Anarcho-capitalisme En Pratique

[José]

http://www.liberalia.com/htm/mvn_stateless_somalis.htm

Almost ten years ago, the Somali nation abolished its central government and thus became a stateless nation. As a result, the Somali people are now  more peaceful and also becoming more prosperous than before. This unique event in the political history of the world deserves all our attention. This is particularly true now that everywhere people are asking for an alternative to democracy. That system became popular because it promised less taxation and more freedom than existed under monarchy. But it failed to deliver on that promise; taxation now takes on average half of every-body's wealth without rendering much in exchange. And its regulations severely limit the freedom and productivity of the citizens. It is estimated that people would create 4 - 8 times more wealth without these democratic regulations.

[…]

This 'law and order' has nothing in common with democracy. It is best described as 'a free market for the supply, adjudication and enforcement  of law'. The Somali law consists of customary laws. These laws exist in many countries, but only in Somalia are these laws the supreme law. As one can imagine, customary laws come in two kinds, those that oppress the people and those that recognise their right to life, liberty and property. In Somalia, most customary laws are of the latter type. Except for a few rules, the Somali laws recognise everybody's right to private property, which includes the principle of free trade. In so doing, the Somali custo-mary law comes quite close to natural law. That is why, for a good under- standing of Somali law, it helps to have some knowledge of natural law.

[…]

A Look At Somalia

The Somali political system does not impose political rule upon the Somalis. Therefore, it looks like a kritarchy. However, the Somali law system shows several deviations from the natural law. Therefore, the present order of the Somalis is best qualified as a near-kritarchy. Several questions arise: How it was brought about, what troubles occurred, what problems arose, what solutions exist and what has been achieved thus far.

1. The decision

Let's first look at the decision of the Somalis to abolish the central government. By whom was it taken ? Not by that government of course. Particularly not by a parliament or by way of a referendum. Rather, it just happened, and it could happen because there was a popular consensus. This consensus was formed in 1978, when the Somali central government had waged, and lost, a war against its neighbour Ethiopia. Ever since, the population was ready to return to its previous political system, that of kritarchy. The opportunity for this return arose 13 years later, when the population had chased away its dictator. By a mere stroke of luck, neither of the two candidates to succeed him was willing to give in to the other.  It was a deadlock similar to the one that arose in the same year between Yeltshin and Gorbatchov in Moscow.

As a result of this limbo in Somalia, the employees of the Somali government were no longer paid. These were anyway seen as criminals  by the population and chased away, just as their dictator. After these employees had gone back to their village of origin, the population dismantled all government buildings, including the factories. This was partly done out of banditism, partly in a conscious effort to prevent the politicians from reviving the central government.

2. Troubles

Not all results of this change-over to a new political system were positive. Like in the Soviet Union, the change-over offered bandits an opportunity to commit crimes with impunity. Also, former generals and colonels lined up with former politicians and soldiers in an effort to establish monopoly governments on a town-by-town basis. They imposed taxes and some of them even established quasi diplomatic relations with foreign governments.

3. Problems

Meanwhile, the leaders of Somalia's new political system were faced with a number of tough problems:

3.1. In the urban areas, where most modern business is conducted, the customary laws had been replaced by statutory laws. Consequently, the customary laws, which had continued to exist in the rural environment, have not been developing in tune with the requirements of the global economy. And the tribes, which prior to independence were mainly vehicles to protect the customary law, had now also become political pressure groups.

3.2. Many Somalis had opted out of the customary law system during the heydays of the Republic of Somalia and were now unwilling to submit themselves again to the customary laws and institutions.

3.3. Foreign reporters are filling the newspapers with horror stories in order to illustrate their personal view that without a monopoly government nation is doomed. These horror stories discourage foreigners from investing their time, money, knowledge and skills into the Somali economy.

3.4. Somali intellectuals are writing books and articles in which they present tribal government as archaic and propose to re-establish monopoly government.

3.5. Somali Muslim fundamentalists promote the idea of replacing the tribal system by a theocracy. Their militants occasionally wage small wars against what they conceive as obstacles on the road towards such rule.

3.6. The United Nations invaded Somalia with a multi-national army of 30.000 to re-establish a democracy. In addition, it launched a diplomatic campaign to enlist all former politicians in its effort to re-establish a nation-wide monopoly government. Also, it has trained thousands of Somalis for jobs in such government and it is setting up discussion centers in the villages to direct the local people towards democracy.

3.7  And last, there are the many locations where the politicians had confiscated land from the tribes and given to their loyal supporters. The tribes were now repossessing those lands.

4. Solutions

People in the Western world typically think in terms of 'problems and solutions'. They ask what the Somalis should now do. We will try to satisfy this curiosity while remaining conscious of the fact that the largest political unit, i.e. the unit which could implement any 'solutions' is the jilib, the extended family. One also has to be aware that there will always be opponents to the natural order of human society. And that these opponents often are not interested in rational arguments. Therefore, our answer will concentrate on the possibilities for strengthening the proponents of the present order rather than for weakening its opponents.

The best way to strengthen the present system of law and order of the Somalis is to fully expose it the hustle-bustle of daily life. Their law system has a built-in method for adapting itself to changing circum-stances. The more people engage in trade, the quicker the law will adapt itself to the requirements of a modern, free market society. This adaptation of the law can be accelerated in two ways. One is to publish books about the Somali law and to establish documentation centres for jurisprudence. In this way, the laws of the odd sixty Somali tribes will gradually merge into one single body of rules for all Somalis. The other way is to establish free ports among the Somalis that will particularly welcome foreign investors. That will increase the interaction between local and foreign business people and bring about a cross-fertilisation of different ethics, business methods and laws. Two tribes have already set the first step towards creating such free ports, the Majerteen in Bosaaso and the Samaron in Awdal.

