Editing Failed state (section)

===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"/>