The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance Aid Promises and Donor Politics in War-Torn Africa A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Pablo Yanguas August 2012 © 2012 Pablo Yanguas. The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance: Aid Promises and Donor Politics in War-Torn Africa Pablo Yanguas, Ph.D. Cornell University 2012 Can foreign aid re-build a collapsed state? This dissertation addresses the paradox of lackluster reform in recipients of massive state-building assistance and questions whether current aid doctrine, organized around the principles of local ownership and donor coordination, can generate the incentives necessary to curb persistent state capture. The backbone of the modern state is a Weberian bureaucracy that keeps itself honest by restraining public actors. The effectiveness of aid in pursuing this ideal depends crucially on the anatomy of state-building assistance: the administrative politics of state organizations tasked with enforcing institutional change, the nature of the aid relationship that binds them to foreign donors, and the strategic dilemmas that donors face in their interactions among themselves and with recipient organizations. Theoretically, state-building assistance is defined by a principal- agent dynamic subject to the moral hazard problem, which can only be solved by deploying strong conditionality in favor of administrative enforcement; and by a donor collective action dynamic subject to the free rider problem, which can be solved more effectively by relying on a leading donor instead of an aid coordination mechanism. I explore this analytical framework through a case comparison of the effects of foreign aid on the rationalization of the civil service, the fight against public corruption, and the civilian control of the security sector in post-conflict Sierra Leone (2000-2011) and Liberia (2003-2011). These two sub-Saharan African countries represent an ideal setting for comparative analysis, equivalent in terms of state collapse and aid dependence but exhibiting cross-country and within- country variation in state-building assistance. The six case narratives, built around interviews with participating officials and primary documentation, confirm the theoretical expectations of the anatomy of state-building assistance: leading-donor conditionality is a more effective source of incentives for institutional change. The findings of this dissertation serve as a springboard for a new set of analytical principles for state-building assistance. Faced with the powerful political implications of administrative reform, donors face a clear choice: Will they enable the continued capture of the state by corrupt elites? Or will they challenge them in order to induce meaningful and sustainable state-building? The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance Biographical Sketch Pablo Yanguas was born in Seville (Spain) in 1983. In 2006 he obtained his Bachelor of Arts (“Licenciatura”) in History from the University of Seville’s Faculty of Geography and History, where he specialized in Archeology and Egyptology before switching his focus to Modern History. Pablo spent his last undergraduate year on a visiting scholarship at Complutense University of Madrid, and upon graduation he was awarded a fellowship to attend the University of Pennsylvania as a non-degree graduate student in the Department of Political Science. In 2007 he was admitted to the Ph.D. program of the Department of Government at Cornell University, where he obtained his Master of Arts in Government in 2010, and where he successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in 2012. iii The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance To my nieces, Carmen and Ana Never stop asking why iv The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance Acknowledgments This dissertation is the result of an improbable personal trajectory full of remarkable individuals and fascinating conversations. Sanity is a precious commodity in Graduate School, and it is only with a strong group of friends and loved ones that one can come out of it unscathed. To them I owe a lot of what I have achieved so far. I would first like to thank the one professor at the University of Seville who was instrumental in my journey towards obtaining my Ph.D.: Eulalia W. Petit de Gabriel encouraged me to pursue my international aspirations and was my first and most enthusiastic academic sponsor in the jump across the Atlantic. Not that I ever left entirely. No matter how far I traveled or how long I stayed away, back in Spain I could always count on the support of close friends whom I have come to regard as brothers and sisters: María Ledo, Irene Vilches, Belén del Boz, Ana Aramburu, Jimmy Bolaños, José Manuel Caro, Javier Vélez Escofet, Pablo Sabater, and Claudia Cinelli. It was in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania that I learned what this academic discipline was, and what it could be. I cut my