Ivory Coast - From Stability to Collapse. Failed States in Time of Globalisation
Robert Ištok, Tomáš Koziak Robert Ištok University of Ostrava Czech Republic Tomáš Koziak University of Prešov Slovakia Abstract The number of states that can be considered as failed is growing. Such a phenomenon occured as one of the results of globalisation processes. Our paper examines the case of Ivory Coast as an example of how global changes turned a relatively prosperous country into a failed state. Key words: democratization, failed state, globalisation, Ivory Coast Currently, to explain conflicts in Africa that lead to the collapse of a state, the argument most frequently used is the ethnic heterogeneity of such artificially created units. In relation to that, one could expect the creation of separatist movements or movements for the integration of ethnic groups divided by a border, which, however, in Africa, is not a more frequent event than in other parts of the world. It is therefore possible to assume that the reasons for the destabilisation of African states are more complex and require a deeper analysis. A number of countries that we find on the political map of Africa, basically as states as we know them from our European empirical experience, no longer work. Governments have not been able to secure for the population the basic functions of a state – safety, the rule of law or a functional economic system. Those states were gradually carved out between local rulers, who control their territories militarily and economically. Such a catastrophic scenario has found and is finding its realisation in a number of African
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