failed states

Overview of a “Failed State”

• No longer gives positive political goods to its people 

• Loses legitimacy 

• Harbour non state actors, like terrorists or warlords

Characteristics of a failed states

• Conflicted and dangerous 

  • Land contested by warring factions

  • Government spends its time battling revolts and uprisings 

• Qualities of a failed state are not limited to extreme violence! 

  • The enduring character of violence (how long it lasts)

  • The direction of the violence (who it’s towards)

  • The demands justifying the violence 

• Standard of living decreases 

  • Infrastructure of day to day life is in shambles 

  • Greed of rulers > welfare of citizens 

• Civil wars 

  • Roots in ethnic, religious, linguistics and “other” differences 

  • Avarice:

    • Greed for extreme wealth and resources 

    • Caused by discovery of lucrative resources 

• Cannot control their borders 

  • Official power is limited to a capital city 

  • Measure: “what does the government really control”

• Preying on own citizens

  • Preying on the majority of citizens and favouring an elite group of people 

    • Zaire (under Seko)

    • Afghanistan (under the Taliban)

  • Patrimonial value (money) depends on a patronage based system of extraction from ordinary citizens

    • Zaire

    • Angola

    • Sierra Leone 

    • Pre 2001 Sudan 

• Growth of criminal violence 

  • State authority weakens = state becomes criminal in oppression 

  • Citizens turn to warlords/stronger figures who express solidarity with their groups 

Political Goods

• A failed state no longer can or wants to perform job of nation-state

  • Security, education, health, economic opportunity, environmental surveillance etc

• Mostly unable to provide security which is why it can’t assert power 

  • Liberia and Sierra Leone 

• Weak and flawed institutions 

  • Executive institution functions 

  • No democratic debate

  • Citizens cannot turn to judiciary system 

  • Military maintains integrity but is highly politicized 

• Deteriorating infrastructure 

  • Leaders take more for themselves 

  • Less to fund things 

  • Far territory access becomes less importance 

  • Roads and rails are not maintained

  • Roads and rails are bad

• Education and Health

  • Systems are privatized

    • Shady schools and clinics

  • Systems are in disrepair, people are poorly/not paid 

  • Supplies are scarce 

  • Equipment cannot be repaired

  • Essential services provided to side of country that is favoured

    • North Sudan: has all the stuff they need

    • South Sudan: has nothing/ low literacy. High mortality. Overwhelmed healthcare system. 

• Economic opportunity

  • Oligarchs gain while everyone else becomes impoverished

  • Lots of corruption 

    • Wasteful project funding 

    • Bidding on everything 

    • Building mansions and residences with state

  • Worsening GDP

    • Big disparities in wealthiest to poorest 

• Climate disasters

  • Economic chaos + generalized neglect = food scarcity, migration, displacement 

Losing legitimacy 

• Borders are irrelevant

• 1+ groups seek authority 

• Leaders work for themselves and those associated with them

• Collapsed state = extreme version of a failed state

  • Illegitimate and unrecognized 

State failure today

• Afghanistan 

• Angola

• Burundi 

• DRC

• Liberia 

• Sierra Leone

• Sudan 

Collapsed State 

• Somalia

Case Studies (states that seem that they are failed, but aren’t)

• Sri Lanka 

  • LTTE controlled 15% of Sri Lanka’s land mass 

    • Responsible for assassinations, bombings, and destruction 

  • State has not been near failure 

  • 80% of Sri Lankans think the government is working fine 

    • Economic performance 

    • Political goods are delivered even in war torn parts of the country 

• Indonesia 

  • Separatist and religious conflict are concentrated in certain areas only 

    • Do not threaten integrity of government 

    • Country feels unity through a sense of nationalism 

    • Government gives political goods and remains legitimate 

• Colombia 

  • Government still works for 70% of the country 

    • Political goods

    • Providing security 

• Zimbabwe 

  • Does not have a widespread insurgent movement and is therefore not a failed state.

State failure is man-made 

• Leadership decisions 

  • Mobotu – DRC/Zaire 

    • Took money and kept it

    • No money towards improving the life of people in the DRC

    • Government allegiance to Mobotu, not the people 

  • Mugabe – Zimbabwe

    • Corrupt rule 

      • Squandered foreign exchange 

      • Discourage investment of any kind 

      • Subverted court 

      • People on the brink of starvation 

Recovering after state failure 

• Costly – have to build from scratch 

  • Security and security force 

  • Created bureaucracy and funding it 

  • Legal code and system 

  • Opening schools 

  • Constitutions and elections  

Preventing State Failure 

• Lending / financial assistance from other countries can be done to reinforce positive leadership

• Help is conditional on improving governance, fiscal streamlining and rule of law 

• Reducing external barriers for assistance (eg. tariffs)

• Open economy