Less-Developed and
Newly Industrializing Countries
The Three World’s
• 1st World: advance democracies
• 2nd World: Communist and postcommunist countries
• Leave out many countries in the world
– Latin America, Asia, Africa
• 3rd World:
– Group together a diverse range of people and
political systems according to what they were
not, rather than what they were
The Three World’s
• Advanced Democracies:
– Early capitalist development
– Post modern system
• Communist
– Rapid modernization
– Industrialization directed by the state
• Less developed
– Mixture of pre-modern and modern institutions
– Hybrid of economic, societal, and political institutions
– Foreign and indigenous
The Three World’s
• Distinguish between less-developed and newly
industrialized countries
• What challenges and obstacles these countries
have faced after gaining independence?
• What policies might help generate greater
democracy, political stability, and economic
prosperity in these countries?
• Out of these dilemmas can emerge new ideas
and innovations with the potential for positive
change
Freedom and Equality in the Newly Industrializing
and Less-developed Countries
• Third World divided into two groups:
– Newly industrialized (NIC):
• Experienced dramatic rates of economic growth
• Democratization
– Political stability
– Social stability
• Example: South Korea
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Post Korean war
50 years = world’s largest economies
Slowly develop democratic institutions
Stable and democratizing political institutions
Expanding a web of nongovernmental institutions
Growing Economy
Freedom and Equality in the Newly Industrializing
and Less-developed Countries
• Third World: divided into two groups
– Less-developed countries (LDC’s)
• Economic and political structures remain weak
• Marked by economic stagnation or decline
• some sliding into
– Poverty
– Violence
– Civil conflict
• Example Ghana
Freedom and Equality in the Newly Industrializing
and Less-developed Countries
• Common tread (LDC + NIC)
– Weakness of freedom and equality
– NIC: democracy and economic development
•
•
•
•
Remain shaky and incomplete
Still be undermined
Gaps between the rich and the poor
Politics have become polarized
– LDC
• Economic and political power rest in the hands of a few
– Reasons: Imperialism and Colonialism
Imperialism and Colonialism
• Past Millennium Europe, Middle East, and
Asia embarked on a series of dramatic
social, economic, and political changes
that formed the outlines of what are now
recognized as the hallmarks of modern
society:
– Ethnic and national identity
– Technological innovation
– Political centralization
Imperialism and Colonialism
• Empires: as single political authorities that
have under their sovereignty a large
number of external regions or territories
and different peoples
– Idea that lands and peoples that are not seen
as an integral part of the country itself are
nonetheless under its direct control
Imperialism and Colonialism
• Imperialism: system whereby a state
extends its power in order to directly
control territory, resources, and people
beyond its borders
– Propagated by European powers from the
16th and 21st centuries
– Driven by economic, strategic, and religious
motives
– Often led to colonialism
Imperialism and Colonialism
• Colonialism: indicates a greater degree
the physical occupation of a foreign
territory through military force,
businesses, or settlers
– Central goal of imperialism
– A means to consolidate one’s empire
Imperialism and Colonialism
• Dated from the 1500’s
– Technology developed in Europe, the Middle
East, and Asia
• Advance seafaring and military technology
– China
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•
•
•
Turned away from this past
Consolidated power
Grew conservative and inflexible
Maintain status quo….striking out to acquire new
lands
Imperialism and Colonialism
• Europeans:
– Americas
– Saw Imperialism as a means of expansion
• Resources, markets, subjects, and territory in order to gain
the upper hand
• Chinese
– Retreating from overseas voyages
• Middle East
– Ottoman Empire
• Asia, North Africa, parts of Europe
• Turned inward and lost interest and in expanding power
Imperialism and Colonialism
•
Europeans begin expansion
– 16th century
• Europe embarks on imperialism
– Economic and strategic motives
– Spread of Christianity and western culture
– Last 5 centuries
– 17th century
• British, French = North America
– 18th century
• Europeans exert control
– 19th and 20th centuries
• Expanded rapidly in Asia
• Africa divided by European states
– Possessed
•
•
•
•
Well-organized political system
Military structures
Technological advances
Economic resources
Institutions of Imperialism:
Exporting the State
• Consolidating powers over
– Forms of political organization
– Eliminating rivals
– Clearly delineating their boarders
– Establishing sovereignty
• Europeans new territories were
incorporated into the state structure
– Carved up by rival states for economic
resources and strategic advantages
Institutions of Imperialism:
Exporting the state
• Boarders were a reflection of
– Own power over geographic, religious, or linguistic realities (i.e.
