NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
P11.2228
Instructor:
Politics of International Development Spring 2008
John Gershman
Room: 306 194 Mercer Street Time: Thurs 6:00-8:00 PM
Email:
john.gershman@nyu.edu
Office: #3018, Puck Building
Telephone: 212.992.9888
Office Hours: Wednesday 1:00-3:00 at Puck and Mondays 6:30-8:00 PM at Caffe Pane e
Cioccolatto (corner of Mercer and Waverly Place). Drinks are on me. I will also usually be
available to meet after class. Same deal, drinks are on me. I am available to meet by appointment
during the day the rest of the week.
INTRODUCTION
The study of the politics of development is more than an academic exercise. Following World War
II, “development” largely supplanted 19th century ideas of “progress,” at least as far as the poor
countries of the “Third World” were concerned. Increasing the “Gross National Product” – the
overall output of goods and services as valued by the market – was the standard proxy for progress
and increased well-being. This solved a number of problems, both intellectual and practical.
Intellectually, it avoided trying to define progress in terms of some kind aggregation of utility or
happiness. Practically, by equating accumulation with universal increases in well-being, it ratified
the hegemony of the existing structure of economic power. Nonetheless, it was still an
uncomfortable syllogism. In the 1980s and 1990s, the “Washington Consensus” was widely viewed
as the dominant paradigm, although its hegemony was challenged by a series of major financial
crises among its putative “stars” (Mexico in 1994, Asian Crisis in 1997-98, Argentina in early
2000s) as well as sustained rapid growth in China which did not pursue a Washington Consensus
development strategy. These developments gave rise to ruminations on a “Post-Washington
Consensus” which continue to the present.
Until the terrorist attacks of 9/11, globalization had seemed to be displacing development as an
overarching framework at least among powerful policy elites, but at least since 9/11 period the
notion of globalization as an inevitable historical force, and the virtues of weakening nation-states,
have been dealt a blow. Globalization has been exposed as a political project – as opposed to a
technical or “natural” tendency. The parallel development of the Davos Forum and the World Social
Forum have created two different poles on the debate over globalization and development in the
broader business and activist communities.
Current debates on development suffer from two problems. On one side, there is the TINA problem.
Advocates of the position that accumulation of wealth by market rules is the only way to improve
assert that “there is no alternative” (TINA). In its more triumphalist form, market-driven
development is not just seen as inevitable but celebrated as optimal. For the triumphalists, things
couldn’t be better, except in the future when they will undoubtedly be even better. On the other
side, many are so disillusioned with the results of development that they reject the possibility of any
general strategy of progressive change. For them, development is the antithesis of increased wellbeing. Protecting local forms of social, cultural, and economic organization from “development” is
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what is important. While the defense of the right of local cultures and communities to protect their
own collective sense of needs and goals is important, it is not sufficient to ensure that needs,
however self-defined, will be fulfilled. Poor communities looking for clean water, decent housing,
health care and secure incomes, need capacity as well as autonomy.
In the present context much debate over development has focused on Africa and on the Millenium
Development Goals. Too much of the development debate focuses on aid as opposed to the myriad
of other issues that influence and shape “development” in countries, whether recipients of aid or
not.
A number of policies (“free” markets), or programs such as microfinance, new technologies ($100
laptops) or others have been promoted as panaceas (although more by the development industry
than by their most informed and reflective practitioners or advocates). These programs all have their
place, but none of them are, or can be, the magic solution for development. No such magic key
exists.
The development debate needs to be enlivened. Alternative propositions must be grounded in
analysis of past dynamics of socioeconomic and political change, but they must also reflect the
ways in which the current global political economy creates obstacles and opportunities different
from those encountered in the past. This course tries to explore possibilities for the kind of
redefinition of the politics of development that “anti-development” theorists feel is impossible and
neoliberal triumphalists feel is not only unnecessary but hazardous to global well-being.
Outline of Class: Classes will initially involve roughly 60-80 minutes of lecture, followed by 30-40
minutes- of discussion. Finally, 10-15 minutes of concluding remarks will pull together some of the
key points, highlight ongoing areas of empirical and theoretical debate, and frame the readings for
the subsequent class. Lectures will not summarize what is in the readings. Class participation will
constitute a significant percentage of the final grade. Over the course of the semester we may alter
the proportion of lecture and discussion time. My lectures are typically interactive and I consider
myself free to call on anyone during class.
Syllabus: The syllabus is large in order to provide students with a semi-annotated bibliography of
key materials in the field. This may be helpful if you are interested in a particular topic and would
like to explore it in more depth, as an initial starting point for papers, or simply as a reference for
things you should get around to reading in your career.
