘c’ stands for a sound close to the Arabic ‘ع’ (ayn); ‘x’ denotes ‘ح’ (ha), as in, for example, Laascaanood or in Faarax.

33. Lewis, Pastoral Democracy.

34. Reno, Somalia and Survival, 24.

35. Interviews by the author in Laascaanood, Ceerigaabo and Badhan, 2003 and 2004.

36. Renders, “Appropriate ‘Governance-Technology’”; Bradbury, Becoming Somaliland, ch. 4. In the following, Guurti with a capital ‘G’ refers to the ‘House of Elders’.

37. Gundel, Predicament of the “Oday”, 22–23.

38. Hoehne, “Mimesis and Mimicry in Dynamics of State.”

39. Interviews in Ceerigaabo and Laascaanood, August 2002 and October 2003.

40. This website was pro-Somaliland, but critical of the government. Its official aim was to offer ‘broad and non-biased information about Somaliland to Somalilanders’ (http://www.somaliland.org/aboutus.asp). Between 8 and 22 May 2006, more than 15 articles were published there, discussing the extension of the Guurti's term of office.

41. Ahmed, “Why the Debate.”

42. Ciabarri, “No Representation without Redistribution.”

43. Farah and Lewis, Somalia.

44. Baltasar, “Somaliland's Best Kept Secret.”

45. Hoehne, “Not Born as a De Facto State.”

46. Renders and Terlinden, “Negotiating Statehood in a Hybrid Political Order,” 184.

47. Renders and Terlinden, “Negotiating Statehood in a Hybrid Political Order,”, 189.

48. Hoehne, “Current Election Crisis in Somaliland.”

49. In the parliamentary elections (2005), during which ink was used to prevent multiple voting, only about 674,000 voters were counted.

50. Article 83(5) reads: ‘If on the expiry of the term of office of the President and the Vice-President, it is not possible, because of security considerations, to hold the election of the President and the Vice-President, the House of Elders shall extend their term of office whilst taking into consideration the period in which the problems can be overcome and the election can be held’ (added emphasis).

51. Hoehne, “Current Election Crisis in Somaliland”; Walls, Somaliland.

52. Terlinden, “Emerging Governance in Somaliland,” 54–59.

53. The following sections are based on my field notes and numerous interviews during my stay in Ceerigaabo. For a much more extensive version of these events, see Hoehne, No Easy Way Out.

54. Interview with Maxamuud Saalax Nuur Fagadhe in Ceerigaabo, April 27, 2004.

55. During a caleemo saar a new leader is covered with leaves and flowers, and in the old days was showered with camel milk as a symbol of fertility and prosperity (barwaaqo).

56. I did not hear of an Allah bari ceremony for Garaad Saleebaan Daahir Afqarshe.

57. Interview with Garaad Cabdullahi Maxamuud Guuleed in Ceerigabo, June 10, 2004.

58. Hansen, “Ambiguity of Khat in Somaliland.”

59. Interview with Garaad Saleebaan Daahir Afqarshe in Ceerigaabo, June 8, 2004.

60. Interview with Salebaan Daahir Afqarshe in Ceerigaabo, June 10, 2004.

61. Interview with Salebaan Daahir Afqarshe in Ceerigaabo, June 10, 2004.

62. Interview with Garaad Saleebaan Daahir Afqarshe in Ceerigaabo, June 8, 2004.

63. Hoehne, “From Pastoral to State Politics.”

64. Renders “Appropriate ‘Governance-Technology,’” 447; italics in the original.

65. Logan “Selected Chiefs, Elected Councillors and Hybrid Democrats,” 123.

66. Logan “Selected Chiefs, Elected Councillors and Hybrid Democrats,”, 103.

67. Moe, “Hybrid and ‘Everyday’ Political Ordering,” 169.

68. Moe, “Hybrid and ‘Everyday’ Political Ordering,”, 170.

69. Interview with Sheekh Aboqor in Ceerigaabo, May 12, 2004.

70. Clements, Traditional, Charismatic and Grounded Legitimacy, 27–28.