Beyond the clan : state-building in Somaliland

The stabilization of Somaliland in 1992-1993 illustrates a unique, indigenous produced,\ud process of state stabilization and a ???bottom-up??? approach state formation. This thesis\ud argues Somaliland stabilized in the early 1990s due to the amalgamation of ???traditional???\ud and ???modem??? methods of state-building. Stability mechanisms were produced throughout Somaliland by cross-clan reconciliation conferences, the creation of indigenous privatized business and the influence of women in the political-economic sphere. The utilization of all three of these mechanisms not only produced initial state-societal stabilization, but the incorporation of these tactics into the central government provided the guidelines for protracted stability. The process of state building within Somaliland bolsters the assertion that ???it is the culmination of local forces that shapes and reshapes the state??? (Migdal 2001:124). The stabilization of Somaliland in the early nineteennineties exemplifies the role that indigenous actors play in state-building and statesocietal stabilization within Africa