GRADES
There is no curve in this course. Everyone may receive an A or everyone may receive an F.
This course will abide by the Wagner School’s general policy guidelines on incomplete grades,
academic honesty, and plagiarism. It is the student’s responsibility to become familiar with these
policies. All students are expected to pursue and meet the highest standards of academic excellence
and integrity.
Incomplete Grades: http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/current/pol5.html
Academic Honesty: http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/current/pol3.html
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Course Requirements:
1. Class Participation: (20%) The course depends on active and ongoing participation by all
class participants. This will occur in three ways.
a. Weekly Participation: Class participants are expected to read and discuss the readings on
a weekly basis. That means coming prepared to engage the class, with questions and/or
comments with respect to the reading.
b. Writing Assignments:
1. Précis/Response Papers: Each week 4-5 people will take responsibility for
preparing response papers to one or more of the readings. This includes writing a
3-5 page précis of the reading that a) lays out the main argument(s), b) indicates
what you found provocative and/or mundane, and c) poses 3-4 questions for class
discussion. These handouts will be distributed via email to the rest of the class by
Tuesday at 5 PM (using the course website). Everyone will prepare at least one
précis over the course of the semester. Everyone who prepares a précis for the
week should be prepared to provide a brief (2-3 minute) outline of their reaction
to the readings as a contribution to discussion.
c. DevPolitics Weblog There will be a jointly authored course blog
(www.oldmole.typepad.com/devpolitics). All students will be expected to post 1,000
words over the course of the semester (ie, about 10 substantive contributions of 100
words, or any equivalent arithmetic combination), including responses to other’s posts.
Contributions should pertain to broad issues or themes raised by the course, but are not
limited to the readings or issues we discuss in class. Postings can include continuations
of or expansions of discussions in class (remember all those times time ran out before
you could get your comment in the class discussion?), analysis of media coverage of
development issues, discussions of talks, events, policy debates, legislation, etc. on
development issues either in the U.S. or abroad.
There are 5 required posts:
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A post reflecting on the personal obligations/ethical issues associated
with development. Posted by Week 3
Your definition of development – due to be posted by Week 5
Responses to at least two different definitions of development from
classmates by Week 7
Analysis of a media presentation (print or broadcast) of a developmentrelated issue
One post should discuss an event (talk, webcast, conference, etc) relating
to issues relevant to the course by the end of the semester.
This is a public blog, so keep that in mind when framing your posts. One should observe all the
customary courtesies while blogging that one observes in class.
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2. Op-Ed (15%) One op-ed length (700-750 words) on an important current issue relating
to development [for guidance see http://www.mcall.com/all-hottooped.story,
http://www.communitycapital.org/resources/strategy/quick_tips_op_ed.pdf,
http://newsroom.depaul.edu/OpEd.pdf]. This is due February 7 via email to my assistant
Jessica Holmes (Jessica.holmes@nyu.edu). Op-eds may be revised and turned in again
for a higher grade through April 15. The final grade is what counts.
3. Synthetic Paper (20%). You will choose one country to follow over the course of the
semester and will write either one or two short papers on this country of 5-7 pages each.
The first paper will ask you to explore one of the issues from the first eight classes in the
context of that country (this will require some additional research). More about this in
class. The first paper is due March 10 , and the second paper (if you write it) is due May
8.
4. Final Papers/Exams: (40%) There are two options
Option 1: One substantive paper of 15-20 pages (double-spaced, normal margins
and font). This could be an Analytic Paper critically addressing the arguments
raised in some subset of the development literature. This could be written in the
style of a book review essay one finds in World Politics or Comparative Politics.
The other choice is to do a Research Paper presenting findings that speak to
some substantive problem that is addressed by prior research on development or
uses some conceptual tools to reflect upon your own experiences as a
development practitioner. This latter paper would present an opportune time to
do some systematic reflection upon any real world experiences you may have
had in the field. Either of these two choices is required for Ph.D. students. Or
your papers may be in the form of a background or policy memo on an issue that
outlines a course of action. If you are interested in writing any of these papers,
you MUST submit a brief outline (1-2 pages) and initial bibliography by
February 14. This is a firm deadline. If you fail to meet them you must pursue
option 2. Feel free to talk to me about ideas for the paper ahead of time. The
large paper is due by 8 PM, Thursday, May 8 via email to my assistant Jessica
Holmes (Jessica.holmes@nyu.edu).
Option 2: A second synthetic paper and a take-home final. The second synthetic
paper (20% of grade) will ask you to look at the same country you explored for
the first synthetic paper and explore the dynamics of one of the issues we address
in the second half of the course in the context of that country. The final exam
(20% of grade) will be based upon readings and lectures in the class. You will
have to answer two or three questions from a set of questions. The final exam
will be handed out at the last class (May 1) and will be due by 8 PM on
Thursday, May 8, via email to my assistant Jessica Holmes
(Jessica.holmes@nyu.edu).
