Malaysia came in at 73rd spot in a new “stateness” index for 2022 created by researchers in Germany, lagging far behind Singapore which ranked first on the list.
Theresa Paola Stawski, a political scientist from Würzburg University, investigated how well the states of the world function.
In a statement from the the university last Thursday (June 29), Stawski said that the idea of “the state” is more than just the people in charge of the federal government and the states and municipalities within that country.
The researcher explained that a patient quickly receiving a doctor’s appointment when they need an X-ray, children having a large selection of schools to go to, and communities having plenty of electricity day or night are all examples of well-functioning states.
We can see the state in everything that surrounds us, for example in the streets, the courts, the police or the schools.
But how well do the states of this world function? This is what the political scientist set out to investigate over the past few months.
In her ranking, which is available on the internet, Germany ranked tenth out of 173 countries in 2022.
According to the Stateness Index, a Cypriot currently lives in a "defective" state, just like a Moroccan or an Indian.
Citizens from Luxembourg, Norway or Belgium, on the other hand, are lucky enough to live in a highly functional state, just like Germans.
Stawski said whether a state functions well or not does not always have something to do with democracy.
“Singapore, for example, is not a democracy,” said Stawski, adding that nevertheless, analysis showed that the country is at the top in terms of statehood.
She said the United Arab Emirates is also in the field of highly functional states.
The new Stateness Index covers a long period of time: the development of various states since 1950.
The rankings for 2022 placed a somewhat surprising country at the top of the world — Singapore. The tiny Asian nation finished ahead of Australia (second), Denmark (third), the Netherlands (fourth), and Estonia (fifth) to round out the top five on the list of 173 countries.
While the researchers described the US as a “high functioning state", America couldn’t break into the top 20, finishing in 23rd place.
The US finished just ahead of the Czech Republic, Austria, and Canada, but way behind other world powers such as Germany (10th), the United Kingdom (13th), and France (20th).
Interestingly, the fact that the US has the longest standing democracy does not help its ranking when it comes to being a well-run state.
While Singapore snatched top spot with a total value index (TVI) of 0.93 and was classified as a high functioning state, Malaysia was ranked 73rd with a TVI of 0.655 and was classified as a moderate functioning state.
Source: The Edge Markets
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