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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 74-20,882 CLARKE, Charles Amstard, 1941- ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRALIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON PLANNING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO HINTERLAND AREAS IN LIBERIA. The American University, D.P.A., 1974 Political Science, public administration Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 © 1974 CHARLES AMSTARD CLARKE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRALIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON PLANNING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND SERVICE DELIVERY TO HINTERLAND AREAS IN LIBERIA Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy: Public Administration Charles A. Clarke April 1974 Accepted: THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................... iii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION: AN OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE SETTING UP MAJOR ARGUMENTS.......... 1 II. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND THE SOCIO­ POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES .......................... 35 Colonialism................................... 36 Nationalism................................... 43 African Socialism............................ 46 Need for Political Stability ............... 55 III. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN HINTERLAND AREAS: 1944-1954............................... 60 T a x a t i o n ..................................... 83 The Utilization of Traditional Political Institutions .................... 85 Representatives as Sources of Contacts . 87 Roads. ......................................100 H e a l t h .......................................... 105 Folk Medicine................................... Ill Agriculture Development........................ 114 C o n c l u s i o n ......................................121 IV. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND PLANNING 1955-1970....................................... 124 The Formation of the Opposition Party and the 1955 Elections ...................... 126 The True Whig Party............................. 135 The Internal Organization of the Party . 137 The National Convention........................ 138 The Convention of Local Units.................. 141 Two Groups Within the Party: Women and S t u d e n t s ......................................145 The Relationship Between the Party and the Bureaucracy^............................. 148 Labor Unions ................ ................ 154 Students ..... .......................... 156 The Legislative Branch ...................... 158 i Political Expansion ........................ 160 Rural Area Development an Experiment in Decentralization ...................... 165 Rural Area Development and the Trial of 1968 ................................... 169 National Planning .......................... 172 V. SOME PUBLIC POLICIES: HEALTH, TRANSPORTATION, HEALTH AND AGRICULTURE........................ 184 R o a d s ....................................... 184 Farm to Market Roads...................... 188 Health. .............................. 193 Physicians................................. 194 Agriculture Services........................ 205 Gbedin Rice Project ...................... 207 The Agriculture Credit Corporation. 220 VI. CONCLUSION..................................... 224 APPENDIX A ................................................ 235 B ................................................ 239 C ................................................ 245 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................... 249 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To express adequately my appreciation to the many people and institutions that have assisted me in the preparation of this study is not possible within the limited space provided for this purpose here. Nevertheless, I would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Coralie Bryant, Dr. Richard Fehnel and Dr. Martin Meadows. As my advisors, I received from them invaluable assistance from the beginning of the study to its completion. Their promptness in read­ ing the draft was equalled only by their patience. As chairman of my committee, Dr. Bryant was especially of invaluable assistance to me. She was very generous of her time and offered criticisms and comments which influenced greatly the quality of this study. I would like also to thank the many Liberian officials who shared freely with me the information available to them. I would like to thank my mother, stepfather, father and mother-in-law, sisters and brother, in-laws and relatives whose letters have been a constant source of inspiration to me. Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to my wife, Amy and daughters Wanneh and Djuteh who have on the whole helped me most. Despite the hardships, their warmth and constant inspiration sustained me throughout. To them I dedicate this study. iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to analyze as well as to describe the centralization of governmental administration and planning and their impact upon the distribution of public policies in hinterland areas in Liberia. The specific public policies which will be examined are transportation, health and agriculture. The major thrust of the argument will be that there is a relationship between administrative centralization, political participation and service delivery and that these factors have played a major role in the develop­ ment of public policies in Liberia. One cannot begin to discuss the many arguments found within that complex set of issues surrounding centralization and political participation without recalling the literature to be found in this area. And yet, the literature on administrative centraliza­ tion and political participation in Africa and other less economically developed regions, reflects the general controversies that beset the fields of political science and public administration. Three of the major issues are to be found in the debates over balanced 1 vs. imbalanced development, the nature of participation and the extent to which these factors influence policy outputs. One participant in the argument about participa­ tion and its effect on policy outputs, Alexander Groth, among others, argued, for example, that individuals extract benefits from the political system in proportion to their degree of organization and influence. The strength of their organization and influence will determine the extent to which they count. Dr. Groth1s book Comparative Politics; A Distri­ butive Approach, the author explicitly stated that he is concerned with analyzing the outputs of political systems— the ways in which different political regimes tend to distribute social resources. Selected for correlation with different types of regimes are: political participation, group life, communication and organization, taxation and budgeting, aspects of economic policy, education and culture social welfare, social change and mobility, bureaucracy and public service, justice and police power. 3 The author observed that in each of these areas there exists significant differences in comparative outputs among the different systems. In analyzing the differences among various regimes, Groth specifically examined democratic and autocratic political systems. In the case of democratic systems, Groth limited his discussions to what he considered to be democratic countries— Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Uruguay. Autocratic regimes are dichotomized into: innovative-mobilization and traditional. The innovative-mobilization regimes are further subdivided into three categories: right, left and mixed. Included in the right are Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. On