De l'avidité des rebelles : l'analyse économique de la guerre civile selon Paul Collier

• Main Authors: Roland Marchal, Christine Messiant
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa 2002-06-01
• Series: Cadernos de Estudos Africanos
• Subjects: conflict; model analysis
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/cea/1253

Lately three currents have conquered special influence on the academic and political debate on civil wars. One of these currents, headed by the economist Paul Collier, pursues the declared objective of rethinking this kind of conflict from the vantage point of a particular importance attributed to the economy. In the perspective of this approach, rebellion is defined as predatory and as a «form of organised crime». Without pretending to analyse the internal structure of the model, the authors try to point out some of its weaknesses. In this, they dwell above all on a critical exam of the proof offered by Collier for what he considers the main merit of his model, i.e. its predictive capacity.