ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the dynamic relationships between state and non-state actors in Somaliland with regard to national politics and the provision of security and justice in various parts of the country. It argues that this Hybrid Political Order (HPO) at the margins resembles the HPO that existed in the early 1990s throughout Somaliland, when the Guurti was really powerful and guaranteed peace and political order in the emerging polity as a whole. The chapter also argues elsewhere that the HPO in Somaliland's centre has become a 'crippled' hybrid in which traditional legitimacy and democratic processes suffer. It presents two case studies that substantiate the argument that Somaliland constitutes one country with two systems. The chapter focuses on the provision of basic state services, like security and justice, and on conflict and conflict settlement in eastern Somaliland. Religious judges, administering shari'a, also played a role in Ceerigaabo.