Africa)
– Imposed boundaries would become demarcations for
independent countries
• Established state power and authority
– Bureaucratic structures similar to home
•
•
•
•
police
Taxes
Legal systems
Public goods: roads, schools, and hospitals
– “civilize” the modern world
• People under colonial rule were considered to be
subjects, not citizen
– Had few political rights
Institutions of Imperialism;
Exporting the State
• Increased education
• Benefited from infrastructure
– Improved communication and transportation
• Life expectancies rose/infant mortality rates decline
– Population explosion (still continues today)
• Traditional institutions (religion and custom) were
eroded
• Process was incomplete/uneven
• Imperial territories
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Economically and politically underdeveloped
Conflict over identity
Flamed anti-imperialism views
Desired freedom and control
Institutions of Imperialism: Ethnicity,
Nationalism, and Gender
• Unknown prior to imperialism
– Identified themselves by tribe, religion,
economic position, or vocation
– Imperial elites identify themselves by ethnicity
and nation
– Took great interest in identifying and
classifying different ethnic groups
(examples?)
– Structuring their political and economic control
Institutions of Imperialism: Ethnicity,
Nationalism, and Gender
• Basic rights became tied to an ethnic group
– Some cases tied to early-modern notions of race
– Certain ethnic groups were superior
• Promoted to positions of power
• Economic advantages
– Colonizing race was superior to the colonized
– Migrants:
• Further shaped ethnic divisions
• Awarded special economic and political privileges
– Inequality and ethnicity became interconnected
Institutions of Imperialism: Ethnicity,
Nationalism, and Gender
• National identity:
– 19th and 20th century- powerful force in the
industrializing world
– Unfamiliar with national identity
• Little notion of a sovereign state
– Viewed people as inferior subjects
– Limited ability to improve their standing within
the empire
– Imperial idea of nationalism provided people
with the very means to challenge foreign rule
Institutions of Imperialism: Ethnicity,
Nationalism, and Gender
• National Identity
– Nationalism meant: right for a people to live
under their own sovereign state, did this nor
mean the subjects people had a right to rule
themselves
– Empires provided the ideological ammunition
that subjects would use to overturn
imperialism
Institutions of Imperialism: Ethnicity,
Nationalism, and Gender
• Gender
– Roles differed greatly
– Brought benefits to women
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•
•
•
Increasing their freedom and equality
Improved access to health care and education
Reverse occurred in some areas
Example Nigeria
– Pre-colonial: Ibo women wielded great power
– Imperialism brought more rigid and hierarchical roles
– Economic status marginalized women
– Progress came at a price
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• First important change
– Replacement of traditional agriculture
– Driven by the needs of the industrializing
capitalist home country
– Subsistence farming/barter = cash economies
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• Cash based economy
– Transformed economic production
– Mercantilist political-economic system:
• Extracted revenue from their colonies
• Used territories and people as a captive market for
finished goods from the “home country”
– Free trade did not exist for colonies
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• Colonial production was organized to
provide good to “home country”
– Rebuilt around primary products
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•
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Cotton
Cocoa
Coffee
Tea
Wood
Rubber
Other valuable commodities
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• Large businesses
– Established these extractive-economies
– Dominated by a single monopoly
– Example: Indonesia, United East India
Company, Dutch firm
• Spice exports
• Finished goods from Europe
• Destroyed indigenous trade groups
– Lead to the creation of large plantations
• Rubber, coffee, or tobacco
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• Economic organization
– Impeded domestic development
– Infrastructure developed to facilitate effective
extraction and export
• Rather than to improve communication or movement of the
people
• Jobs were created
• Local entrepreneurialism and industrialization were limited
– Agriculture
• Damaged ability of people to feed themselves
• Small farmers run out of business
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• Economic institutions
– Traditional agricultural economies were
transformed to suit the needs of the
imperialist power
– Free trade was often suppressed as colonies
were forced to supply goods only to the
imperial country, creating extractive
economies in the colonies
– Economic organization under imperialism
impeded domestic development in the
colonies
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• Modern states
– Expanded power around the globe
– Established new political, economic, and
social institutions
• Reflection of “home country”; consolidation of
imperial rule
– Mixture of indigenous and foreign
structure/pre-modern and modern
– Political institutions/new societies
• Citizenship and participation were restricted
Institutions of Imperialism:
Dependent Development
• Economic development encouraged
– Form that would benefit home country
• Generated new identities and conflict
– By classifying people
– Between ruler and ruled
– Between people themselves
• Contradictions
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Inequality and limitation on freedom
Assimilated to modern ideas and values
Helped foster public resistance to imperialism
Paved the way for independence
Challenges of Post-Imperialism
• Latin America : “freed” most of the region by
1826
• Africa: decolonization came after WWII
• Elimination of Imperialism
– Did not solve the problems NIC and LDC
• Continue to Struggle
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Political
Social
Economic challenges to development and stability
Freedom and equality
• Problems are from legacy rule.
