{"id":17598,"date":"2024-05-09T18:56:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T16:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.kivuavenir.com\/?p=17598"},"modified":"2024-05-11T12:01:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T10:01:10","slug":"is-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-a-failed-state-a-synopsis-of-a-banana-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/is-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-a-failed-state-a-synopsis-of-a-banana-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Democratic Republic of Congo a Failed State? A Synopsis of a Banana Republic."},"content":{"rendered":"

An era that gave birth to new political thoughts that reshaped international relations and coined the theory of balance of power in international relations. Among other things, the New World Order\u2019s theorists and supporters suggest that in the new era, states may secure their survival by preventing any one state from gaining enough military power to dominate all others. To confirm the optimism of Neoliberalism, the American political scientist political economist, and international relations scholar Professor Francis Fukuyama wrote \u201c<\/em>The End of History and the Last Man.\u201d<\/em> Fukuyama\u2019s End of History and Bush\u2019s support of the New World Order were interpreted as the end of major wars and the solidification of post-colonial States. However, rather than the world witnessing zero war, many conflicts and wars erupted, hence some states were called failed states. It is within the discourse of failed states that this synopsis attempts to provide a theoretical framework that can allow the reader to respond to the question is the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC, a failed state? The synopsis has deliberately avoided responding to the question because of the contested nature of the concept of the failed state, hence it aims at providing theoretical tools that will allow the reader to search for pieces of evidence that will validate the claim that the DRC is a failed state or confirm otherwise.<\/p>\n

Before one can define the concept of the failed state, it sounds theoretically and logically correct to begin by responding to the question of what is the state. Lexicologically speaking the word \u201cState\u201d has what German writer Schulze innumerable meanings, too many to be counted. In other words, it can be said that the concept of the state has no universal meaning but it has its origin. Hence, etymological studies assert that the word \u201cState\u201d comes from the Latin, Status<\/em>, meaning “condition of a country.” In his work titled \u201c A Theory of the Origin of the State,\u201d Robert Carneire argues that the serious theory of the states is divided into two schools of thought, voluntaristic and coercive. The voluntaristic school is associated with the political philosophy teachings of the philosopher\u00a0 Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Du Contrat Social <\/em>(Social Contract) or \u00a0Principes du Droit Politique<\/em> (Principles of Political Right). In referring to Rousseaus\u2019 pollical thinking the Voluntarist scholars argue that in the history of humanity, there was a time when groups of people rationally decided to voluntarily reject their sovereignty and peacefully united together and formed a bigger group that deserved to be called the state. Looking at the creation of the DRC, one would deviate from the main question and ask another sud-question using voluntarist philosophical thought.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIs the DRC a State that emerged from the voluntary unification of indigenous Congolese?\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/em>The coercive school of thought\u2019s founding argument emerged from their conviction that \u201cwar is the father of every.\u201d Hence, without even deploying a complex philosophical argument, one may be allowed to formulate a quick understanding, that the state is the product of war. The conquest of one group by another or the victory of one people over another gave birth to state formation. The coercive theorists argue that war is the sine qua non-condition for the formation of the state. The coercive explanation also opens the room for another critical question that can be applied to other African countries.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe DRC as a State, It a product of wars?\u201d<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After visiting, the two schools of thought, it can be argued that naturally, definitions of the state are coloured by the opinions of their authors and are affected by the point of view from which the state is envisaged. However, one needs to categorically suggest that the state is dualistic by nature; it is both an abstract conception and a concrete organization. Thus, in all these senses, state can be taken to mean the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • An organization of individuals<\/li>\n
  • Politically organized people of a definite territory<\/li>\n
  • An organization of public law that is monopolistic over the use of violence against a group or population<\/li>\n
  • An organisation which in internal matters carries out its functions through a unified set of institutions known as the government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Since the suggestion that the state is both a physical thing and an abstract idea seems to be correct, it can be said that the group of people and association are the physical components of the state; and laws, policies, practices, culture, beliefs and religions are some of the abstract elements. The state is composed, therefore, of both physical and metaphysical or spiritual elements. These elements are four:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • A group of human beings, a population<\/li>\n
    • A territory upon which they permanently reside, territory<\/li>\n
    • Internal sovereignty and independence from foreign control, sovereignty<\/li>\n
    • A political organization or agency through which the collective will of the population is expressed, Government<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Both the Voluntarists and Coercevists understand that the absence of any one of four elements nullifies the state; all must exist together. The state is not the people, nor the land nor the government, but all of them and in addition, the state must possess that unity which makes it a distinct and independent political entity. These features are common to all states, irrespective of their historically specific manifestations. It can be said that the absence of one of the four opens a policy window for a state to be called a failed state.<\/p>\n

      Since both, Professor Fukuyama and Bush\u2019s optimism made the world believe that the post-Cold War would give birth to strong states, where did failed states come from?<\/p>\n

      A Fragile States Index published by the Fund for Peace, a think-tank, gives us the road map from a state to a failed state. it defines a failed state as a state that can no longer perform the basic functions of government, such as providing security and law enforcement, raising taxes, and controlling its territory and borders. The characteristics of a failed state are a government incapable of tax collection, law enforcement agencies are dysfunctional, security assurance is uncertain, territorial control is impossible, political or civil offices are almost ineffective, and infrastructure development and maintenance are a nightmare. 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, or they are occurring.<\/p>\n

      \n

      Is the Democratic Republic of Congo a Failed State?<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      <\/h4>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      An era that gave birth to new political thoughts that reshaped international relations and coined the theory of balance of power in international relations. Among other things, the New World Order\u2019s theorists and supporters suggest that in the new era, states may secure their survival by preventing any one state from gaining enough military power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"0","type":"percentage","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[{"good_text":""}],"bad":[{"bad_text":""}],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[{"rating_text":"","rating_number":"10"}],"price":[{"shop":"","price":"","link":"","icon":""}],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5323],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17598"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17604,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598\/revisions\/17604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}