Between roadblocks and repression

The state in the Democratic Republic of Congo is subject to much controversy: some argue it does not exist at all while others denounce a strong, repressive, dictatorship. How can we make sense of the contradictory manifestations of the state in the Congo?

A new report, written by DIIS researcher Peer Schouten for a research program hosted by the London School of Economics, argues that this apparent contradiction hides a consistent logic. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2014 on political governance in the mineral-rich province of Ituri, Schouten shows how public authority adapts itself to the different ways gold is extracted.

Introducing the concept of ‘extractive orders’, Schouten shows how the state assumes one guise around industrial mining ventures, but manifests itself totally different around artisanal and small-scale mining. In the former, the state is effective but repressive; around the latter, it acts more like a maffia, demanding taxes at illicit roadblocks. Recognizing these consistent patterns allows debunking popular simplifications of the state that plague the Congo, and could inform more relevant interventions in the country’s mining sector.