Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Masoud Akhavan Kazemi ¹
• Golnaz Narimani ²

¹ Professor, Department of Political Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

² PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

A few historical governments have existed for a long time, but the government is relatively old and lasts up to a few centuries, especially in its modern form. A modern government is an organization that controls legal law and applies it legitimately. The government is the only organization with the authority and right to use legitimate violence. Throughout history and during the past eras, many governments have been formed in all parts of the world, and each of them has reached the point of collapse after some time. Although the existence of the state is more durable and survival compared to the government, and in other words, it is "more or less than ever," the specific policies of the formation of the states are taken into consideration. However, the point is under what conditions they fall apart; it has received less attention from researchers. This article aims to answer the question, under what conditions can a government be destroyed or collapsed?
To find the causes and factors of the collapse and fall of governments, the current research, using the theories of systemic analysis, besides explaining the various forms of government collapse, examines all the internal and external factors and factors of the collapse of a government. To understand this issue, it has been taken from systemic analysis; systemic analysis refers to a point of view that can be used to investigate and analyze a phenomenon. Systemic analysis leads to a better understanding of phenomena and avoids reductionism. In recent decades, system analysis has been proposed as an efficient tool for new sciences and specialized supplementary studies in various social fields in scientific and academic circles. This causes a general and multifaceted understanding of why and the phenomena and events governing behavioral affairs.
In systemic analysis, the political system, as an intellectual system, has several subsystems. A crisis in any of these subsystems, including the economic or political subsystem, can lead to the fragility and collapse of the government. In this view, the government is a set of interconnected and systematic elements and propositions. Disruption in any of these elements can lead to the collapse or destruction of the state.
In addition to the internal connection between its components, the government as a system also has a connection with external changes at different and numerous levels. The state has the property of food with its external elements. As a result of these connections between the government and the environment and the actions and reactions between them, differences or imbalances occur in the government system.
In a general classification, the collapse and disintegration of governments can be classified in the form of two main categories—external factors and factors and internal factors. External factors deal with the relations between the government and other countries in the international community. The second category also refers to the relationship between the government and its internal society. It is essential to mention that these two groups of factors influence each other, and a change in the intensity and weakness of one causes a change in the intensity and weakness of the other. This means that the collapse of the government extends from the internal situation to the foreign relations of the troubled government. Also, the weakening of foreign authority substantially impacts its internal stability.
Research studies indicate that at the external level of the government system, essential factors such as war and foreign invasion, climate change, the pressures of powers and economic sanctions, and issues of a succession of governments can become the fragility of the government and against it. It will eventually collapse. In the internal dimension, crises in three subsystems, political, economic, and social, can turn into the collapse of the government. In other words, factors such as political crises and the distortion of governance, economic crises such as inflation and damage, and social issues such as the crisis of failure to start and the crisis of participation are the main factors affecting the collapse and disintegration of a government. The weakening, incapacity, decline, and decay of governments either due to external factors, in the economic forms of political policies and foreign invasion and war, and in some cases, due to climate change and the succession of governments to another place. It occurs or results from internal changes in the political, economic, and social structure, civil wars, accumulation of crises, and loss of internal legitimacy.

Keywords

• Systemic Analysis
• State Collapse
• Fragile States
• Government
• Sovereignty

Main Subjects

• The State