• tal@lemmy.today
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    4 days ago

    failed state

    Not really specific to this story, but people massively overuse the term “failed state”. A failed state isn’t a state with some issue or a poor executive, authoritarian government, or the like. It’s the kind of situation you might see around, say, a civil war where the government no longer really operates and nobody’s in control any more. You likely have local warlords with limited local control of bits of territory. Something like Haiti might be a present-day example.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state

    failed state is a state that has lost its ability to fulfill fundamental security and development functions, lacking effective control over its territory and borders. Common characteristics of a failed state include a government incapable of tax collection, law enforcement, security assurance, territorial control, political or civil office staffing, and infrastructure maintenance. When this happens, widespread corruption and criminality, the intervention of state and non-state actors, the appearance of refugees and the involuntary movement of populations, sharp economic decline, and military intervention from both within and outside the state are much more likely to occur.