teeth in Comparative Politics with Ian Lustick and Rudy Sil, two of the sharpest scholars that I have ever met. And it was under the tutelage of Tom Callaghy that I began to truly understand African politics and international development. Together, Tom, Rudy, and Ian were responsible for my admission into graduate school. My remarkable group of friends in Philly -especially Meredith Wooten, Allison Evans, Rosella Cappella, Murad Idris, Matt Mongiello, Randi Fair, Aida Gureghian, Barbara v The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance Elias-Sanborn, and Meral Uğur- were responsible for making me feel at home in this new world. At Cornell I was fortunate to meet an exceptional community of professors and graduate students. Many of the ideas in this dissertation matured during the various courses and research colloquia held at the Department of Government, and I am grateful to those who were willing to argue with me about theories and concepts. Ron Herring, Thomas Pepinsky, Robert Braun, Noelle Brigden, Katrina Browne, Berk Esen, Gaurav Kampani, Aleksandr Matovski, and Elton Skendaj all provided insightful feedback on my dissertation project. I want to dedicate a special thanks to the unsung hero of the Government Ph.D. program, Tina Slater, who always made my life easier by ensuring that administrative concerns never got in the way of research. Cornell’s Institute for African Development invited me to present my work on several occasions which proved to be incredibly rewarding; my thanks go to Muna Ndulo, Evangeline Ray, and Jackie Singh. The Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies provided me with an intellectual home every Thursday noon, funded my field research through several grants and fellowships when no one else would, welcomed me into a fascinating group of Graduate Fellows, and offered me the opportunity to present part of my doctoral research; I am indebted to Elaine Scott, Jonathan Kirshner, and Judith Reppy for their trust and support. Fieldwork in post-conflict countries is not easy, neither logistically nor emotionally. While my life in Sierra Leone was rather lonely and isolated, in Liberia I was fortunate to have access to a small but vibrant group of expatriates who kept my morale high. None of it could have been possible without Carmen Delgado (through the always supportive Margarita Conde), whose kindness I hope to repay some day when we finally meet in person. Adolfo “Alfie” Cires vi The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance played Virgil to my Dante through the nightlife of Monrovia, and I still remember fondly our Friday evening soccer games. Guillermo López was extremely generous with his time, always open to sharing his political wisdom with a hapless visitor like myself. And Teresa Dybeck Garley and Adam Garley became two of my favorite people in Liberia after they adopted me into their little circle of fun and idealistic friends. Once I was back from the field, in the process of writing this dissertation I had the privilege of working with an outstanding dissertation committee: Kevin Morrison, Valerie Bunce, and Matthew Evangelista all provided invaluable suggestions which have helped to improve this manuscript considerably. So did Richard Bensel, whose detailed and insightful feedback far exceeded what is normally expected of an external reader. And none of this would have been possible without my dissertation chair, Nicolas van de Walle. It was my good fortune to have as my mentor the author of the very first book that I ever read on African politics. Throughout my years at Cornell his vast expertise, dry wit, and generous complicity have been instrumental in channeling my raw instincts into a coherent dissertation. The fact that I came to see Ithaca -isolated, cold, and small- as my home away from home is entirely due to a fantastic group of friends. Julie Ajinkya, Ben Brake, Bhavna Devani, Simon Gilghooley, Sinja Graf, Michelle Greco, Ulas Ince, Desmond Jagmohan, Pinar Kemerli, Deondra Rose, Michelle Smith, Tariq Thachil, Martha Wilfahrt, Chris Zepeda, and others: they made me realize that every question in politics is a moral challenge, and in so doing they made me a kinder and more compassionate thinker. Jaimie Bleck’s limitless enthusiasm, reckless audacity, and incorrigible excitement have been a constant source of warmth and encouragement from the vii The Anatomy of State-Building Assistance day that she picked me up at the Ithaca airport for my campus visit. Phil Ayoub, Don Leonard, and Igor Logvinenko shared with me all the pains and triumphs of Graduate School from the very first day. To the extent that this project triumphs at all, it does so because of our countless blackboard sessions, perfect burgers, and late-night drinks. They have been emotional crutches, intellectual foils, and brothers in arms, and I am proud to call them my friends. Any adventure such as this would be impossible without the unconditional love and support that only family can provide.