The Noble Institution of Political Violence

The Democratic Republic of Congo has had a worse time of democracy than most. Subject to the crushing dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko until 1997, it was nonetheless unable to use this experience to build a strong commitment to peaceful democratic institutions, like Chile has. This is due to a variety of reasons, from ethnic and tribal divisions to the constant incursions and raids perpetrated by Ugandan and Rwandan paramilitaries. The most saddening thing is that one institution that DR Congo has developed, in common with much of Sub-Saharan Africa, is that of political violence. It is an expected and mostly accepted fact that new political rivals will introduce themselves largely through the medium of large-scale guerrilla warfare, terrorising innocent civilians, and generally fucking up the tiny and fragile government's ability to rule. When this happens, a process we are seeing now occurs, whereby the murderous warlord announces his love of peace, and wearied government officials and foreign ministers turn up and try to arrange a cease-fire and inclusive power-sharing talks. 

But this is completely the wrong way to go. If warlords are told instititutionally that they can achieve legitimate, self-sustaining power through this process, then of course they will do it more. It's blatantly a short-term salve. Share power is exactly what warlords should not be able to do. No government can survive if it's formed by ex-militants and warlords, all of whom see violence as a perfectly viable political tool. Forget technocracy and the rule of the educated elite, let's start with a government that's not bent on draining blood and money from its constituents until they're forced to scamper to Switzerland to avoid half-hearted international opprobrium.

Weber's famous definition of the state is that party that manages to establish a monopoly on the use of violence within a given territory. This may sound cold, but it's very true that this is one of the bases of actually building a state. Unless the new warlord, Laurent Nkunda, and his ridiculously named National Congress for the Defence of the People, want to challenge the government for power peacefully and institutionally, they need to shut the fuck up, or die. Literally.