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Building State Capacity and Autonomy
• Difficulty and creating new political institutions
• State power: distinguishing between state
capacity and state autonomy
– Capacity: ability of a state to achieve basic policy
task
– Autonomy: ability of a stat to act independently of the
public
• Both are needed to carry out policy
– Both have been difficult to achieve
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Building State Capacity and Autonomy
• Capacity
– States are unable to perform many basic task
expected by the public
• Creating infrastructure
• Providing education
• Health
– Traced to the absence of a professional bureaucracy
to run the government
– Exacerbated by the politicization of the state
• Bureaucracy: source for jobs, resources, and benefits
• Doled out by political leaders as a way to solidify control
• Provide goods and benefits to public in return for political
support
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Building State Capacity and Autonomy
• Patrimonialism: the state is packed with
officials whose only qualification is their
support for those in power
– Main goal is to siphon resources from the
state for their own enrichment
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Building State Capacity and Autonomy
• Autonomy
– Able to function without consulting the population
• Repress and terrorize the population as they see fit
• Limited
– See the state as a resource to be exploited rather than a tool for
achieving policy
– Results: corruption or “kleptocracy”
• Government by theft
• IE: Nigeria
– During military rule in the 1990’s officials stole more than $1billion from
the state treasury
• Not all LCD and NID are corrupt
– Singapore, Chile, Botswana (rank among least corrupt countries in the
world) US is ranked fourth
– Corruption index, 2000 chart (handout)
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Building State Capacity and Autonomy
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• Societies were not homogeneous
– Diversity became problematic
– Migration complicated things further
– After independence problems became
apparent
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• 1st: economic implications
– Ethnic groups favored under colonialism continue to monopolize
the wealth
– i.e. Malaysia and Indonesia:
• Ethnic Chinese continue to hold a disproportionate share of national
wealth
• Generated resentment among non-Chinese
– i.e. Kenya, Uganda, and Fiji
• Indian population, brought by British, came to control a large portion
of the business sector.