5. Positive Results

Almost ten years have passed since the Somalis changed their political system. Peace has been established in most of the country and prosperity is slowly but surely increasing. This peace has been achieved by upholding the Somali customary law. Therefore, it is of interest to analyse this law in some detail.

The five main characteristics of the Somali law are:

* No punishment for crimes, only restitution or compensation.

* No public prosecutors, no victimless crimes.

* Fines are limited and must be paid to the victim or to his family.

* Every person is insured for his liabilities under the law.

* Judges are appointed by the litigants, not by 'society'.

The following comments should be given on each of these features.

5.1  Restitution And Compensation Instead Of Punishment.

The Somalis know that punishment does not work. They are aware that democracies imposing fines and imprisonment on their criminals. But that does not negate the original violence perperated against victim. It simply contributes to the total violence committed in the world. Secondly, such punishments rarely deters people from committing crimes. If it would, we would have a crime-free world today. Thirdly, it is generally accepted that prisons are a place were people learn how to commit crimes. And the huge cost of maintaining prisons is borne by the tax payers, not by the criminals themselves. Therefore, it makes sense that the Somali law requires little more from criminals than that they restitute the rights they violated. If restitution is impossible, the criminals must offer compensation.

5.2  Defining Crime.

In a democracy, almost any conduct can be declared a crime. Thus, it can be a crime to smoke something more flavoursome than Marlboro, to read something more spicy than Playboy, to criticise the government, to use a monetary unit that it has not approved, to evade the military draft, etc. etc. Democracies 'justify' this plethora of prohibitions by calling them 'crimes against society' even though there are no real victims. On the other hand, there are democracies which close their eyes when women are raped or beaten, or when policemen the police detains and tortures innocents.      All these prohibitions and immunities are authorised by a legislature. Therefore, it makes sense that the Somalis have no use for legislators and public prosecutors. Under Somali law, only the victim of violence, or his family, can start a criminal procedure. Indeed, the Somalis hold that there is no crime when nobody's natural rights have been violated.

5.3  Fines To The Victim.

In a democracy, the government can impose almost any type and level of fines, and stipulate that these are due to the government. Thus, it generates considerable revenue for itself. This in turn constitutes an incentive to promulgate ever more crimes and to increase the fines as much as possible. Therefore, it makes sense that the Somali law stipulates that fines -imposed for intentional violation of someone's rights - shall be limited to the value of that which has been destroyed and that they must be paid to the victim, rather than to the court of law or the tribe as a whole.

5.4  Insurance.

In a democracy, there is no obligation to insure oneself. Thus, there is a large number of people that have nothing to loose by committing a crime, except the possibility that they will have to spend some time in a prison.

This situation surely constitutes an incentive to commit crimes. Therefore, it makes sense that the Somalis require that every person must be insured and that he permanently retains a representative, i.e. someone who will act on his behalf if he has committed a crime or has become a victim of one.

5.5 Judges.

In a democracy, the courts of justice are established by the government and the judges are in the pay of the government. This is done to assure that those courts will not accept any complaint or defence that is based on natural rights. As a result, the government can promulgate almost any rule that infringes upon these rights. Therefore, it makes sense that the Somali law stipulates that the courts of law must apply only those rules which the population has voluntarily accepted as a custom. In addition, the Somali law recognises the right of every person to ignore a court of law that does not have his personal representative on the bench. This assures that only those judges will be asked to sit on a bench who respect the law.

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As mentioned above, this system of law has produced peace among the Somalis and set the stage for a return to prosperity. But that is not all. It has done so at almost no cost to the nation as a whole, and without taxation. The judges and policemen of the Somalis do their job on a part-time basis, and without remuneration. It is considered to be a great honour to be a judge. Indeed, in a kritarchy, the best people tend to get to the top of 'the system', whereas in a democracy…

Another virtue of the Somali system is, that it is fairly immune against political manipulation. Hence, no laws exist that serve primarily the interest of a particular political pressure group. Also, the Somali law tends to be in tune with the values held by the entire population because it has  a built-in system for adapting itself to those values.

There are several features of the Somali law which are not in tune with natural law. We will not specify these features, however. Our focus is on how the Somalis managed to bring about - in a relatively short time - a complete change their system of governance. The answer is that their new system is in fact their old system. Indeed, in the rural areas, which is probably 90 percent of the country, the Somali customary law has always continued to command respect and the customary courts of law have never ceased to be operational there. In this respect, the situation in Somalia resembles that of North America in 1776. The American Revolution never was a revolution. Rather, it was an effort of the colonists to preserve the freedom they had enjoyed during the preceeding 150 years. Likewise, the main concern of the Somalis since the demise of the dictatorship was not to innovate, but to preserve their indigenous system of governance.

[…]

[Sekonda]

http://www.liberalia.com/htm/mvn_stateless_somalis.htm

L'article date de 2000. Je crois qu'il y a eu pas mal de changement depuis dont des retours de gouverment dans la plus grande partie du pays. Le nord (ancienne colonie anglaise) a (ou essaye de ) fait secession sous le nom de Somaliland

Le Somaliland sur Wikipedia

P.S. : la page du jour sur en:WP est celle de l'anarcho-cap ! (voir la page d'acceuil)

[Tarzan]

Voir ce fil, également, qui contient quelques textes intéressants sur la situation en Somalie: http://www.liberaux.org/index.php?showtopic=1778&hl=