CPO 4034
Fall 2013
Room: 134 Anderson
Time: T 5-6 (11:45am-1:40pm) & R 6 (12:50pm-1:40pm)
Dong-Joon Jung
Office: 305 Anderson
Office Hours: R 10:50am-12:50pm
Email: djjung@ufl.edu
POLITICS OF DEVELOPING NATIONS
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Developing nations account for over one-half of the world’s territory. This course examines the
trajectories they have followed over the last half century focusing on the three key areas:
economic development, the state building, and political development.
With regard to economic development several questions will be explored. Why have some
countries fallen into poverty traps while others have achieved economic development? What
has been the impact of the globalization of markets on developing nations? Has it served as a
driving force for economic development or has it been a hindrance? And is there a way out of
the poverty trap?
Next, we will touch on the issue of the state and bureaucratic development. What is the
state and why is it important? Why have some developing nations experience state failure? And
why are some countries more prone to be involved in conflict while others have been more
peaceful?
The third part of the course will be devoted to political development. How have
authoritarian countries made the transition to democracy? Why has the democratization
process of some countries been more successful that others? Is there any correlation between
economic status and democratization? And what are the prospects for countries falling into
the ”grey zone” between democracy and dictatorship?
After familiarizing ourselves with these theoretical frameworks for understanding
development, we will attempt to apply them to the real world by taking a close look at three
developing regions: Latin America, Africa, and post-communist Eurasia. Students will work in
small groups to become experts on one of the three regions throughout the semester.
This course will especially be relevant to those of you who have interests in political
economy, democratization and regime changes, state building, and conflicts.
COURSE MATERIALS
Students will read two complete books, book chapters, and journal articles throughout the
semester. The required books are available at the UF Bookstore and other readings are
available to download at the UF library course reserve website. The required books are:
 Paul Collier. 2007. The Bottom Billion, Oxford University.
 B.C. Smith. 2013. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and
Development, Palgrave Macmillan.
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REQUIREMENTS (% of the final grade)
Exams (2 × 25%): There will be two in-class exams (non-cumulative), each of which will account
for 25% of the final grade. Exams will consist of multiple choice, short answer, short essay, and
long essay questions. Students are required to bring their own Blue Books available at
bookstores nearby to the exam. No make-up exams are allowed except in the case of an
emergency that you can prove with official documentation. An alternative assignment which
may be more difficult and in a different format will be given to those students with approved
excuses.
Region expert group presentation and report (25%): Students will be asked to submit their first
and second preferences on which region out of the three developing areas (Latin America,
Africa, and the post-communist region) they would like to become experts on. Upon the
collected preferences, the instructor will divide students into nine groups, three of which will
be assigned the same region. (No changes on the group members are allowed.)
Students will work in a collaborative manner through regular meetings both inside of and
outside of class hours, share the information with each other, discuss how the region has
performed in terms of the three different issues of development (economic, state/bureaucracy,
and political). To facilitate and aid the group work, this syllabus includes a list of academic
readings focusing on each of the regions. These readings on each region are recommended for
those who are not experts on the region, but required for the experts. Experts must cite at least
some of those readings as the evidence of their arguments. Also, experts should catch up with
the most up-to-date events and situations in the region through the semester using various
sources available online and offline.
Good group presentations and reports will include (1) a brief summary of how the region has
performed in terms of the three development areas. Depending on the region, experts are
allowed to focus more on one or two development areas than on the others. The judgment of
the performance should be based on clear evidence you have found through various online and
offline sources. The links provided at the back of this syllabus and the reading list included in
the section of the region will serve as a good starting point to search for the evidence. It might
be a good strategy to pick one or several countries as an example that supports for your
argument. And then, (2) experts should select a few theories covered during the class and
evaluate the extent to which those theories explain the empirical outcomes you have observed.
Do they provide a good fit for the region, or not? If not, why did those theories fail to explain
what is empirically found? In the end, (3) as a conclusion, you will need to provide a reflection
on how the theories can be improved. That is, you should try to make your own hypotheses
that can better explain what has been observed in the region.
Presentation should take up 10 to 12 minutes followed by questions from the floor for
around 10 minutes. Thus, up to 25 minutes will be given to each group’s presentation. Using
visual aids such as Powerpoint slides will be helpful for a more effective presentation. In
addition to the presentation, each group should hand in a group report that is 6 to 8 page long
(except for the list of cited works, double-spaced, 12 point font, with normal margins) to the
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instructor by 5:00 PM before the day of presentation. The report should contain what is covered
by presentation, but must be put in more organized essay format.