Auditors: are welcome as space allows. There is no free lunch, however. All auditors are required
to do a précis, participate in class, and participate in the weblog.
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Late Policy. Extensions will be granted only in case of emergency. This is out of respect to those
who have abided by deadlines, despite equally hectic schedules. Papers handed in late without
extensions will be penalized one-third of a grade per day.
Grading Breakdown: Class participation (20%, includes précis and weblog) Op-ed (15%),
Synthetic Paper (20% for first), Final and second synthetic paper (45%: 20% paper, 25% final) or
Final Paper (45%).
Prerequisites: “Introduction to Public Policy” (P11.1022) or “History and Theory of Urban
Planning”(P11.2600) or equivalent, Microeconomics, and “Institutions, Governance, and
Development” (P11.2214). A prior course in the politics/sociology/economics/management of
development would be helpful but is not required.
Required Books (available at the Professional Bookstore):
Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (New York: Norton)
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State (New Haven: Yale University Press
Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power (Berkeley: UC Press)
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2007)
Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy (recommended) (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Additional readings will made available either online, in a Reader available from Unique, or in
class.
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I: INTRODUCTION
WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION: WHY A POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT? (Jan 24)
Overview of Major Themes
Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains
Ivan Illich, “To Hell With Good Intentions” [Blackboard]
The Economist
James Petras, “Imperialism and NGOs in Latin America,” Monthly Review [Blackboard]
Dale Jamieson, “Duties to the Distant” Journal of Ethics
Michael Edwards, “http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalizationvision_reflections/world_reason_4566.jsp
Binyavanga Wainaina, “How to write about Africa,” Granta 92: The View from Africa
www.granta.com/extracts/2615
Discussion Questions:
What Do We Mean By Development?
What Ethical Issues Frame the Development Debate?
How do we conceive our roles as development policy analysts, practitioners, citizens?
For further reading:
Some of the issues are grounded in Paolo Freire’s classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed. For a
discussion of one attempt to apply this framework to Northerners, see Pedagogy for ….
For more philosopohical discussion see the symposium on World Poverty and Human Rights in
Ethics and International Affairs 19:1 (2005), and work by Thomas Pogge, Peter Singer One World,
Peter Unger Living High and Letting Die, Iris Marion Young, Matthias Risse, among others.
WEEK 2: THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (Jan 31)
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion, Chapter 1 [no précis]
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, Introduction and Chapter 2
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State, Introduction
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Victoria Schlesinger, “The Continuation of Poverty: Rebranding Foreign Aid in Kenya,” Harper’s
Magazine May 2007 pp. 58-66. [Blackboard]
Sam Rich, “Africa’s Village of Dreams,” Wilson Quarterly Spring 2007 pp. 14-23. [Blackboard]
Diana Mitlin, Sam Hickey and Anthony Bebbington, “Reclaiming development? NGOs and the
challenge of alternatives,” Global Poverty Working Group WPS-043
Wolfgang Sachs, Development: The Rise and Decline of an Ideal Wuppertal Institute Paper #108
(August 2000) http://www.wupperinst.org/Publikationen/WP/WP108.pdf
Forrest Colburn, “Good-Bye to the Third World,” Dissent, June 2006
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=446
Gilbert Rist in Development in Practice [Blackboard]
Ten Steps to a New Development Agenda, Simon Maxwell
http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/2007/07/16/3553.aspx
For further reading:
If you want to follow up on the “post-development” perspective, see Arturo Escobar, Encountering
Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1995); Gustavo Esteva. “Development” pp. 6-25 in Wolfgang Sachs (ed.) The Development
Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power. (London: ZED Books, 1992); James Ferguson, The
Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho.
(Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 1994); Arun Agrawal, “Poststructuralist
Approaches to Development: Some Critical Reflections” in Peace and Change 24(4) [October,
1996]:464-477; Michael Watts “Development I: Power, knowledge, discursive practice” in
Progress in Human Geography 17(2):257-72 and his Liberation Ecologies: Environment,
development, social movements (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), which also contains a
nice selection of articles by Escobar and others. Edward Said’s Orientalism (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1978) was one of the earliest influential critiques of Western discourse on the Third World.
See also The Post-Development Reader.
