Failed States

Whether or not the state has "failed" is determined by the state's stability. The states which are most exposed or at risk during times of crisis are the weakest. Weak states are at risk of collapse with just one crisis. An interesting aspect of determining a states stability is the direct correlation between parliamentary power and a state's risk of failing. The graph shows that the greater the parliamentary power, the less at risk the state is of failing. It is interesting to see that the United States, though definitely stable, is not one of the most stable. The country has the reputation of being "the best" or the "greatest." But in this graph, it seems to be just average. In fact, the map of the failed states shows that, though the US is stable, it is definitely not as strong as it could be. The weaker the nation, the greedier the leader. Many leaders of weak nations earn money in any way they can - both legally and illegally. I believe a nation will be weaker if a leader's only drive for success is greed for money. For example, North Korea's leader, Kim Jon Il is accused of counterfeiting millions of US dollars in order to keep his state's destitute economy from total failure. Many states, to compensate for failing economies, try to compensate with inflation. Though economists say that inflation can help move along economic growth, too much inflation can be trouble. As seen in the graph, states with the greatest amount of inflation are also the weakest, the ones at most risk for failure.

From this site, one could assume that the most stable states would be the ones with the most solid democracies. A solid democracy would have a strong parliament selected for the people, and by the people. It would have honorable leaders with the county's best interest in mind. Strong leaders and parliament should give the county a good, strong, well run economy, though this doesn't necessarily always correlate. However, when crisis hits hard, a solid democracy would be able to deal with it better than a government laced with corruption.