Each group member will be given the same grade for the group work first, and then the
grade will be weighted according to in-group peer evaluation on your contribution to the group
effort. An anonymous questionnaire will be distributed after the group presentations. Students
who are judged to have done less than their fair share on the project by the other members of
the group will be dropped a half grade. On the contrary, those who are judged to have done
more than fair share will be granted an extra half grade. For instance, if the group is given B+,
more-than-fair members will be graded A- and less-than-fair members will get B.
Individual research paper (15%): This assignment involves picking one developing country that
is familiar to you or captures your interest during the course, and analyzing the case in terms of
one developmental issue (out of economic, state/bureaucracy, and political development). The
country may or may not be the case in the region you expertise in the group work. Through this
paper, students are required to link theories taught in the course to empirical country case
using available online/offline data source and/or the arguments made by other scholarly works.
Excellent papers should contain both in-depth understanding on the theories about the
selected development issue and rich knowledge on the selected country. All in all, you can
consider this a country-version expert report. The paper should be 4 to 5 pages long (not
including the bibliography, double-spaced, 12 point font, with normal margin). It must be
submitted to the instructor by 5:00 PM on December 6th.
Attendance and participation (10%): Attendance and participation in in-class discussion is
essential. An attendance sheet will be circulated every class and the total numbers of the
present and signed students will be counted and compared to prevent any cheating on the
attendance check. Please see the UF attendance policy:
https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/attendance.aspx
Active involvement in in-class discussion is also important. In a normal situation, the twoperiod classes on Tuesday will be devoted to lectures where the instructor covers the basic
theories and arguments of each week’s readings, and the one-period classes on Thursday will
be spent discussing what is covered in the lecture, where students’ active participation is
essential.
GRADES
Grading Scale:
A = 90 or ABOVE
A- = 87-89
B+ = 84-86
B = 80-83
B- = 77-79
C+ = 74-76
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C = 70-73
C- = 67-69
D+ = 64-66
D = 60-63
D- = 57-59
E = 56 or BELOW
Late policy: You will receive a full grade deduction from the grade designated for the
assignment for the first day your submission is late. After that, you will receive a “half grade”
deduction per day. So, if you hand in an assignment that would have earned a B+ one day late,
you will receive a C+. If you hand in an assignment that would have earned a B+ two days late,
you will receive a C, and so on.
POLICIES
Academic Honesty: All UF students promise to abide by the university’s Honor Code, which
prevents students from receiving unauthorized aid on assignments. Plagiarism or other forms of
unauthorized assistance may result in a failing grade on assignments. Please read the Student
Honor Code for more information; http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcode.php
Cell Phones: Cell phones must be on silent mode during class. Class lectures may not be taped
without my permission.
Disability Resource Center: Students with physical, learning, sensory or psychological
disabilities should register with the Disability Resource Center: http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc/
This center will then work with instructors to help accommodate the students (by providing
note takers, extra time for exams). Please do this at the beginning of the semester, not right
before the first exam, as it takes the center some time to make appropriate arrangements.
COURSE SCHEDULE (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Week 1 (August 22): Organizational meeting
Distribution of syllabus, discussion of course and requirements
I. Introduction
Week 2 (August 27, 29): Breakouts: independence from colonialism and the breakdown of
communism
 B.C. Smith. 2013. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and
Development, Chapter 1.
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

Paul Collier. 2007. The Bottom Billion, Chapter 1.
M. Steven Fish. 1995. Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New
Russian Revolution, Princeton UP, Chapter 1.
II. Economic development
Week 3 (September 3, 5): The poverty trap: resource curse and dependency theory
> September 5: In-class meetings with regional expert groups
 Paul Collier. 2007. The Bottom Billion, Chapter 3.
 Pauline Jones Luong. 2006. "Combating the Resource Curse: An Alternative Solution to
Managing Mineral Wealth," Perspectives on Politics 4(1): 35-53.
 B.C. Smith. 2013. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and
Development, Chapter 3.
Recommended:
 Michael L. Ross. 2001. “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?,” World Politics 53:325-36.
 Benjamin Smith. 2004. “Oil Wealth and Regime Survival in the Developing World, 19601999,” American Journal of Political Science 48:232-246.
Week 4 (September 10, 12): Globalization: Path to development or myth?
 Paul Collier. 2007. The Bottom Billion, Chapter 6.
 Joseph M. Grieco and G. John Ikenberry. 2002. State power and world markets : the
international political economy, Chapters 7, 8.
Week 5 (September 17, 19): Searching for the wayout
 Paul Collier. 2007. The Bottom Billion, Chapter 7 (also skim chapters 8-10).
 Joseph E. Stiglitz. 2002. Globalization and its discontents, Chapter 9.
Recommended:
 Jeffrey. D. Sachs, "The Strategic Significance of Global Inequality," The Washington
Quarterly (Summer 2001), pp.187-98.
III. State development
Week 6 (September 24, 26): The concept of the state
> September 26: In-class meetings with regional expert groups
 B.C. Smith. 2013. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and
Development, Chapters 4 and 6.
