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Military Patrimonialism and Child Soldier Clientalism in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean Civil Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

William P. Murphy
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Abstract:

This article uses a Weberian model of patrimonialism to analyze clientalist and “staff” roles of child soldiers in the military regimes of the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It thereby examines institutional aspects of child soldier identity and behavior not addressed in other standard models of child soldiers as coerced victims, revolutionary idealists, or delinquent opportunists. It shifts analytical attention from nation-state patrimonialism to the patrimonial dimensions of rebel regimes. It locates child soldiers within a social organization of domination and reciprocity based on violence structured through patronage ties with military commanders. It identifies child soldier “staff” functions within the administration of a patrimonial regime. A Weberian focus on the institutionalization and strategies of domination and dependency provides a corrective to views that exoticize child soldiers, decontextualize their behavior, or essentialize their “youth” as an explanatory principle.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Dans cet article, nous utilisons un modèle wéberien de patrimonialisme afin d'analyser les rôles clientélistes et “l'emploi” tenu par les enfants soldats au sein des régimes militaires des guerres civiles au Libéria et en Sierra Leone. Nous examinons ainsi les aspects institutionnels de l'identité et du comportement de l'enfant soldat qui ne sont pas abordés dans d'autres modèles traditionnels de l'enfant soldat, en tant que victime forcée, idéaliste révolutionnaire, ou opportuniste délinquant. Nous détournons l'attention de l'analyse du patrimonialisme d'étatnation pour nous tourner vers les dimensions patrimoniales des régimes rebelles. Nous situons les enfants soldats à l'intérieur d'une organisation sociale de domination et de réciprocité basée sur une violence structurée par des liens de patronage avec les commandants militaires. Nous identifions les fonctions de “l'emploi” tenu par l'enfant soldat au sein de l'administration d'un régime patrimonial. Une approche wéberienne focalisée sur l'institutionnalisation et les stratégies de domination et de dépendance corrige les approches qui exotisent les enfants soldats, décontextualisent leur comportement, ou essentialisent leur “jeunesse” comme principe d'explication.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , September 2003 , pp. 61 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2003

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