The Ubiquity of State Fragility

Fault Lines in the Categorisation and Conceptualisation of Failed and Fragile States

Bibliographic Data

ID12282948
AuthorsRaza Saeed (0000-0001-7305-4569, University of Warwick, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume29
Issue6
Pages767-789
Publication date2020-02-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Legal Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0964-6639 • E-ISSN: 1461-7390
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0964663920906453
OpenAlexW3008983130
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited41

In the last three decades, the categories of fragile and failed states have gained significant importance in the fields of law, development, political science and international relations. The wider discourse plays a key role in guiding the policies of international community and multilateral institutions and has also led to the emergence of a plethora of indices and rankings to measure and classify state fragility. A critical and theoretical analysis of these matrices brings to light three crucial aspects that the current study takes as its departure point. First, the formulas and conceptual paradigms show that fragility of states is far more ubiquitous than is generally recognised, and that the so-called successful and stable states are a historical, political and geographical anomaly. Second, in the absence of an agreed definition of a successful state or even that of a failed or fragile state, the indicators generally rely on negative definitions to delineate the failed and fragile state. They generally suggest that their reading is built on a Weberian ideal–typical state, which takes the idea of monopoly over legitimate violence as its starting point. The third and final point suggests that the indicators and rankings, misconstruing the Weberian ideal–typical state, actually end up comparing fragile states against an ideal–mythical state. The article argues that this notional state is not only ahistorical and apolitical, but it also carries the same undertones that have been the hallmark of theories of linear development, colonialism and imperialism

Economics · Epistemology · Fragility · Ideal (ethics · Law and economics · Monopoly · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sociology · State (computer science · International Development and Aid · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance

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