Editing Failed state (section)

== Definition and issues ==
The term "Failed State" originated in the 1990s, particularly in the context of [[Somalia]]'s turmoil after the overthrow of its dictator, [[Siad Barre]], in 1991.<ref name=":3" /> The phrase gained prominence during the American-led intervention in Somalia in 1992. It was used to express concerns about the potential collapse of poor states into chaotic anarchy after the end of the [[Cold War]], as highlighted by [[Robert D. Kaplan|Robert Kaplan]]'s depiction of chaos in [[Liberia]] and [[Sierra Leone]] and his warning of a "coming anarchy" in various global regions.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2011-11-17 |title=Where life is cheap and talk is loose |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2011/03/17/where-life-is-cheap-and-talk-is-loose |access-date=2023-12-20 |issn=0013-0613}}</ref>

According to the political theories of [[Max Weber]], a state is defined as maintaining a [[monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force]] within its borders. When this is broken (e.g., through the dominant presence of [[warlord]]s, [[paramilitary]] groups, [[Police corruption|corrupt policing]], armed [[gang]]s, or [[terrorism]]), the very existence of the state becomes dubious, and the state becomes a ''failed state''. The difficulty of determining whether a government maintains "a monopoly on the legitimate use of force", which includes the problems of the definition of "legitimate", means it is not clear precisely when a state can be said to have "failed". The problem of legitimacy can be solved by understanding what Weber intended by it. Weber explains that only the state has the means of production necessary for physical violence. This means that the state does not require legitimacy for achieving a monopoly on having the means of violence (''[[de facto]]''), but will need one if it needs to use it (''[[de jure]]'').

Typically, the term means that the state has been rendered ineffective and is not able to enforce its laws uniformly or provide basic goods and services to its citizens. The conclusion that a state is failing or has failed can be drawn from the observation of a variety of characteristics and combinations thereof. Examples of such characteristics include - but are not limited to - the presence of an [[insurgency]], extreme [[political corruption]], overwhelming crime rates suggestive of an incapacitated police force, an impenetrable and ineffective bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, military interference in politics, and consolidation of power by regional actors such that it rivals or eliminates the influence of national authorities. Other factors of perception may be involved. A derived concept of "failed cities" has also been launched, based on the notion that while a state may function in general, polities at the substate level may collapse in terms of infrastructure, economy, and social policy. Certain areas or cities may even fall outside state control, becoming a ''de facto'' ungoverned part of the state.<ref>{{cite web |last=Braathen |first=Einar |title=Brazil: Successful country, failed cities? |url=http://blog.nibrinternational.no/#post30 |website=NIBR International Blog |date=2011-01-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430042505/http://blog.nibrinternational.no/ |archive-date=2011-04-30 }}</ref>

No consistent or quantitative definition of a "failed state" exists; the subjective nature of the indicators that are used to infer state failure have led to an ambiguous understanding of the term.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nay |first=Olivier |s2cid=467279 |title=Fragile and Failed States: Critical Perspectives on Conceptual Hybrids |journal=International Political Science Review |volume=34 |issue=3 |year=2013 |pages=326–341 |doi=10.1177/0192512113480054 }}</ref>

