I still think the single-language ethnostate is the most ideal form of country but there are various factors that contribute to a nation being less successful. In Africa; Burundi, Rwanda, Morocco, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana & maybe Egypt can be considered "nation states", but are not as wildly wealthy nor have as high a HDI as Greece or Spain, for example. So what is the problem?
It's just my theory but I think here, we have a cultural problem where in some lands untrustworthy leaders, external destabilising or geography have played a big role in keeping a nation state underdeveloped. This is not only prevalent in Africa's nation-states but in countries around the Caucasus & eastern Europe where the culture sometimes revolves around corruption & being downtrodden. Sometimes a nation has been oppressed & it's people depressed so long that the people do not see their country being any better because they believe "This is just how we are." And because they are they custodians of their national identity, they believe that it is their culture to be as they are. It often takes just a few people or even one in the case of Burkina Faso to make fundamental reforms to completely change the nation's future & image of itself. Simple government transparency & improvements to the lands education system could pay-off in a big way just several years later. People often talk about how Germany & Japan built their economies from rubbles after World War Two but it was due to big investments from the USA. And, of course, investments are valuable but it is possible for a land to amass wealth without investments or mined wealth & just simple, prudent planning of their land's economy.
Government transparency & an improved education system will work for any country but it works especially well in united countries i. e. single-language ethnostates. Rwanda, Morocco & Botswana are not unique in their development, a government that has publicly available state expenditure records is well on it's way to leading it's people out of the darkness.
A corrupt government of the most ethnically pure, single-language nation state could always bring a country down & then it is up to the people to decide if this is what their nation really deserves.
I think multicultural & multinational countries can work but I still think single-language nation states can always outdo multicultural lands with the same systems & governance structures implemented.
A nation state with South Africa's infrastructure & governance systems could be on the level of various developed countries but it is the racial, cultural & ideological conflicts that will keep South Africa stagnant.
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