The Library
The ubiquity of state fragility : fault lines in the categorisation and conceptualisation of failed and fragile states
Tools
Saeed, Raza (2020) The ubiquity of state fragility : fault lines in the categorisation and conceptualisation of failed and fragile states. Social & Legal Studies, 29 (6). pp. 767-789. doi:10.1177/0964663920906453 ISSN 0964-6639.
|
PDF
WRAP-ubiquity-state-fragility-fault-states-Saeed-2020.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1338Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663920906453
Abstract
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.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | J Political Science > JZ International relations | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Peace-building -- International cooperation, Conflict management -- International cooperation, Sustainable development -- International cooperation, Imperialism | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Social & Legal Studies | ||||||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0964-6639 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 1 December 2020 | ||||||||
Dates: |
|
||||||||
Volume: | 29 | ||||||||
Number: | 6 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 767-789 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1177/0964663920906453 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | Posted ahead of print. Saeed, Raza (2020) The ubiquity of state fragility : fault lines in the categorisation and conceptualisation of failed and fragile states. Social & Legal Studies . (In Press) Copyright © 2020 The Author. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663920906453 | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 21 January 2020 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 31 January 2020 | ||||||||
Related URLs: |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year