A State is Born: Transport Infrastructure and Democracy in Somaliland

Résumé

Somaliland has recently developed an unexpected democracy after seceding from chaos-ridden Somalia, while turning its port of Berbera into a success story, competing successfully with the long established ones in the Horn of Africa. A simple game-theoretic model is used to explain why the home-grown democratic institutions that developed in Somaliland are a key factor in making Berbera a credible outlet for the external trade of neighboring landlocked Ethiopia. The model shows that redistributing some of the resources from this trade is a key condition for sustaining this efficient political equilibrium.