WEEK 3: HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY (Feb 7)
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel (Reader)
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion, Chapter 3 “Natural Resource Trap” and Chapter 4 “Landlocked
with Bad Neighbors”
Andrew Rosser, “Political Economy of the Resource Curse,” IDS Working Paper #268
http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp268.pdf
Erika Weinthal and Pauline Jones Luong, “Combating the Resource Curse:
An Alternative Solution to Managing Mineral Wealth,” Perspectives on Politics [Blackboard]
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Review (from Institutions), Mick Moore, “Political Underdevelopment: What Causes Bad
Governance?” Public Management Review, Vol. 3 (2001), No. 3, pp. 385-418 from Institutions
Class. [Blackboard]
For further reading:
See the follow up by Diamond, Collapse
WEEK 4: CULTURE (Feb 14)
Lawrence Harrison, “Culture Matters,” The National Interest (Summer 2000), pp. 55-65.
[Blackboard]
Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Noprris, “The True Clash of Civilizations,” Foreign Policy
(March/April 2003) [Blackboard]
Ha Joon Chang, “Lazy Japanese and Thieving Germans” in Bad Samaritans [Blackboard]
James C Scott, Seeing Like a State, Chapter 3
For more reading:
For a classic culturalist modernization view see Lawrence E. Harrison. Underdevelopment is a
State of Mind: the Latin American case (CFIA, Harvard University and University Press of
America, 1995), pp. 1-9; also Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work and Bowling Alone who
kick-started the contemporary social capital debate in the U.S. Also see Robert Kaplan, “The
Coming Anarchy,” Atlantic Monthly 44-76. For a post-colonial, post-structuralist view see Sarah
Radcliffe and Nina Laurie, “Culture and Development: Taking culture seriously in development for
Andean indigenous people,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24, pp. 231-248
(2005).
WEEK 5: INSTITUTIONS (Feb 21)
Douglas C. North, Understanding the Process of Economic Change (Reader)
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion, Chapter 4 “Bad Governance in a Small Country”
David Bromley, Making Institutions Work for the Poor, (4 pages manuscript) [Blackboard]
Pranab Bardhan, “Institutions and Development”
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/macarthur/inequality/papers/BardhanInstitutionsandDev.pdf
Dani Rodrik, “Getting Institutions Right” (April 2004)
http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~drodrik/ifo-institutions%20article%20_April%202004_.pdf
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State, pp. 309-319, 328-341 and Conclusion.
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For more reading:
On institutions, see Adam Przeworski, “The Last Instance: Are Institutions the Primary Cause of
Economic Development?” Archives of european sociology 2004 XLV(2): 165-188.
WEEK 6: STATE BUILDING I (Feb 28)
Charles Tilly, Capital, Cities, and Coercion. [Reader]
Ann Leander, “Wars and the Un-Making of States: Taking Tilly Seriously in the Contemporary
World” http://www.copri.dk/publications/Wp/WP%202002/34-2002.pdf
Jeff Herbst, States and Power in Africa [Reader]
Kim Marten, “Warlordism in Comparative Perspective,” International Security 31.3 (2007) 41-73
[Blackboard]
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion (Chapter 2 “The Conflict Trap” and Chapter 8 “Military
Intervention”)
Jeremy Weinstein, “Autonomous Recovery and International Intervention in Comparative
Perspective” [Blackboard]
Joel Migdal, State in Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), [Reader]
For more reading:
Tilly’s other work is exceptional, such as “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” in
Evans, Rueschemeyer and Skocpol, eds., Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
UP, pp. 169-189. Also Charles Tilly. "Violence, Terror, and Politics as Usual." Boston Review
(Summer 2002): 21-4 http://www.bostonreview.net/BR27.3/tilly.html See also Francis Fukuyama,
"The Imperative of State-Building," Journal of Democracy 15 no. 2, April 2004 and Georg
Sørensen, “War and state making—why doesn’t it work in the Third World?” Failed States
Conference, Purdue, 2001.[ http://www.ippu.purdue.edu/failed_states/2001/papers/Sørensen.pdf].
Stephen Krasner, “Shared Sovereignty,” Journal of Democracy (Jan 2005) [Blackboard]; also
Fearon and Laitin in International Security. See also Michael W. Doyle and Nicholas Sambanis,
Making War and Building Peace (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).
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WEEK 7: STATES, INDUSTRIALIZATION, AND DEVELOPMENT: PREDATORY,
DEVELOPMENTAL, AND OTHERWISE (March 6)
Peter Evans, chapter in Haggard and Kaufman, [Reader]
[For a more full treatment see Evans’ Embedded Autonomy, chapters. 1-3, pp. 3-73; then skim
chpts. 5-7, pp. 99-180.]
