History Main / FailedState

** The Republic (see Film above) was in even worse shape in the expanded universe than the films. {{Megacorp}}s had Senate seats. Planetary governments that were covertly or even overtly feudal or dictatorships with rampant abuse by corrupt local officials and the Republic having little to no way of enforcing their own laws, or looking the other way because of political circumstances. Most citizens lived in such horrible poverty that crawling your way up to a one-room squat on a CityPlanet ''surface'' was considered "making it." The local crime cartel was more of a presence in daily life than one's elected officials, and many Senators were either outright in the back pocket of these cartels or playing {{Realpolitik}} with them. Add several points in the Old Republic era where [[ForeverWar decades or centuries of Jedi-Sith warfare]] left dozens of blighted planets and trillions of displaced refugees. It's telling when Creator/{{Disney}} had to go out of their way to [[Franchise/StarWarsTheHighRepublic create a whole era]] so they could try and depict a ''functional'' Republic.

** The Republic (see Film above) was in even worse shape in the expanded universe than the films. {{Megacorp}}s had Senate seats. Planetary governments that were covertly or even overtly feudal or dictatorships with rampant abuse by corrupt local officials and the Republic having little to no way of enforcing their own laws, or looking the other way because of political circumstances. Most citizens lived in such horrible poverty that crawling your way up to a one-room squat on a CityWorld ''surface'' was considered "making it." The local crime cartel was more of a presence in daily life than one's elected officials, and many Senators were either outright in the back pocket of these cartels or playing {{Realpolitik}} with them. Add several points in the Old Republic era where decades or centuries of Jedi-Sith warfare left dozens of blighted planets and trillions of displaced refugees. It's telling when Creator/{{Disney}} had to go out of their way to [[Franchise/StarWarsTheHighRepublic create a whole era]] so they could try and depict a ''functional'' Republic.

Not to be confused with VestigialEmpire, though those can often ''result'' in failed states in the provinces governed by a weakening empire. SuperTrope to FallenStatesOfAmerica, which is for settings where the United States has become one of these. Can be used to justify CapitalismIsBad, DemocracyIsBad, or FascistButInefficient. Compare with SoiledCityOnAHill, UngovernableGalaxy, and WretchedHive.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': {{Downplayed}} with the Galactic Republic in the prequel trilogy. It's still marginally functional, but so comically corrupt and inept that, in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', the Senate's response to a private corporation attempting to [[CorporateWarfare extort a member state with a military blockade]] is to scratch their collective butts and idly wonder if maybe that's possibly their problem. The Supreme Chancellor (equivalent to a prime minister) is forced to go behind the Senate's back to get the Jedi Order involved, and then -- due to [[BigBad Sheev "Darth Sidious" Palpatine]] exploiting the Republic's failure to provide basic governance in order to overthrow it all together -- is fired by the Senate for his trouble.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': In ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'', Daenerys overthrows the slaver aristocracy of the city-state of Astapor, installs a government of freedmen, and moves on to conquer the other cities of Slaver's Bay. Not long afterwards, a man named Cleon claims the new government to be plotting to return power to the slavers, has them executed, and names himself king. Cleon proves to be an inept ruler and, under his attempted oversight, Astapor rapidly degenerates into an anarchic state, where each ziggurat palace becomes an independent armed camp and the markets grow empty of food and necessities. In ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', things continue to degenerate when Yukai'i forces besiege the city, Cleon is assassinated for his throne, his successor is killed in the same manner by two competing would-be monarchs, and a dysentery epidemic breaks out for good measure. By the time the Yunkai'i breach the gates, nothing is left of Astapori society but a chaotic, dying ruin.

** The northeastern region of the River Kingdoms, known as the Stolen Lands, are so named because no attempt to establish more than token settlements there seems to survive for very long between monster attacks, bandits, pranks by local fey, and natural disasters. The name refers to a local superstition that the region has been "stolen" from humanity. There turns out to be a reason for this in the ''Kingmaker Adventure Path'' and [[VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker the video game based on it]]: [[spoiler:since ancient times, the elder nymph Nyrissa has been propping up one civilization after another and then arranging its destruction, in order to win a bet with the Lantern King and get her heart back from him]].

*** A RevolvingDoorRevolution scenario could occur due to ArtificialStupidity where factions that had just succeeded in overthrowing a prior liege would almost immediately start plotting against the next liege due to "new ruler" penalties to RelationshipValues (the 2.7 patch mitigated this by giving usurpers an opinion bonus with their former faction supporters). This tended to end with all parties fighting each other to exhaustion and often getting conquered by other countries.

** Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, northern Somalia, and southern Ethiopia start as such due to events before the game starts due to the economic and bureaucratic chaos caused in the aftermath of World War II.

** Komi, located in what was once northwest Russia, quickly devolves into a failed state due to the chaos within its extremely politically-divided government. If [[spoiler:Sergei Taboritsky]] successfully becomes head of state, [[spoiler:he establishes an inefficient, incredibly genocidal [[FascistButInefficient fascist regime]] across western Russia, which inevitably collapses after he dies of insanity]].

A failed state is a SubTrope of CrapsackWorld where, for one reason or another, a nation's government has all but collapsed. Maybe a [[ForeverWar war]] has drained its wealth and resources, or a [[TheFamine famine]] or [[ThePlague disease]] has devastated its population, and everyone is too busy [[ReducedToRatburgers scrounging for food]] to support a bureaucracy. Maybe a series of {{Civil War}}s or [[TheCoup coup d'êtats]] has left the nation too chaotic and divided to be effectively governed. Either way, the existing central authority has been weakened to the point where it's unable to enforce the law or provide for its citizens.

* ''VideoGame/Bioshock1'': Widespread [[PsychoSerum ADAM]] addiction and a violent civil war (which started on the 1959 New Year's Eve by rioting from Atlas's supporters) caused the collapse of any government authority in Rapture. The only law enforcement officers Jack meets in the city are ADAM-addled splicers. [[spoiler:The deaths of Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine would cause further chaos since they were the sole major power players in the city.]] Only Sofia Lamb's Family was able to bring a modicum of order to the city.

* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'':