 Francis Fukuyama. 2004. State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st
Century, Chapter 1.
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Week 7 (October 1, 3): State failure in the third world
 Paul Collier. 2007. The Bottom Billion, Chapter 5.
 B.C. Smith. 2013. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and
Development, Chapters 7 and 9.
Week 8 (October 8, 10): What causes failure? Civil wars and international influence
 Paul Collier. 2007. The Bottom Billion, Chapters 2 and 4.
 B.C. Smith. 2013. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and
Development, Chapter 8.
 Jeffrey S. Kopstein and David A. Reilly. 2000. “Geographic Diffusion and the
Transformation of the Postcommunist World.” World Politics 53: 1-37.
Week 9 (October 15, 17): Midterm Exam
> October 17: In-class meetings with regional expert groups
October 15 (Tue): Exam #1
IV. Political development
Week 10 (October 22, 24): The Third wave
 B.C. Smith. 2013. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and
Development, Chapter 10.
 Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation:
Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. (Baltimore, Johns
Hopkins University Press), Chapter 1.
 Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan. 1996. "Towards Consolidated Democracies," Journal of
Democracy 7, 2.
Week 11 (October 29, 31): Modernization theory
 Seymour Martin Lipset. 1959. "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic
Development and Political Legitimacy," American Political Science Review 53:69-105.
 Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi. 1997. “Modernization: Theories and Facts,”
World Politics 49:155-183.
 Carles Boix and Susan Stokes. 2003. “Endogenous Democratization,” World Politics 55:
517-549.
 Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel. 2009. “How Development Leads to Democracy;
What We Know About Modernization” Foreign Affairs March/April.
Recommended:
 Mark J. Gasiorowski. 1995. “Economic Crisis and Political Regime Change: An Event
History Analysis,” American Political Science Review 89: 882-897.
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
Bernhard, Michael, Christopher Reenock, and Timothy Nordstrom. 2003. “Economic
Performance and Survival in New Democracies: Is There a Honeymoon Effect?”
Comparative Political Studies 36: 404-431.
Week 12 (November 5, 7): Grey zones: moving towards democracy or backlash?
> November 7: In-class meetings with regional expert groups
 Andreas Schedler. 1998. “What is Democratic Consolidation?” Journal of Democracy
9:91-107.
 Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way. 2002. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism,”
Journal of Democracy 13:51-65.
 Thomas Carothers. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy
13:5-21.
Recommended:
 Jason Brownlee. 2009. “Portents of Pluralism: How Hybrid Regimes Affect Democratic
Transitions ,” American Journal of Political Science 53: 515-532.
V. Regional cases
Week 13 (November 12, 14): Latin American region
Recommended:
 Guillermo O'Donnell. 1978. "Reflections on the Patterns of Change in the Bureaucratic
Authoritarian State," Latin American Research Review 13:1, 3-38.
 Terry Lynn Karl. 1990. "Dilemmas of Democratization in Latin America," Comparative
Politics, 1-21.
 Guillermo O'Donnell. 1994. "Delegative Democracy," Journal of Democracy 5:1, 55-69.
 Consuelo Cruz and Rut C. Diamint. 1998. “The New Military Autonomy in Latin America,”
Journal of Democracy 9:4.
 David S. Pion-Berlin. 2005. “Political Management of the Military in Latin America,”
Military Review.
 Juan Linz. 1990. "The Perils of Presidentialism," Journal of Democracy, Vol. 1, No. 1.
 Matthew Shugart and Scott Mainwaring. 1997. "Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin
America: Rethinking the Terms of the Debate," in (eds.) Scott Mainwaring and Matthew
Shugart, Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America, pp. 12-54.
 Philip Oxhorn and Graciela Ducatenzeiler. 1999. "The Problematic Relationship Between
Economic and Political Liberalization," in Oxhorn and Starr (eds) Markets and
Democracy in Latin America.
 Kurt Weyland. 2004. "Neoliberalism and Democracy in Latin America: A Mixed Record,"
Latin American Politics and Society 46:1.
November 12: Latin America expert groups presentations
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November 14: Review of the readings on Latin America
Week 14 (November 19, 21): African region
Recommended:
 Göran Hydén. 2013. African politics in comparative perspective. (Chp. 1,2,3,4 and 9)
 Jeffrey Herbst. 2000. States and Power in Africa: comparative lessons in authority and
control. Princeton University Press (Read through Chp. 1-4 and 9, and skim 5-8)
 Paul Collier and Jan W. Gunning. 1999. “Why Has Africa Grown Slowly?” Journal of
Economic Perspectives 13(3): 3-22.
 Nathan Jensen and Leonard Wantchekon. 2004. “Resource Wealth and Political Regimes
in Africa,” Comparative Political Studies 37:816-841.
