Teaching Comparative

Failed, weak, and strong states

Back in June, I noted the publication of the Failed States Index for 2007.

The July/August issue of Foreign Policy is out with a cover feature on the Failed States Index. I saw a copy in, of all places, Great Clips, where I got my haircut yesterday.

Teaching about strong states, weak states, and failed states is an essential element of any comparative politics course, and this issue of Foreign Policy offers many teaching opportunities.

The introduction to the multi-part feature begins with, "Few encouraging signs emerged in 2006 to suggest the world is on a path to greater peace and stability...

"What makes these alarming headlines all the more troubling is that their origins lie in weak and failing states...

"The complex phenomenon of state failure may be much discussed, but it remains little understood. The problems that plague failing states are generally all too similar: rampant corruption, predatory elites who have long monopolized power, an absence of the rule of law, and severe ethnic or religious divisions. But that does not mean that the responses to their problems should be cut from the same cloth. Failing states are a diverse lot..."

The complete rankings are here, along with the scores on all 12 indicators.

There's a map illustrating the Failed States Index that you can buy in two sizes.

There are brief reports on The Best and the Worst, on the leaders of some of the worst, and a series of maps illustrating the contagion of failed states.

There is a chart that is too clever by half that is supposed to illustrate the correlation between religious intolerance and failed states. And the commentary on the chart can't resist claiming that causation as well as correlation is illustrated by the chart. You might want to talk students through it with the idea of helping them learn to read complex charts, but it would be great to follow that up with an assignment asking students to sketch better ways to present the data.

For better teaching tools, there is a wonderful chart illustrating the correlation between environmental sustainability and scores on the Failed States Index.

You can also find a good Q&A section on the methodology of the index.

At the Foreign Policy web site, you can also find video interviews with ambassadors from seven of the "worst-performing" countries.

This is probably more than you wanted to know and more than you can use. But from all these riches, you can create a great lesson or two about the concepts of failed, weak, and strong states.

Enjoy!

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Labels: concepts, theory

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:39 AM