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, Chapter 5
Dani Rodrik, “Good-Bye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion?”
http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~drodrik/Lessons%20of%20the%201990s%20review%20_JEL_.pdf
Atul Kohli, State-Directed Development, selections (Reader)
World Bank, Learning from a Decade of Reform
Chapters 1, 8, 9, 10
http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/lessons1990s/
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion (Chapter 6 “On Missing the Boat” and Chapter 10 “Trade Policy
for Reversing Marginalization”)
Ha Joon Chang, Bad Samaritans (TBA)
For more reading:
Allen J. Scott and Michael Storper, “Regions, Globalization, and Development,” Regional Studies
37(6&7): 579-593. For some classics on comparative development of Europe try Alexander
Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1962). Barrington Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Boston: Beacon
Press, 1966) is probably the single most influential book in the comparative historical tradition.
Charles Tilly's The Vendee (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964) is also a classic. Gordon
White, “Constructing a Democratic Developmental State,” in Mark Robinson and Gordon White
(eds) The Democratic Developmental State (NY: Oxford University Press, 1998) is valuable, as are
other classics with contemporary relevance include, Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. Also
see Geoffrey Underhill and Xiaoke Zhang, “The Changing State–Market Condominium in East
Asia: Rethinking the Political Underpinnings of Development,” New Political Economy March
2005. Current works include Alice Amsden The Rise of the Rest (Oxford, 2001) and Ha-Joon
Chang, “Kicking Away the Ladder: – The “Real” History of Free Trade,” available online at
http://www.newschool.edu/cepa/papers/workshop/chang_030419.doc and Mick Moore, Political
Underdevelopment, http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/govern/pdfs/PolUnderdevel(refs).pdf. For some other
resources see the papers and discussions at http://www.othercanon.org. Also see Robert Bates, “The
Developmental State” http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidpeople/bates/Weingast_Essay.pdf. John
Williamson, “What Should the World Bank Think About the Washington Consensus,” World Bank
Research Observer (August 2000)
http://www.worldbank.org/research/journals/wbro/obsaug00/pdf/(6)Williamson.pdf
There is a monstrous literature on the Washington Consensus and Structural Adjustment. For
starters, the World Bank’s own reviews of adjustment by the OED. Also Joseph Stiglitz, More
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Instruments and Broader Goals: Moving Toward the Post-Washington Consensus The 1998 WIDER
Annual Lecture available online at http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/extme/js010798/wider.htm. See also Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents. William Easterly, “What
did structural adjustment adjust? The association of policies and growth with repeated IMF and
World Bank adjustment loans,” CGD WORKING PAPER NUMBER11 October 2002
http://www.cgdev.org/pubs/workingpapers.html (select either pdf or word formats). See also
Beeson and Islam, Neoliberalism and East Asia [Blackboard]. See also Dani Rodrik, “How to Make
the Trade Regime Work for Development” (February 2004)
http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~drodrik/How%20to%20Make%20Trade%20Work.pdf
WEEK 8: DEMOCRACY, AUTHORITARIANISM, AND DEVELOPMENT (March 13)
John Gerring et al, “Democracy and Growth” World Politics (2005) [Blackboard]
Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi, “Modernization: Theories and Facts,” World Politics 49,
pp. 155-184. [Blackboard]
Carles Boix and Susan Stokes, “Endogenous Democratization,” World Politics 55 (July 2003): 517549. [Blackboard]
Ashutosh Varshney, “Why Have Poor Democracies Not Eliminated Poverty? A Suggestion,” Asian
Survey 40:5 (2000): 718-736 [Blackboard]
Fareed Zakaria, Illiberal Democracy, Foreign Affairs November/December 1997
[http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/other/democracy.html]
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, Chapter 6
For more reading:
See Larry Diamond, “Universal Democracy” Policy Review, June 2003
[http://www.policyreview.org/jun03/diamond_print.html], Thomas Carothers, “The End of the
Transition Paradigm,” Journal of Democracy 13.1 (2002) 5-21 available online at
http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/jod/13.1carothers.html and responses to Carothers piece in the July 2002
issue of the Journal of Democracy, Philippe C. Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl, “What Democracy
Is...and Is Not,” Journal of Democracy (Summer 1991) also Amartya Sen, “Democracy as a
Universal Value,” Journal of Democracy1 0.3 (1999) 3-17
http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/jod/10.3sen.html , Samuel Huntington, “Democracy’s Third Wave,”
Journal of Democracy ( Spring 1991) and “After Twenty Years: The Future of the Third Wave
Journal of Democracy (October 1997) Classic statements also include Alexis de Toqueville,
Democracy in America, and the numerous works of Robert Dahl. Other classic pieces include
Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History,” The National Interest Summer (1989) pp. 3-18. Also see
Ashutosh Varshney (1999): “Democracy and Poverty”. Paper for the Conference on World
Development Report 2000. The World Bank.
