From Collapse to Compliance: State Legitimacy Building Negative Peace in Somalia and Somaliland

Sammanfattning

This study examines whether state legitimacy can contribute to peace by analyzing how legitimacy has impacted levels of negative peace in Somalia and Somaliland since the collapse of the Somali state in 1991. Despite their similar historical cultural and social societal foundations, the two entities have followed remarking different political trajectories, with Somaliland experiencing significantly lower levels of direct violence in 2025. Drawing on Max Weber’s theories on traditional and rational-legal legitimacy and Fritz Scharpf’s input and output legitimacy, the study conceptualizes legitimacy within a state as a multidimensional variable. The findings show that Somaliland has developed higher legitimacy across all four dimensions through institutionalization of traditional authority, inclusive political processes and stronger performance. Somalia by contrast, exhibits persistent legitimacy deficits, which are associated with continued high levels of direct violence. The study concludes that state legitimacy functions as a causal mechanism for explaining divergent levels of negative peace in post state collapse contexts.