Scarcity and surfeit : the ecology of Africa's conflicts

24 Scarcity and Surfeit

our focus is now at the level of the state, Michael Brown's approach to
'underlying conditions' and 'proximate causes' of 'internal conflict' seems
appropriate as a general framework for looking at these conditions. This
framework is presented in the figure below.

Figure: Underlyi~g causes of internal conflict'43

Cultural/perceptual factors

Patterns of cultural discrimination

. Problematic group histories

Underlying causes

Structural

Weak itotes

Intra-state security concerns

Ethnic geography

Political factors

Discriminatory political institutions

Exclusionary national ideologies

Intergroup politics

Elite politics

Economic/rocial factors

Economic problems

Discriminatory economic systems

Modernisation

Intensifying patterns of cultural discrimination

Ethnic bashing and propagondising

Proximate causes

Collapsing states

Chonging intra-state military balances

Changing demographic patterns

Political tiansitions

Increasingly exclusionaiy ideologies

Growing inter-group competition

lntensihj~ng leadership struggles

Mounting economic problems

* Growing economic inequities

* Fast-paced development and modernisation

As was discussed previously, the vast majority of contemporary armed con-
flicts occur in underdeveloped countries that may be undergoing rapid mod-
ernisation processes or political transitions as well as in countries characterised
by state weakness and state decay. Many analysts of internal conflicts have
pointed to state weakness as a main source of contemporary conflict.144 The
problem of weak and failed states should be looked at from the perspective of
political legitimacy as well as whether they possess institutions of government
capable of exercising control over the population and totality of the territory
under their juri~diction.'~~ The question of legitimacy and efficiency are par-
ticularly acute. As pointed out by Van de Goor, Rupesinghe and Sciarone,"'the
phenomena of weak or failed states in the 'Third World' should thus be relat-
ed to the intra-state relations and the capacity of the state - the central gov-
ernment - to keep to the path of state-f~rmation':'"~ In addition, problems of
state weakness seem to be endemic to underdeveloped, former colonial coun-
tries. Countries with colonial backgrounds, arbitrary setting of boundaries by