The Reasons Underlying Failed States Research Paper

Why States Fail: Zimbabwe
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Introduction
In this paper, we are going to highlight the factors leading to failure of states; more particularly in the developing countries. Many developing countries are faced with almost the same challenges throughout the globe. These challenges include: bad governance, corruption and civil wars which significantly affects the development and economy of the specified countries (Kidd & Richter, 2003). In this article, therefore, we shall discuss the state of Zimbabwe which has been struggling to economic stability for many decades. In any country, the citizens play an important role in ensuring the development of the economy. As a result, government leaders and politicians have the mandate to ensure that the interest of the citizens is well addressed and represented. However, in most cases the leaders take advantage of their position to exploit the common citizens through aspects such as corruption, bad governance and poor implementation of laws which are focused on dictatorship (Kidd & Richter, 2003). Zimbabwe, for instance is highly dominated by dictatorship governance which ensures that those against the government are mistreated through jail arrests or even murdered.
The following are the major factors attributing to failure of Zimbabwe: corruption, dictatorship and bad governance. Corruption in the general terms is defined as the misuse of power entrusted to people for their own private benefits (Owoye & Bissessar, 2012). It is a bad practice that corrodes the fabric of the society leading to embezzlements or misuse of public funds which could have been used towards enriching the entire nation. It is harmful to every person depending on the integrity of people in positions of authority. Additionally, corruption leads to decomposition and decay of moral principles and virtues in the society resulting in lack of faith and trust in both private and public institutions. There are three forms of corruption namely: political corruption, economic corruption and bureaucratic corruption (Owoye & Bissessar, 2012).
Political corruption is among the greatest threats to good governance. Since Zimbabwe is a dictatorship nation, this form of corruption is eminent. It involves the use of power by government officials and politicians for illegal purposes. During the year 2000, the Zimbabwean president, Mugabe came up with a bad land reform program which was aimed at evicting all the white farmers from Zimbabwean plantations. This led to the British farmers to flee to the United Kingdom with their expertise and the money. Meanwhile, the government was unable to manage the farms resulting to over 400,000 farmers losing the employment. The farms were then redistributed among the prominent and elite government officials in Robert Mugabe’s inner circle of the ruling ZANU-PF party. Allocation of the public land to his (Mugabe’s) officials indicated a major corruption graft and signs of poor governance. The country could not provide enough corn for the Zimbabwean people hence the prices for maize soared and the agricultural sector come tumbling down. This further led to investors’ lose of interest and confidence in the collapsin...