How Is a Failed State Perceived by Its Citizenry? A Study of the Metaphors that Reveal These Perceptions

The use of metaphor in the citizen’s language is yet another discourse feature we need to fathom as a measure of state failure, particularly as represented in the journalists’ or TV broadcasters’ perception and conceptualization of the situation. The label itself “failed” is a metaphor used by the citizens (ordinary or media producers) when they have to provide an imaginative description and reasoning of the performance of their own state and its inability to deliver. Hence, to continue explaining the notion of a state as a “failed”, or “weak”, from the perceptions of the citizenry, and to further examine the degrees of cohesion (inclusion vs. exclusion), corruption or sectarianism within the state, I intend to explore the way in which the citizens’ metaphors suggest a likeness to the actual experiences witnessed by individuals in such states.