Beyond the Other? A postcolonial critique of the failed state thesis

This article challenges existing analyses of state failure and their casting of African societies in the role of deviant Other to those of Western Europe and North America. Drawing on insights derived from postcolonial studies, the article argues that the comparative approach to identifying so‐called failed states adopted by this literature contrasts African states to a static, ahistorical definition of the state based on exclusively European values customs, practices, organisation and structures. In this way, failed state analysts constitute the identities of African societies in relation to those of the West, simultaneously attributing negative characteristics to the former and positive to the latter. By calling for a rejection the term failed state the article seeks to challenge the continued positioning of African societies in the role of delinquent, deviant and imperfect Other.