Development as a Concept: The Problem
“some nations, including the United States, may be
retreating into a fortress like nationalism…”
- Robert Kaplan, “Ends of the Earth” argument
Development as a Concept: The Problem
(Kaplan’s view)
 Certain countries are separating and being
separated from the world economy
All of Africa except Egypt
 Cambodia
 Indian sub-continent
 South East Asia
 Parts of Central/South America and the Balkans will
follow

Development as a Concept: The Problem
(Kaplan’s view)
 Economic and social development is “generally
cruel, painful, violent, and uneven…”
Development as a Concept: The Problem
“The industrialized countries, which accounted for 40 percent
of the world's population after World War II, now account
for only 20 percent, though they earn 85 percent of the
world's income. In the coming decades, the industrialized
world is expected to make up only 12 to 15 percent of the
planetary population, as 90 to 95 percent of all births take
place in the poorest countries...I [see] around the worldpoverty, the collapse of cities, porous borders, cultural
and racial strife, growing economic disparities,
weakening nation-states--We are not in control...”
How Did We Get to this Point?

Historical Structures

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Overseas colonial structures, land-based colonialism,
post-colonial society
Problem of Defining Development and
Modernization Theory
Colonial Underdevelopment Argument
Overseas Colonial Structures, Values, and
Post-Colonial Society (1500-1950)

“De Jure” colonialism


legal and internationally recognized formal control of
government structures when trade, economic and
governmental sectors of a society are formally or
legally controlled by another country
“De Jure” overseas colonialism (Mercantilism)

creation of external trade patterns and government
expenditures directed toward the development of an
export economy
Colonial Structures, Values, and PostColonial Society (1500-1950)

“Old Colonialism” vs. “New Colonialism”
Early colonial development focused on infrastructure
to support export and import trade
 Human resource development was neglected
 ideology of Free trade that masked a reality which
developed markets for mother country goods and
provided raw materials for industrial production

The Colonial Prefect

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Named the district officer, magistrate, landrost,
district commissioner, the commandant, the
collector
By contrast, administration was Functional in
Spanish Latin America, Philippines, and in some
Neo-Colonial systems—no prefect
Government expenditure was limited to the
military and police
Land Based Colonialism



Do the terms colonialism and underdevelopment
work for Eastern Europe, the CIS, Central Asia
and the Caucasus?
Administrative structures were similar to those of
overseas colonialism
These are often labeled “Transitional States”
Land Based Colonialism

Janine Wedel, in Collision and Collusion, raises
two questions:
Are transitional states “developmental?”
 Are they transitional?

What does she mean?
De Facto Colonialism

No formal legal ties but in practice power
relationships between colonial powers and puppet
regimes
Thailand, Ethiopia, Persia, Nepal, the Arabian
Peninsula, and Afghanistan, much of Latin America
after the 1850s
 Parallel between formal colonial systems and informal
influence

The End of Empire

Nationalism developed in the 1930s and 1940s
throughout much of the colonial world including
much of central and Eastern Europe. It had four
variations
Neo-Nationalism in Latin America

Impacts of the functions of government
Territorial Governors appointed by the President
 The importance of Military control in regions -Spanish
Military Governors called Presidencies


Patronage
Legalistic basis of governance in principle
 Clientalist, class or mass based appeal, charisma
 Community level political culture: “localismo” inward
looking villages and communities

Further Reading on Latin America
Kenneth J. Andrien, The Kingdom of Quito: The State and Regional
Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Peter S. Cleaves, Bureaucratic Politics and Administration in Chile
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974).
Keith Griffin, Underdevelopment in Spanish America: An Interpretation
(London: Geoge Allen, 1969)
Jack Hopkins, (ed.) Latin America: Perspectives on a Region (New
York: Holmes and Meier, 1987).
Howard J. Wiarda, Politics and social change in Latin America : still a
distinct tradition? (Boulder : Westview Press, 1992).
Socialism and Fascism


Some have used the term “Totalitarianism”
Legacy of Imperial and Socialist Land Based
Empires (Russia, Austria and Turkey)
Multi-ethnicity and land based expansion
 Dominant Nationalism
 Absence of Renaissance
 Revolutionary Transformation and Collapse in the
20th Century
 Primacy of the Party under “Socialism”
 Prefectoral Model of local state: Party Authority

Keynesianism as Economic Principle


Government had a role in the management of the
economy
KEY: Faith in the State
Physical development (roads and dams) and
Economic Growth
 Physical and Mental Change or Social Development
 Human Resource Development vs. Social and
Economic Change
 Proposed a Mixed Economy—public and private

John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946
British Economist who worked several years in the British
India Office
 John Rapley: “Keynes had no problem with the market
economy. He liked the machine but judged it to be in
need of improvement if it was to operate well.”

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His goal was to influence the market and not replace it
Influenced the U.S. New Deal and the thinking of the Labour
Party in England
He had an important influence on the social democratic parties
in Western Europe
His ideas suggested that European mixed economies could be
replicated in LDCs
From Middle Class Nationalism to Mass
Movements

World War II led to the collapse of over seas
empires
begins Japanese imperialism and Asian nationalism
 The Atlantic Treaty and self-determinism
 Two patterns: Gandhi and non-violence and Sukarno,
Ho Chi Minh and violent resistance or revolution
 implication was that economic development would
follow
 Between 1945 and 1965 more than one hundred new
states came into existence

The “Development Era” 1948-2001
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1. In the 1940s and 1950s there was a rhetoric of
Nationalism through out the World
2. Political Change (Nationalism in the Middle
East, and Latin America) and Independence
(Caribbean, Africa, and Asia (1960s-1970s)
Transformation in Eastern Europe and the CIS
(1980s)
Quote of the Day

Okot p’Bitek—Uganda novelist
“Foreign ‘Experts’ and Peace Corps swarm
the Country Like white Ants.” (1966)
Japan and the History of Development
(Toland, The Rising Sun)


What was the Pre-War Japanese Government
view of Colonialism in Asia?
Why is Japan Important in the development of
nationalism in Africa and Asia?

For Further Reading: Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the
Making of Modern Japan (New York: Harper Collins,
2000).
Discussion

Paul Theroux, “Tarzan is an Expatriate”
How does the p’Bitek quote relate to the Theroux
article?
 What is the significance of the 1966 article by Paul
Theroux in the year 2001?

Reference

Paul Theroux: Dark Star Safari: Overland from
Cairo to Cape Town (New York: Houghton Mifflin,
2003).
Colonial Values

George Orwell, “Shooting the Elephant”
1. What is the issue here?
2. Should Orwell have shot the Elephant?
3. What does the Orwell story tell us about
development?
AUTHOR OF THE DAY

Kathleen Staudt

Kathleen Staudt: Peace Corps Volunteer in the
Philippines (1966-1968)

Is there a grass-roots perspective?

Why or Why not?
AUTHOR’S ISSUES

John Rapley

Jennifer Brinkerhoff

Pressman and Wildavsky