Comparative Analysis of Brazil, Mexico, and India 

A state's capacity is highly affected by its sovereignty, legitimacy, bureaucracy, and territory. If a country cannot use its own force of power on itself, then is likely to face some turmoil when facing that problem. A huge problem with the countries Brazil, Mexico, and India is that they have been plagued with corruption and are now dealing with the consequences. There are questions to the legitimacy of their governments and they have changed their governments into democracy to hopefully restrict corruption from arising. Bureaucracy has a hand in whether states are corrupt or not. In some cases the leaders will take a more economic approach without worrying about the sectors of government, specifically grievances. Territory affects a state as it determines where a state is and what it is in control of. It can affect their economic growth with regards to trade and previously what labor forces were used. As it comes into question, the states have some strengths, but as new modern states they also have their weaknesses.

The states are all roughly in the moderately weak states, but unlike India and Mexico, Brazil is worsening with a rank of 106 out of 177. This is most likely a result of the declining oil prices and a corruption scandal regarding the national oil company. Brazil's democracy also faced its greatest crisis with the forced resignation of all its leaders. The legitimacy of the governments was highly in question as the states once they were deemed sovereign. Brazil's claim to legitimacy revolves around the basis that their leaders are charismatic and use clientelism in a democratic system. Mexico's sovereignty was recognized, but as a postcolonial state, the state could have been stronger. Now Mexico faces the problem of having weak control over its northern region and some southern indigenous regions. With high levels of corruption, the drug cartels that run the northern region of Mexico have made it difficult for the government to take control. Around 75,000 - 100,000 people have been killed because of the cartel. India's sovereignty emerged out of colonial rule and was due to a strong sense of nationalism. This identity helped India unite, but in some problems as there are still reasons to believe that religious groups are underrepresented. However, religious based movements threaten India's belief of a secular democracy and the religious tensions that come with it weaken the bureaucratic rule. With their form of democracy, there has been a growing inequality, where India holds the largest number of poor citizens that may be facing malnutrition.

All three states have somewhat similar capacities. Mainly due to the corruption and the eagerness to achieve economic wellbeing over the wellbeing of their citizens. The states of India and Mexico fail to provide support to group grievances. Mexico with the mass violence from the cartel and India with the group hatred Muslim-Hindu conflict. Brazil and India on the other hand face problems with demographic pressures. Brazil's oil fiasco has driven it to decline as a strong competitor economically, and India massive population creates problem with public health and malnutrition amongst poorer citizens.

Based on how the states have been, we can hypothesize that the states that seek economic growth, tend to disregard its own citizens and may become corrupt and weak since it ruins the legitimacy of their government.

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