Why Nations Fail

part to secure more inclusive economic institutions; no
broad coalitions introducing constraints against the power
of each of their members; no political institutions inhibiting
new rulers intent on usurping and exploiting power.
In consequence, in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, and the
Congo, the vicious circle would be far harder to resist, and
moves toward inclusive institutions far more unlikely to get
under way. There were also no traditional or historical
institutions that could check the power of those who would
take control of the state. Such institutions had existed in
some parts of Africa, and some, as in Botswana, even
survived the colonial era. But they were much less
prominent throughout Sierra Leone’s history, and to the
extent that they existed, they were warped by indirect rule.
The same was true in other British colonies in Africa, such
as Kenya and Nigeria. They never existed in the absolutist
kingdom of Ethiopia. In the Congo, indigenous institutions
were emasculated by Belgian colonial rule and the
autocratic policies of Mobutu. In all these societies, there
were also no new merchants, businessmen, or
entrepreneurs supporting the new regimes and demanding
secure property rights and an end to previous extractive
institutions. In fact, the extractive economic institutions of
the colonial period meant that there was not much
entrepreneurship or business left at all.
The international community thought that postcolonial
African independence would lead to economic growth
through a process of state planning and cultivation of the
private sector. But the private sector was not there—except
in rural areas, which had no representation in the new
governments and would thus be their first prey. Most
important perhaps, in most of these cases there were
enormous benefits from holding power. These benefits both
attracted the most unscrupulous men, such as Stevens,
who wished to monopolize this power, and brought the
worst out of them once they were in power. There was
nothing to break the vicious circle.