Failed States - Case Study Example

Download file to see previous pages When people think of failed states, they usually think of states where the  government is not established and considered legal, there is no education system,  medical treatment, and where the people are not connected (not a society).   According to Holm (n.d.), “Many of these states are countries that are based on  tribal types of societies, where people don't really have a connection with the  state”.  Hence, when people think of a free state, they think of the third world.    Rotberg (n.d.) mentions that a failed state “no longer provides ‘positive    political goods’ for its citizens (nil capacity)…Sovereign territorial state that is no    longer sovereign in areas that it claims to rule…Claimants to rule fail to exercise    clear priority over other groups in territories”.   No laws, violence throughout, the disappearance of law, education,    healthcare, border control, and political conflicts are ways that we typically    measure state failure.  Central state authority does not exist or has failed, for    years.  “State failure is a new label that encompasses a range of severe political    conflicts and regime crises exemplified by macro-societal events such as those   Failed States 4   that occurred in Somalia, Bosnia, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo    (Zaire) in the 1990s (“Rebuilding Failed & Defeated States, n.d.).   Other factors that are included in the measurement of a failed state are    civil conflicts, conflicts amongst other countries, high infant deaths, types of    regime, quality of life, material possessions/things, low trade, and the well being    of its citizens.   After analyzing the literature, it seems that the center of the definition of a    failed state is a failing internal structure.  Having looked in the dictionary and the    encyclopedia, the meaning of failed states is not clear.  Whilst there are many    opinions, definitions, and literature on the topic, the definition and causes of a    failed state cannot be so clearly stated or defined.  It is rather complex.

Grant (2004) declares, “‘The predicate question—what is a ‘failed

state?’—by no means lends itself to an easy answer. Like many questions

involving statehood and international relations, the question of the failed state

becomes more complicated the further one moves from the clear, core examples”.

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