The Political Economy of State Failure: A Social Contract Approach

Abstract

By employing the contract approach of state theory, this article provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of state failure phenomena which puts the emphasis on structural conditions as the root cause of state fragility and state failure. The article argues that the deep social fragility of some post-colonial societies, augmented by self-serving external interventions by foreign powers, is at the heart of their failure. Deep social fragility makes societies unable to cooperate and thus renders them powerless to discipline their leaders. Meanwhile, by linking leadership survival to the decisions and policies of a self-serving foreign power, intervention provides flawed incentives to the state leaders, which increases their predatory behaviour. In such situations, state leaders, rather than strengthening formal state institutions, again intensify the collective action problem and increase social fragility as mechanisms for survival.

Militarization, factionalism and political transitions: an inquiry into the causes of state collapse

“…In line with contract theories of the state (e.g. Ismail 2016;Wagner 2007), it claims that if the formal security apparatus of the state-the military, the police, the judiciary-is unable to deter or punish the use or threat of force by non-state actors, the central legitimizing claim of the state is in question (Posen 1993;Vinci 2006). Likewise, Lambach (2009) points out the detrimental effect of the militarization of political actors in the context of a polarized political system, and Bates et al (2002) highlight how political actors militarize to gain access to rents (see also Bates 2008b).…”

Government revenue composition and forest loss: A cross‐national study of low‐ and middle‐income nations

“…This tends to be the result of economic sanctions (Splinter and Klomp 2021) or civil war (Doornbos 2002). When this is the case, the social contract tends to be nonexistent because the government cannot deliver minimal public services (Ismail 2016). This issue is reinforced by political instability or repression by warring factions (Deacon 1994).…”

The Past, the Present, and the Future: A Bibliometric Analysis of Failed/Fragile/Collapsed State Research During 1990–2020

“…The terrorist acts on , according to Hagel (2004, were harbingers of a turning moment in US history. Ismail (2016) developed a theoretical foundation for the study of state fragility phenomenon by applying the contract method of state theory, which emphasizes structural circumstances as the fundamental cause of state failure and state fragility. He claimed that the failure of certain post-colonial civilizations is because of their inherent social fragility.…”