Do States Fail or Are They Pushed? Lessons Learned From Three Former Portuguese Colonies

Abstract

For the mainstream literature, the notion of failed state is void of political or systemic meaning: states fail because they are allegedly not capable of adopting the necessary reforms, either in economic or in institutional terms. Quite differently, we argue that state failure must be understood as the result of a complex mix of exogenous and internal factors. The combination of an overload of demands by the donor community and the non-prioritization of internal legitimacy are at the heart of most state failure processes. Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau have often been included in the group of “risk states” or “poor performers”. The analysis of their historical trajectory shows the need of a more complex approach than the usual prescriptive strategies, such as political conditionality, associated to failed or collapsed states.