The State Failure Debate and the Neglected Elite

View/ Open
File version
Version of Record (VoR)
Author(s)
Karlsson, Malin
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2015
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Descriptive terms such as “weak”, “failed”, “dysfunctional” and
“collapsed”, are frequently used to connote certain characteristics of
statehood. Most scholars agree that states attributed these descriptions are,
to some extent, experiencing deficient “capacity” to perform certain
functional tasks expected of states. The western state is used as the
yardstick to evaluate such deficiency. Due to the western understanding of
state performativity, the state failure literature neglects that the state is a
political construct erected from historical power struggles. This paper
suggests a decentralisation of the state from the ...
View more >Descriptive terms such as “weak”, “failed”, “dysfunctional” and “collapsed”, are frequently used to connote certain characteristics of statehood. Most scholars agree that states attributed these descriptions are, to some extent, experiencing deficient “capacity” to perform certain functional tasks expected of states. The western state is used as the yardstick to evaluate such deficiency. Due to the western understanding of state performativity, the state failure literature neglects that the state is a political construct erected from historical power struggles. This paper suggests a decentralisation of the state from the state failure scholarship and will demonstrate how the structural characteristics of elites and their agency mutually reinforce ways of obtaining power that are incompatible with the western idea of statehood, and as such, are constitutive of what has been defined as state failure
View less >
View more >Descriptive terms such as “weak”, “failed”, “dysfunctional” and “collapsed”, are frequently used to connote certain characteristics of statehood. Most scholars agree that states attributed these descriptions are, to some extent, experiencing deficient “capacity” to perform certain functional tasks expected of states. The western state is used as the yardstick to evaluate such deficiency. Due to the western understanding of state performativity, the state failure literature neglects that the state is a political construct erected from historical power struggles. This paper suggests a decentralisation of the state from the state failure scholarship and will demonstrate how the structural characteristics of elites and their agency mutually reinforce ways of obtaining power that are incompatible with the western idea of statehood, and as such, are constitutive of what has been defined as state failure
View less >
Conference Title
Australian Political Studies Association Annual Conference 2015: The Future of Politics and Political Science
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2015. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. For information about this conference please refer to the conference’s website or contact the author(s).
Subject
Political Science not elsewhere classified