Somalilandsun: Somalia is a country of two realities: the internationally recognized Federal Republic of Somalia and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland. While the Federal Republic endures chronic instability and unrest, Somaliland has established security, economic growth, and a functioning government.
But Why has Somaliland managed to achieve a rudimentary level of stability and prosperity, when the Somalia Federal Republic continues to struggle?
A rich literature – initially developed in the field of economics – attributes differences in long-run economic development to variation in colonial empires, legal regimes, or relative levels of institutional inclusivity in colonial contexts.
To situate the evident contemporary political and economic disparity across Somaliland and Somalia within this broader literature, a study by Oliver McPherson-Smith a doctoral candidate in politics at the University of Oxford, argues that
“The colonial-era institutions across the two territories were fundamentally different in their level of inclusivity and intensity.
While British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland are both inhabited by an ethnic Somali majority in adjacent territories, the two regions were subjected to colonization by two very different empires before their unification in 1960.
British Somaliland formed part of the British empire between 1884 and 1960, while the rest of Somalia was ruled by Italy between 1889 to 1941 as Italian Somaliland and from 1950 to 1960 as the Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian Administration.
Continue reading Better Off Alone: Somaliland, Institutional Legacy, and Prosperity