[http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/dfid/varshney.pdf]. Also, Larry Diamond, “Can the
Whole World Become Democratic? Democracy, Development, and International Policies” Hoover
Institution, Stanford University http://repositories.cdlib.org/csd/03-05/ (a longer version of the piece
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above). Also valuable is Minxin Pei and Sara Kasper LESSONS FROM THE PAST: The American
Record of Nation Building available online at http://www.ceip.org/files/pdf/Policybrief24.pdf.
Thomas Carothers, Is Gradualism Possible? Promoting Democracy in the Middle East available
online at http://www.ceip.org/files/pdf/wp39.pdf -- and Tom Carothers, Promoting the Rule of Law
Abroad, http://www.ceip.org/files/pdf/wp34.pdf.
For other approaches see UNDP, Human Development Report, Chapters 1 and 2, available online at
http://www.undp.org/hdr2002/ and John Gerring et al, Democracy and Economic Growth: A
Historical Perspective for a critique of Limongi and Przeworksi among others on conceptual and
methodological grounds [http://archive.allacademic.com/publication/docs/apsa_proceeding/200308-26/947/apsa_proceeding_947.PDF] and supporting materials
http://archive.allacademic.com/publication/supporting_docs/apsa_supporting_proceeding/2003-0826/184/apsa_supporting_proceeding_184.PDF.
SPRING BREAK, MARCH 20
II. POLITICS OF POVERTY AND POLICY REFORM
WEEK 9: POLITICS OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION (March 27)
World Development Report 2000/2001¸ intro and chapters 6-7, available online at
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/report/index.htm
Shantayanan Devarajan and Ravi Kanbur, “A Framework for Scaling Up Poverty Reduction, With
Illustrations from South Asia,” (August 2005)
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/poverty/kanbur/DevarajanKanburAug05.pdf and Blackboard
Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi, Ruhi Saith and Frances Stewart, “Does it matter that we don't agree on
the definition of poverty? A comparison of four approaches,” Oxford Development Studies
(September 2003) 31(3): 243-274.
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, Chapter 4
Paul Farmer, Selections from Pathologies of Power, pp. 1-50
Mick Moore, “Arguing the Politics of Inclusion” in Changing Paths [Reader]..change to
empowerment article
Caroline Moser, “Asset-based Approaches to Poverty Reduction in a Globalized Context”
Brookings Global Economy and Development Working Paper (November 2006) [Blackboard]
For more reading:
Mountains of stuff available, but for an interesting post-development examples see Karen Brock,
Andrea Cornwall, and John Gaventa, Power, Knowledge, and Political spaces in the Framing of
Poverty Policy, IDS Working paper 143, http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp143.pdf and
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Andrea Cornwall and Karen Brock, “What do Buzzwords do for Development Policy? A critical
look at ‘participation’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘poverty reduction’,” Third World Quarterly 2005
26(7): 1043 – 1060. [Blackboard]
; For a critique of the 2000/2001 WDR focus on empowerment see Mick Moore, “Empowerment at
Last?” Journal of International Development 13 (2001): 321-329. For others see
UNDP, Human Development Report 2003, and Judith Tendler, “Whatever Happened to Poverty
Alleviation?” World Development, 17:7 (1989): 1033-1044.
WEEK 10: THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL SECTOR REFORM AND SOCIAL
PROTECTION (April 3 )
Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock, “Solutions when the Solution is the Problem: Arraying the
Disarray in Development,” World Development 2003 [Blackboard]
Merilee Grindle, First in the Queue? Mainstreaming the Poor in Service Delivery[blackboard]
Judith Tendler and Sara Freedheim, “Trust in a Rent-Seeking World: Health and Government
Transformed in Northeast Brazil,” World Development 22:12 (1994).[Blackboard]
Mick Moore and Vishal Jadhav, “The Politics and Bureaucratics of Rural Public Works:
Maharashtra’s Employment Guaranteed Scheme,” Journal of Development Studies (November
2006) 42(8): 1271-1300 [Blackboard]
Naomi Hossain & Mick Moore (2002): “Arguing for the Poor: Elites and Poverty in Developing
Countries”, IDS Working Paper, No. 148. [http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp148.pdf]
Chapter on Brazilian Health Care Reform in Development Statecraft [Blackboard]
Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power, Chapter on Health and Human Rights
For more reading:
Merilee S. Grindle. “The Social Agenda and the Politics of Reform in Latin America.” In Joseph S.
