Ecuador, Peru, and the Failed States Index Map
Check out Foreign Policy’s Failed States Index Map. Interesting stuff.
My gripe: Ecuador is listed as “borderline,” while neighboring Peru is described as “in danger.”
Is Peru really in worse shape than Ecuador, which has seen three presidents deposed since 1997? While Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo’s approval ratings have been subterranean for a while (only about 7-10% of Peruvians currently approve of his performance), the government appears more stable than its northern neighbor.
The country-by-country data provides some insight: Peru receives a poorer score for “Security Apparatus.” I suppose that’s a reference to the Peruvian state’s ongoing struggle to deal with those pesky Maoist rebels, the Shining Path. The guerillas have been quiet of late, though, so I find this explanation surprising.
UPDATE: I just took another glance at the map, and I wanna know this: who’s doing the fact-checking over at Foreign Policy? Morgan Spurlock? Amazingly, Bolivia’s not even included on the list.
Bolivia’s president — as you’ll recall reading about here and elsewhere — stepped down a few months ago after a massive indigenous uprising. Bolivia is truly teeting on the edge of chaos; Peru and Ecuador are comparatively far from collapse.
Bolivia: Failed States Index Map
Newley Purnell wants to know why Bolivia isn’t on the Foreign Policy Failed States Index Map while Ecuador and Peru are.
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Global Voices Online
16 Aug 05 at 2:31 pm
Just found your site via Global Voices.
A while back I published two posts linking to articles on the failed states index and some of the problems with it:
http://bloggingsbyboz.blogspot.com/2005/06/index-of-failed-states-fails.html
http://bloggingsbyboz.blogspot.com/2005/07/followup-on-failed-states-index.html
They really failed to capture the right tone on Latin America. You’re right, for the region, Bolivia should definitely been up there and probably above Peru and Ecuador but still well below Haiti, which is the only completely “failed state” in the Western Hemisphere. I can see a case for placing Colombia possibly in the top 50, but definitely NOT in the top 20. A good case for ranking in the top 50 on failed statehood can be made for Cuba, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic as well. Overall, it’s an index that tried too hard to rank all states on some common standard, and managed to fail a common sense test.
boz
16 Aug 05 at 6:18 pm
One suggestion. Take a look at these two sites. There you can get the, more or less, reasons why Bolivia is not yet included.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3109
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3111
Miguel (MABB)
17 Aug 05 at 2:14 am