Some scholars focus on the capacity and effectiveness of the government to determine whether or not a state is failed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Patrick |first=S. |year=2007 |title='Failed' States and Global Security: Empirical Questions and Policy Dilemmas |journal=International Studies Review |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=644–662 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2486.2007.00728.x }}</ref> Other indices such as the Fund for Peace's [[Fragile States Index]] employ assessments of the democratic character of a state's institutions as a means of determining its degree of failure.<ref name="Call C.T. 2010">{{cite journal |last=Call |first=C. T. |year=2011 |title=Beyond the 'failed state': Toward conceptual alternatives |journal=European Journal of International Relations |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=303–326 |doi=10.1177/1354066109353137 |citeseerx=10.1.1.1031.8635 |s2cid=145208851 }}</ref> Finally, other scholars focus their argument on the legitimacy of the state,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=S. |year=2008 |title=Fixing Fragile States. A new paradigm for development |publisher=Praeger Security International |location=US |isbn=978-0-275-99828-8 }}</ref> on the nature of the state,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gros |first=J.-G. |year=1996 |title=Towards a taxonomy of failed states in the New World Order: Decaying Somalia, Liberia, Rwanda and Haiti |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=455–472 |doi=10.1080/01436599615452 }}</ref> on the growth of criminal violence in a state,<ref>{{cite book |last=Rotberg |first=R. |year=2004 |title=When States Fail. Causes and Consequences |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=US |isbn=978-0-691-11671-6 }}</ref> on the economic extractive institutions,<ref>{{cite book |last=Levitt |first=S. |year=2012 |title=Why Nations Fail? The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty |publisher=Profile Books |location=UK }}</ref> or on the states' capacity to control its territory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=A. |year=2013 |title=State Failure. Global Issues |publisher=Palgrave MacMillan |location=UK }}</ref> Robert H. Bates refers to state failure as the "implosion of the state", where the state transforms "into an instrument of predation" and the state effectively loses its monopoly on the means of force.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bates |first=Robert H. |title=State Failure |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=11 |year=2008 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.060606.132017 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
===Criticism of the concept===
Charles T. Call attempts to abandon the concept of state failure altogether, arguing that it promotes an unclear understanding of what state failure means. Instead, Call advances a "gap framework" as an alternative means of assessing the effectiveness of state administration.<ref name="Call C.T. 2010" /> This framework builds on his previous criticism of the state failure concept as overly generalized. Call thus asserts that it is often inappropriately applied as a catch-all theory to explain the plight of states that are in fact subject to diverse national contexts and do not possess identical problems. Utilizing such an evaluation to support policy prescriptions, Call posits, is then responsible for poor policy formulation and outcomes.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last=Call |first=C. T. |year=2008 |title=The Fallacy of the 'Failed State' |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=29 |issue=8 |pages=1491–1507 |doi=10.1080/01436590802544207 |s2cid=153402082 }}</ref> As such, Call's proposed framework develops the concept of state failure through the codification of three "gaps" in resource provision that the state is not able to address when it is in the process of failure: capacity, when state institutions lack the ability to effectively deliver basic goods and services to its population; security, when the state is unable to provide security to its population under the threat of armed groups; and legitimacy when a "significant portion of its political elites and society reject the rules regulating power and the accumulation and distribution of wealth."<ref name="Call C.T. 2010" />

Instead of attempting to quantify the degree of failure of a state, the gap framework provides a three-dimensional scope useful to analyze the interplay between the government and the society in states in a more analytical way. Call does not necessarily suggest that states that suffer from the challenges of the three gaps should be identified as failed states but instead presents the framework as an alternative to the state failure concept as a whole. Although Call recognizes that the gap concept in itself has limits since often states face two or more of the gap challenges, his conceptual proposition presents a useful way for more precisely identifying the challenges within a society and the policy prescriptions that are more likely to be effective for external and international actors to implement.<ref name="Call C.T. 2010"/>

Further critique of the ways in which the 'failed state' concept has been understood and used to inform national and international policy decisions is brought forth in research by Morten Bøås and Kathleen M. Jennings. Drawing on five case studies — Afghanistan, Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, and the Niger Delta region of Nigeria — Bøås and Jennings argue that "the use of the 'failed state' label is inherently political and based primarily on Western perceptions of Western security and interests".<ref name="Bøås, M 2007. pp.475-485">{{cite journal |last1=Bøås |first1=M. |last2=Jennings |first2=K. M. |year=2007 |title='Failed states' and 'state failure': Threats or opportunities? |journal=Globalizations |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=475–485 |doi=10.1080/14747730701695729 |bibcode=2007Glob....4..475B |s2cid=143992292 }}</ref> They go on to suggest that Western policy-makers attribute the "failed" label to those states in which "recession and informalisation of the state is perceived to be a threat to Western interests".<ref name="Bøås, M 2007. pp.475-485"/> Furthermore, this suggests hypocrisy among Western policy-makers: the same forms of perceived dysfunction that lead to some states being labeled as failed are in turn met with apathy or are knowingly expedited in other states where such dysfunction is assessed to be beneficial to Western interests. In fact, "this feature of state functioning is not only accepted, but also to a certain degree facilitated, as it creates an enabling environment for business and international capital. These cases are not branded 'failed states{{'"}}.<ref name="Bøås, M 2007. pp.475-485"/>