Tulchin and Allison M. Garland, eds., Social Development in Latin America: The Politics of
Reform. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000, pp. 17-52. Judith Tendler, “Safety Nets and
Service Delivery: What are Social Funds Really Telling US?” in Joseph S. Tulchin and Allison M.
Garland, eds., Social Development in Latin America: The Politics of Reform. Boulder: Lynne
Rienner Publishers, 2000, pp. 87-115. Nancy Birdsall, From Social Policy to an Open-Economy
Social Contract in Latin America CGD Working Paper 21, December 2002; Nancy Birdsall and
Miguel Szekely, Bootstraps Not Band-Aids: Poverty, Equity and Social Policy in Latin America
CGD Working Paper # 24 February 2003; Carol Graham, and Moises Naim, “The political
economy of institutional reform,” in Beyond Trade-offs: Market Reforms and Equitable Growth in
Latin America, Nancy Birdsall, Carol Graham, and Richard Sabot, eds. Washington, DC: The
Brookings Institution Press and The InterAmerican Development Bank, 1997. pp. 321-362. World
Bank, World Development Report 2003/2004. See also Kenneth Shadlen, “Challenges To
Treatment: The Price-Infrastructure Trap And Access To Hiv/Aids Drugs,” Journal of International
Development 16, pp. 1169–1180 (2004) [Blackboard]
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WEEK 11: POLITICS OF EQUITY and REDISTRIBUTION: NEW AGRARIAN
TRANSFORMATIONS? PEASANT POLITICS, AGRARIAN REFORM, RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT, AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (April 10)
Roy Prosterman, land reform [Blackboard]
Elinor Ostrom, Commons, Science [Blackboard]
Caroline Ashley and Simon Maxwell, “Rethinking Rural Development,” Development Policy
Review19:4 (2001): 395-425.
Ronald Herring, “Beyond the Political Impossibility Theorem of Agrarian Reform,”
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/poverty/Papers/herring_beyond_polit_impos_theorem.pdf
Selections from WDR 2005/2006 on Equity, [Blackboard]
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State, pp. 262-270 (and sample rest of chapter)
For more reading:
James Putzel “Land Reforms in Asia: Lessons from the Past for the 21st Century”, Working Papers,
LSE Development Studies Institute, No. 004 (January 2000) available online at
http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/destin/workpapers/asiasubmission.pdf, or Anthony Bebbington et al,
“Practice, Power, and Meaning: Frameworks for Studying Organizational Culture in Multi-Agency
Rural Development Projects,” Journal of International Development 15 541-557 (2003).
WEEK 12: Engendering Development: Sex, Gender, Politics, and Development (April 17)
For reference:
INSTRAW, Women in Decision making [no précis]
http://www.un-instraw.org/en/docs/pressroom/Factsheet_8_marzo_03,07,2006.pdf
Women in Parliaments, Inter-parliamentary Union [no précis]
World and regional data: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm
National data: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
Regular Reading
Jane S. Jaquette and Katherine Staudt, “Women, Gender, and Development,” in Jane S. Jaquette
and Gale Summerfirld (eds) Women and Gender Equity in Development Theory and Practice (Duke
University Press, 2006) [Reader]
Sylvia Chant and Matthew C. Gutmann, “‘Men-streaming’ gender? Questions for gender and
development policy in the twenty-first century,” Progress in Development Studies 2,4 (2002) pp.
269–282 [Blackboard]
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Andrea Cornwall, “Whose Voices? Whose Choices?” World Development [Blackboard]
Bina Agarwal, [Blackboard]
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, Chapter 8
Helena Hofbauer Balmori, BRIDGE, Gender and Budgets, http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/cepbudgets-report.pdf, skim
Recommended:
The literature is vast, but good overviews include: Shahrashoub, Razavi and Carol Miller. 1995.
From WID to GAD: Conceptual Shifts in the Women and Development Discourse. Geneva: United
Nations Research Institute for Social Development. The classics include Ester Boserup (1970)
Women’s Role in Economic Development, Caroline O. Moser, Gender Planning and Development.
(New York: Routledge, 1993)., Gita Sen and Garen Grown, Development, Crises and Alternative
Visions. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987). Also Diane Elson. 1991. "Male Bias in the
Development Process: An Overview" In Male Bias in the Development Process. Edited by Diane
Elson Manchester, England: Manchester University Press and Amy Lind, “Gender and Urban
Social Movements,” World Development [Blackboard].
Also see the Eldis Gender Resource Guide (http://www.eldis.org/gender/index.htm), the
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (www.awid.org), IFPRI’s Gender Toolbox
(http://www.ifpri.org/themes/gender/gendertools.asp) and BRIDGE (http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/).