– Results: violence
• Appears to be ethnic
• Truly economic
– Civil Conflict in LCD’s and NIC’s
• Driven by economic concerns
• Religious differences
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• 2nd: ethnic and religious divisions
– Populations are heterogeneous
• Power falls along ethnic and religious lines
• Each seeking to gain control
– Competes for share of public goods and other
benefits for the state
– Fosters authoritarian rule
• A groups that gains control over the state may be unwilling to
relinquish or share it
– No one group can be confident that it could dominate politics
through democratic process
• One group “in charge” the others frozen out of the political
process
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• Angolan state
– Dominated by the Ovimbundu people
• From the north country
• Make up 37% of the population
– Opposition is Kimbundu people
• From the south country
• 25% of the population
– Results: civil war
• Devastated country since 1975
• Iraq
– Maj. Of pop. Is Shia sect of Islam
– Ruling party Ba’ath Party dominated by the Sunni
members
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• Creation of a single national identity
– Divisions create problems
– Less inclined to see the postcolonial states as
a true representation of the group
– Little beyond the struggle for independence
– Goal may become
• Secessionism: disaffected groups seek to create
their own autonomous or wholly independent
territories
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• Gender (social issues)
– Reinforced roles imposed by colonial rule with
rapid urbanization and the commercialization
of agriculture
• Favors male labor and property rights
– View males as a valuable addition to families
• Limits women’s access to important resources
– Education, economic advancement
• Leads to female infanticide
– India approx. 10,000 baby girls are killed each year
– China, Taiwan, South Korea
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• Sexist institutions are a result of
imperialism
– Also brought many liberal notions of female
autonomy
• Reconcile with more traditional cultural values
• Rise of Islamic Fundamentalist in many countries
– Supported by females: feminism is another example of
foreign values
– Threatens to deny them their basic freedoms
» Education, careers, and individual autonomy
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Forging Social Identities
• Explain differences between LCD’s and
NIC’s
– Development = ethnic lines
– Uneven development, lack of mobility, and
opportunity across ethnic lines
– Unequal relationships between women and
men
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• B/C Imperialism
– Rapid changes by colonial powers
– Geared to suit European needs
– Provide specific goods
• Results
– Continued state of economic dependency
– Language, infrastructure, and production favor continued
relationships
– Not good for long tern development
• Production of agriculture and basic goods/return finished goods
– Does not require highly skilled workers
– Does not promise large profits
• More unstable
– Subjected to factors: weather, global market
– I.e.: western US and saturated fats consumption
• SEA and imperial rule tropical oils
• Neocolonialism: unequal relationship, indirect form of imperialism
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• Breaking cycle of dependent development
– Greatest concern
• Industrial democracies dominated domestic and
global markets (size, technical sophistication)
• Could poorer countries compete?
– i.e. : Soviet Union and China
• Rapid industrialization: find a different path built
on their own conditions
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• Two distinct economic policies
– Import substitutions: based on idea that
because the poorer countries cannot compete
with advance industrialized democracies:
state needs to create more positive conditions
for the development of local industry
– Export-oriented industrialization: seeks to
directly integrate into the global economy by
concentrating on economic production that
can find a niche in international markets
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• Import substitution
– LDC’s restrict imports
• Make them more expensive
• Demands for local goods go up
• New businesses fill the demand (could be built by
state funds)
• Once fulfilled local demands; developed
productivity capacity to compete domestically and
internationally
• Trade barriers can be lifted
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• Import substitution
– Tariff or non tariff barriers were est. to raise price of
foreign goods
– Reduced restrictions on patents and intellectualproperty rights
– Allows local businesses to copy foreign made goods
(i.e. pharmaceutical products)
– Industrialization: developed partially or full-stateowned businesses (steel and chemical)
– Not a liberal strategy
– States had to play a string role in directing their
economies
– Led towards independence from the dominate power
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• Import substitution
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Success?
Did not produce the benefits
Set back economic developments
“hothouse economy”:
• Domestic producers (subsidized by state)
• Initially lead to economic growth : cold blast of outside competition
were kept “at bay”
• Dominate local market/lacking competition
– Less innovative and efficient than international competitors
– Draw money from state than generate money
– Created large industries dependent on the state
• Making losses rather than profits
• Became a drain
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• Export-oriented industrialization
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Not liberal economic policy
Strong role for the state promoting domestic growth
Used tariff barriers to protect industries in their initial stage
Sought technologies and developed industries export
capitalizing
• “production life cycle”
– Describes the way in which goods and technologies are diffused in
international markets
– Innovator of a good produces it for the domestic market and exports it
to the rest of the world
– Other countries finds ways to make the good cheaply
– Export own version back to the country that originated it
– Originator of the product has moved on to something new
– Seek to capitalize on the “production of life cycle”
• i.e. South Korea: focused on basic technologies (textiles and
shoes)
– Automobiles
Challenges of Post-Imperialism:
Generating Economic Growth
• Structural adjustment programs
– Privatizing of state-run firms, ending subsidies,
reducing tariff barriers, shrinking the size of the state,
and welcoming foreign investment
– Open the economy and shrink the state
• Generate faster and more consistent growth
• Although LDC’s have adopted these liberal
economic systems
– Past decade they have not reaped great benefits in
terms of economic growth
– Permutation of neocolonial policies
• Misapplied in countries
Prospect for Democracy and
Development
• Is there a period of “great opportunity” on the
horizon?
