Why Do Weak States Persist - Essay Example

Your Why do weak s persist? A striking feature of weak s is that they face very few challenges from people living in them. Despite all the challenges, internal and external threats, conflicts, economic uncertainty, government’s autocracy, and lacking apparatus of power, these weak states persist in an international community of states. In order to understand the possible explanation of such persistence, this papers analyses the idea of statehood, its empirical and juridical attributes, causes of weakness, and concludes that the external rather than internal factors are responsible for this persistence. Research and analysis revel that the major contributor of weak states’ persistence is international support and assistance. Political scientists’ perception about the concept of state relies on Max Weber’s definition which entitles state as a corporate group that: holds a certain jurisdiction; practices continuous organization; maintains monopoly of power over territory and its population, in addition to all activities in its jurisdiction. The concept is primarily based on empirical and de facto aspects of statehood. The test for Weber’s state is the claim to monopoly of force in its jurisdiction. It implies that if an internal or external group or organization gets the hold and monopolistic control of a certain jurisdiction, it becomes a state. When there are several groups contesting for the same territory, and none can get control over and practice monopolistic force, Weber attributes this situation as “statelessness” (qtd. in Jackson and Carl 2-3). According to Weber’s empirical approach to statehood, many African states can be disqualified from the status of being a state because they don’t practice monopoly of force over their territorial jurisdiction. Rivals to the national government effectively established monopoly in some of the cases. Absence of continuous control of a permanent political organization and anarchy exist in these states. Regardless of the lacking governmental control, anarchy, and uncertainty, these states persist as members of international society of states. If we consider that the empirical statehood led to the persistence of state, some of the African states must disqualify. However, they persist and none of the claimant governments who practiced de facto control could establish new states in the particular area (Jackson and Carl 3). States definition that is based on juridical attributes of statehood is Ian Brownlie’s. He defines state as a legal person authorized by international law. The attributes include: defined territory, permanent population, effectual government, and ability to establish relations with other states. However, Brownlie’s definition considers empirical attributes of state as explicit as juridical features; in fact, they are not (Jackson and Carl 3).According to the research evidence, within sub-Saharan African states, empirical attributes of statehood remained highly variable while juridical attributes were constant. For instance, Uganda had less stable population and ineffective government than Kenya, but both states persisted a sovereign (Jackson and Carl 4).Brownlie acknowledges the importance of empirical attributes and incorporates it into a practically legal definition of statehood (qtd. in (Jackson and Carl 4) but he stresses that it is highly crucial to define these criteria in order to employ them. Jackson and Carl exclaim on the persistence of such states because there are not obvious reasons, particularly, in the absence of empirical attributes of statehood. They stress that it is not possible to explain the persistence of such states by relying on a concept that ignores juridical attributes of statehood (4). Empirical attributes of Brownlie’s definition are “stable community/population” and “effective government”. For the sake of analysis, Jackson and Carl defined stable community as an integrated political community that is built on a common culture. It is evident that some African states have this attribute. These countries are divided in several ethnic identities with different language, race, territory, and religion. These gaps further aggravate the differences. Such social and political divide between these ethnic groups is more significant as compared to the boundaries between countries when it comes to public behavior and attitude. Consequently, political instability and ethnic division has serious consequences for political legitimacy and government’s ability to exercise control over their territories. It seems that some African states qualify as stable communities where ethnic divide is being politicized which resulted in serious civil conflict, for instance, Sudan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sudan (Jackson and Carl 5).In other cases, ethnic divide is effectively threatening government to control political participation .This control stems from the fear of losing command over their territory (Kasfir qtd. in Jackson and Carl 6). By “effective government,” both Weber and Brownlie mean “compulsory jurisdiction,” which refers to centralize administrative and legislative organ. This concept gives equal importance to legislation and administration. However, in Africa, individuals rule in an autocratic manner, and legislation follow them. Exercising control means declare and enforce laws, commands, rules and regulations (qtd. in Jackson and Carl 6).As Michael Oakeshott refer to modern states as holding  “an office of authority” and “a apparatus of power” which he attributes as entirely different(qtd. in Jackson and Carl 6). For instance, a government is legitimate but holds little means of power, or it may have enforced power apparatus, but is illegitimate. Similarly, there is possibility of other combinations. For juridical attributes of statehood, international legitimacy is important. A state can be considered legitimate on international level while illegitimate at home, or vice versa. Domestic authority, power apparatus, and economic situations are the factors on which African governments’ ability to exercise control resides. The authority in these regions is more personal rather institutional (Jackson and Carl 7). Juridical statehood is a normative and international attribute because a juridical community becomes the component of an international society of states. State’s right, most essentially include, the right to sovereignty. International society does not protect individuals or group of individuals from state or others, but it provides legal protection to member states from internal or external threats that are considered to intervene in their sovereignty in any way (Bull qtd. in Jackson and Carl 13). Furthermore, international community works towards the promotion and developments of the states. Territory and independence are significant for juridical statehood. According to international law, democratic jurisdiction is a government’s property in totality and where its boundaries end, another state’s boundaries start. A certain political system may hold empirical attributes but without juridical attributes, it can’t be considered a state (Jackson and Carl 13). It seems hard for the weak states to develop as a strong state in the presence of foreign aid, and continuous support. Weak states inability to provide basic facilities to its citizen leads to capacity gap. The situation prevails for longer time period which ends in political upheaval and other conflicts. Generally, capacity gap also generates security gap in weak states (Eizenstate et al. 136). African experience has always appeared to the world as conflicting which holds negative interpretations. The links can be traced back in the past. Africa has always been associated as unimportant, and poor; therefore, the understanding of Africa as primitive and elementary led to a history that holds setback (Mbembe 2).This scenario resulted into colonization and further halted the process of political and social development. Juridical state is basically a Eurocentric idea. Colonialism restricted the ability of these states to develop; therefore, juridical attributes remained novel for these states. After decolonization, rare African states could restore their pre-colonial sovereign identity. Many colonies retained with their existing borders while those who tried to make federation, were failed. Independence not only awakened national but ethnic awareness which led to the conflicts and the process of self-determination stopped after WWII. This scenario made it difficult to exercise monopolistic force. Consequently, decolonization in Africa and other parts of the world proved that achieving rational empirical qualification is not possible (Jackson and Carl 14-15). Independence and survival of the states with questionable attributes for such qualification lead us to the conclusion that, it is only made possible with the assistance of benevolent international society (Jackson and Carl 20-22). In order to find a solution to this problem, it is ideal to prevent states from becoming weak. For existing weak states, reforms, debt relief, and support based economic relief needs to be used (Eizenstate et al. 136).After analyzing the whole scenario, we can conclude that persistence of weak states is not a matter of their internal functioning, but it is evidently an international achievement. International community worked for the betterment and development of these states; otherwise, they must have failed or merged in other states. The survival and persistence of weak states is not an issue in long-term. These are the consequences of this persistence which pose a threat for contemporary international society. References Eizenstat, E.Stuart, John, E. Porter, and Jeremy, M.Weinstein. “Rebuilding Weak States.”Foreign Affairs 84.1(2005):134-146.Web. 15 July 2011. Jackson, H.Robert, and Carl, G. Rosberg. “Why Africa’s Weak States Persist: The Empirical and Juridical in Statehood.”World Politics 35.1(1982):1-24.Jstor.Web.15 July 2011. Mbembe, Achille. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California Press, c2001 2001. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt8g5024tt/ Read More