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Emerging Patterns in Liberia’s Post-Conflict Politics: Observations from the 2005 Elections

Authored by: Amos Sawyer

Categories: Statebuilding
Sub-Categories: Democratization and Political Participation, Political Transitions
Country: Liberia
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Year: 2008
Citation: Sawyer, Amos. "Emerging Patterns in Liberia's Post-Conflict Politics: Observations from the 2005 Elections." African Affairs 107, no. 427 (2008): 177-199. Accessed January 8, 2017. http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/427/177.short.

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Abstract

The 2005 elections were the first Liberian elections in over a century in which the political environment was controlled neither by the settler oligarchy nor, latterly, by the dictators Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor. Observers feared that the post-conflict environment was not conducive to holding elections and that a serious programme of reconciliation and constitutional reform should have preceded them. Nevertheless, elections were conducted with some degree of success, providing an opportunity to identify some emerging patterns in post-conflict Liberian politics. This article assesses some of the new or hitherto dormant institutions and processes that are likely to play a significant role in shaping Liberia's political order in the twenty-first century.