• Will anarchy take over these weak countries?
• Is freedom and equality impossible?
• Will these actions spread across countries?
Democratic countries?
• How do the events of September 11, 2001 affect
the world?
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Building State Capacity
• Shapes both Freedom and Equality
• International organizations/LDC and NIC
– Did not pay attention to the state
• Caused: corruption, wastefulness,
mismanagement
• Risky environments for entrepreneurialism,
fostered kleptocratic policies, political instability,
weak states
• Private sector and organizations promoted public
good were ignored/squeezed out
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Building State Capacity
• Rolling back state power?
• New economic systems= increase
corruption
– Political elite v. poor
• Rule of law (basic function)
– Requires a state that can generate and
enforce institutions
– How does one make “good government?”
Prospect for Democracy and
Development: Building State Capacity
• Solutions:
– Clientelism/rent-seeking = meritocracy
• Develop entrance exams for employment
• Tenure system: insulates govt. admin from begin
fired for political reasons
– Limited by inefficiency = decentralization of
state bureaucracies/devolutionary policies
• Increase democratization within govt. admin.
• Increasing oversight/participation of citizens
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Building State Capacity
• Solutions/reforms:
– Each have own difficulties and possible
problems
– Help achieve structural change
• 1st step towards economic and political
development
– “Politics and economies cannot be played
effectively if the rules are not clear and clearly
enforced”
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Supporting Civil Society
• Development of Civil Society/ Role of the
Public
– Organizations outside the state that help
people define and advance their own interest
– Activism/organization
• Against the expansion of state power that might
threaten democracy
• Instills democratic politics based on
– interaction, negotiation, consensus, and compromise
– LCD’s and NIC’s = weak
Prospect for Democracy and
Development: Supporting Civil Society
• Civil Society Weak:
– Divided by ethnic, religious, economic, or social
boundaries
– Public activity viewed as an equally important
component
• 1st step
– Civic education
• Learn their democratic rights to shape government policy
– Organizational skills
• Public is able to mobilize effectively
• Make voices heard
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Supporting Civil Society
• Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO”S)
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National and international groups
Independent of the state
Pursue policy objectives
Foster public participation
I.E. Doctors without Boarders, Amnesty international
Created by advance democracies
Local organizations staffed by poorer countries themselves
Women play a primary role in stating and running groups
Enable underrepresented segments of society to organize and
expand their rights.
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Supporting Civil Society
• NGO’s
– Powerful role in LCD’s and NIC’s
– Tackle issues
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Human rights
Environment
Gender
Health
Minority rights
Poverty
– Supported by foreign aid
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Supporting Civil Society
• NGO’s
– Spread is a sign of a global civil society
– Functions beyond the limits of any one state
– Neocolonialism by western NGO’s
• Bring agendas of social, political, and economic
change
– Blurring of domestic and international
relations
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Promoting Economic Prosperity
• Lack of economic development and pressing problems
of poverty
• State driven policies
– Further debt
– Economic stagnation
• Promote liberal economic strategies
– Open market
– Rolling back state power
– Results
• Stimulate trade, entrepreneurialism, and growth
– Fears:
• World market would benefit by source of cheap labor,
perpetuate dependent status
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Promoting Economic Prosperity
• Need to concentrate on the people
– Provide policies that empower individuals
economically
– Informal economy
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•
•
•
•
Not taxed or regulated by state
Self employed
Small enterprises (street vendors)
60% of country’s GDP (hard to measure)
Women play a large role
– 90% work in the informal economy
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Promoting Economic Prosperity
• Limitations of Informal economy
– Does not generate tax revenues
• Used for infrastructure and social welfare
– Not Subject to labor laws
– Not subject to state employment benefits
– Small and suffers from financial problems
• Lack of capital needed to expand
Prospect for Democracy and Development:
Promoting Economic Prosperity
• Microcredit:
– System that involves not an individual lender and
borrower, but borrowing groups made up of several
individuals
• Groups serve as support and collateral
• Combination of business and society
– Results:
• Alleviate poverty
• Decrease economic vulnerability by building personal assets
• Assist in increasing women’s public participation and
independence
• International aid has been channeled toward microcredit