The 2011 Failed State Index, an annual ranking jointly conducted by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine in the US, was released on June 20.

It ranked 177 countries using 12 different indicators. And to no one's surprise, most of the countries that topped the list are from Africa, ravaged by civil war, poverty, and natural disasters.

Among them, Somalia was ranked the most failed country, followed by Chad, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Others of the top 10 most failed countries include Haiti, a country struggling to recover from its 2010 earthquake, Zimbabwe, still going through political crisis and economic collapse, Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which were destroyed by the US-led war on terror, and the Cote d'Ivoire, currently fighting a bloody civil war.

But it is necessary to ask a question: What and who failed them?

A glance of the political system of these most failed countries has revealed that most of them adopted a Western-style democracy under pressure from their former colonizers, although usually after a long period of dictatorship beforehand.

The people of these countries were told that this political system could solve their social and economic problems, and transform their countries into better and less corrupt states. But the reality is most of the African countries were newly established during the 1960s, with a patchwork of ethnic groups forced together in artificial national boundaries, resulting in widespread conflict. Politicians often pander to ethnic feeling to win votes, and so multi-party democracy has become a trigger for constant ethnic conflicts and even civil wars.

The Cote d'Ivoire is one of the examples. After its independence from France, the country has enjoyed a brief prosperity under the rule of Félix Houphou?t-Boigny's single-party administration, because the administration was cautious in handling ethnic issues. But things started to fall apart after Houphou?t-Boigny's death in 1993.

The country adopted multi-party democracy in 1995. But it only worsened conflicts since both presidential candidates appealed to their own ethnic group. The country has experienced numerous domestic crises and two civil wars since transforming this former "pearl of West Africa" to a country where the average life expectancy is now under 50.

Lengthy policy debate may be very helpful for a developed country, but for third world countries that lacks a basic standard of living, a powerful government that can provide essential services and national building may be more suitable for them. High unemployment and poor education can easily drive people going for war, since joining the military is often seen the only way of survival.

But building the nation requires a good economy, and that's what most African countries don't have. They have borrowed billions from international organizations, but most of the money was wasted in war, corruption and peacekeeping.

Their formal colonizers, who now dominate the world market, told them exporting raw materials and opening up their markets to Western goods was the quickest path to prosperity. But most of their revenues ended up in the pocket of international corporations.

Therefore, these countries failed primarily because they don't own their countries, both politically and economically. Their political systems were installed by foreign powers and their economies were not controlled by their own people. These foreign countries, on the other hand, are now standing on the other side of the Index and are thought to be relatively successful.

Although some of them have been seriously affected by their own financial crisis, it didn't stop them from being ranked at the bottom of the Index, indicating their success.

This is particularly the case with Greece which, despite massive unrest, a collapsing economy that threatens the rest of the eurozone, and widespread distrust in the government, was ranked 143 out of 177 countries in the Index.

Premier Wen Jiabao recently remarked that China would continue to invest in Europe's bond market, signaling the country's willingness of helping the Europeans combat the looming crisis. China, however, was only ranked 73 in the Index.