ABSTRACT
This chapter employs a political-economic-historical narrative to identify the modus operandi and the trajectory of the Liberian political economy, its transformation from slavery to plantations and into its current state as a concessionary economy. In Liberia's political history, the concept of the state, its institutions and their manifestation have been instrumentalised by the elite to obtain political–economic hegemony. Liberia is a small polity with a political–economic history characterised by dependency on external support, indirect rule and dual governance. The formation of the Liberian state was associated with internationally recognised sovereignty, but weak internal legitimacy, which was typical of many African countries. Under Liberia's traditional system of governance, indigenous Liberians are primarily regarded as being members of their respective social or communal groups rather than as individual citizens of the Liberian state. Traditional structures of governance are instrumentalised by the state elite and by the concession companies to advance the concessionary economic policy and transnational commercial interests in Liberia's natural resources.