 Staffan Lindberg. 2006. Democracy and Elections in Africa. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins
University Press.
 Robert Mattes and Michael Bratton. 2007. “Learning About Democracy in Africa.”
American Journal of Political Science 51(1): 192-217
November 19: Africa expert groups presentations
November 21: Review of the readings on Africa
Week 15 (November 26, 28): Post-communist region
Recommended:
 Michael McFaul. 2002. "The Fourth Wave of Democracy and Dictatorship:
Noncooperative Transitions in the Postcommunist World," World Politics 54,2: 212-244.
 Valerie Bunce. 1995. "Comparing East and South," Journal of Democracy 6:3, 87-100.
 Hale, Henry E. 2005. “Regime Cycles: Democracy, Autocracy, and Revolution in
PostSoviet Eurasia,” World Politics 58: 133-167.
 Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way. 2007. "Linkage, Leverage and the Post-Communist
Divide," East European Politics and Societies 27: 21, 48-66.
 Vladimir Popov. 2004. "Circumstances versus Policy Choices: Why Has the Economic
Performance of the Soviet Successor States Been So Poor?" in McFaul and Stoner-Weiss
(eds.) After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transition, pp. 96-129.
 Joel Hellman. 1998. "Winners Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform in Postcommunist
Transitions" World Politics 50: 203-234.
 Andrew Barnes. 2003. "Comparative Theft: Context and Choice in the Hungarian, Czech,
and Russian Transformations, 1989-2000," EEPS 17: 533–565.
 Conor O'Dwyer. 2004. "Runaway State-Building: How Political Parties Shape States in
Postcommunist Eastern Europe," World Politics 56: 520-53.
November 26: Post-communist expert groups presentations
November 28: Thanksgiving holiday (No class)
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VI. Wrapping up
Week 16 (December 3, 5)
December 3: Review of the readings on Post-communist countries / Exam review
December 5: Reading day (No class)
*** Individual research papers are due at 5:00 PM on December 6th.
Week 17 (December 10): Final exam
December 10 (Tue): Exam #2
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GENERAL SOURCES
Economic indicators:
CIA, the World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/index.html
UN Statistical Databases: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/databases.htm
The World Bank database: http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx
The Heritage Foundation, Index of Economic Freedom: http://www.heritage.org/index/
Governance indicators:
The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project:
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp
Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index:
http://www.transparency.org/research/cpi/overview
State Fragility Index and Matrix: http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/inscr.htm
Armed Conflict Dataset (UCDP/PRIO):
http://www.nsd.uib.no/macrodataguide/set.html?id=55&sub=1
Political indicators:
Polity IV Project: http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm
Freedom House, Political Rights and Civil Liberties index:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/freedom-world
Database of Political Institutions:
http://www.nsd.uib.no/macrodataguide/set.html?id=11&sub=1
LATIN AMERICA
Note: The Latin American Collection is on the 4th Floor of Smathers Library. The Latin American
Collection librarian is Paul Losch.
UF’s Latin American Collection: http://uflib.ufl.edu/lac/
Links to Journals Covering Current Events in Latin America:
http://uflib.ufl.edu/lac/currentevents.html
Latin America Advisor: http://advisor.thedialogue.org/
Latin American Weekly Report http://www.latinnews.com/
NACLA http://tinyurl.com/32g3nn
Academic Journals on Africa:
Latin American Politics and Society:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291548-2456
Latin American Research Review: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lar/
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AFRICA
Note: The African Studies Collection is located in Library West. The African Studies librarian is
Dan Reboussin.
UF’s African Studies Collection: http://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/african_studies
Links to Journals Covering Current Events in Africa:
Africa South of the Sahara Annual Encyclopedia: http://www.europaworld.com/entry/ass
Doing Business in Africa: http://businesslibrary.uflib.ufl.edu/africa
Africa Confidential: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-6338
Academic Journals on Africa:
African Affairs: http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/by/year
Journal of Modern African Studies:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=MOA
EASTERN EUROPE AND POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES
Note: The Slavic and East European Studies Collection is located in Library West. The librarian is
Alena Aissing.
UF’s Slavic and East European Studies Studies Collection:
http://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/content.php?pid=149189
Links to Journals Covering Current Events in Post-communist countries:
Freedom House, Nations in Transit: http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/nationstransit
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD):
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/homepage.shtml#&panel1-1
News Now_Eastern Europe: http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Europe/Eastern
Bloomberg_Eastern Europe News: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/eastern-europe/
NY Times_Russia:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/russia/index.html
Academic Journals on Post-communist countries:
Communist and Post-Communist Studies: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/communist-andpost-communist-studies/
East European Politics & Societies: http://eep.sagepub.com/
Post-Soviet Affairs: http://www.bellpub.com/psa/
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