See also Millie Thayer, “Traveling Feminisms: From Embodied Women to Gendered Citizenship,”
in Michael Burawoy et al (eds) Global Ethnography or Mille Thayer Feminists and Funding.
Some Questions
Is there anything surprising or remarkable about the data reported in the reference pieces?
WEEK 13: TBA Determined By Class (April 24)
WEEK 14: Accountability, Participation, Power, and the New (Old?) Politics of Development
(May 1)
Peter Evans, “Development as Institutional Change: The Pitfalls of Monocropping and the
Potentials of Deliberation,” Studies in Comparative and International Development (Winter 2004,
Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 30-52). .[if you didn’t read this in Institutions]
Review Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom¸ read Chapter 12
See Evans critique of Sen in Studies in Comparative International Development [Blackboard]
Review James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State, pp. 309-319, 328-341 and Conclusion.
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Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion (Chapter 7 “Aid to the Rescue” and Chapter 9 “Laws and
Charters”, Chapter 11 “An Agenda for Action”)
William Easterly, “Are Aid Agencies Improving?”
http://www.nyu.edu/fas/institute/dri/Easterly/File/aid%20progress%20economic%20policy.pdf
Patrick Heller Democratic Decentralization [Blackboard]
Radicals in Power (selections) [Reader]
Richard Sandbrook, Marc Edelman, Patrick Heller, and Judith Teichman, “Can Social Democracies
Survive in the Global South,” Dissent (Spring 2006)
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=427
Rights-Based Development: Oxfam Case [Blackboard]
Michael Edwards, “Have NGOs .Made a Difference?. From Manchester to Birmingham with an
Elephant in the Room,” Global Poverty Research Group WPS-028 [Blackboard]
Making Law Work (TBA)
Recommended:
Ronaldo Munck, Alternatives in Latin America [Blackboard] and Another World Is Possible also
Ronaldo Munck, “Globalization and Democracy: A New “Great Transformation”?” ANNALS,
AAPSS, 581, May 2002, 10-21. (http://www.gseu.org.uk/publish/pdfs/ann_ch1.pdf.)
Peter Evans. “The Eclipse of the State? Reflections on Stateness in an Era of Globalization,” World
Politics 50 (October, 1997): 62-87. ( http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/evans/eclipse.pdf);
Robert Wade, “Globalization & Its Limits: Reports of the Death of the National Economy are
Greatly Exaggerated,” pp. 60-88 in Suzanne Berger and Ronal Dore (eds.), National Diversity and
Global Capitalism. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996); Manuel Castells. "The Net and
the Self: Working Notes for a Critical Theory of the Information Society" Critique of Anthropology
16(1)[1996]: 9-38. For other prominent pieces see Benjamin Barber, “Jihad vs. McWorld,” Atlantic
Monthly March 1992, 53-65; Linda Weiss, The Myth of the Powerless State, (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press) chapters 6 and 7. Geoffrey Garret, “The Causes of Globalization” Comparative
Political Studies 2000 available at http://www.yale.edu/leitner/pdf/2000-02.pdf. For some other
contributions, see Peter Evans. “Looking for Agents of Urban Livability in a Globalized Political
Economy” and “Ecologies of Local Political Actors and Trajectories of Livability: Lessons from
Cities Confronting Development and Political Transition” in LIVABLE CITIES? Urban Struggles
for Livelihood and Sustainability? (University of California Press, 2001) available online at
http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/evans/looking.pdf and
http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/evans/ecologies.pdf.
Sen’s writings are voluminous, as a quick look at the book’s notes will confirm. The work of Sen
and his collaborators would fill several courses. Particularly interesting for the economicallyminded is the debate between him and T.N. Srinavasan – See Srinavasan’s “Reinventing the
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Wheel” article in the American Economic Review, 1994. For those attracted by Sen’s basic
approach, the UNDP’s Human Development Reports are a good sample of the effort to turn it to
practical effect. For variations on the “basic needs” tradition, you can see the work by Dudley Seers,
Richard Jolly, Paul Streeten and Frances Stewart among others. A useful introduction is Diane
Elson, “Economic Paradigms and their Implications for Models of Development: The Case of
Human Development,” in Global Governance and Development Fifty Years after Bretton Woods:
Essays in Honour of Gerald K. Helleiner (1998). Lisa Jordan and Peter van Tuijl (eds) NGO
Accountability.
Some Questions:
This week explores some new efforts at conceptualizing approaches to development that vary in
terms of how they understand the normative content of development (ie, focus on the deliberative
democratic process, on expansion of capabilities, or achievement of rights) and the scale at which
efforts would be most productive (sub-national, national, regional, and/or international levels).
Final Exam Distributed – Due 8 PM May 8 to Jessica Holmes
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