World Politics: Development
• Developed and developing states have different views on the
method and objectives of development;
• Developed states look to foster development as a means to:
• Open markets,
• Democratize, and to
• Promote all forms of human security
• Developing states seek development to promote:
• Their own competitiveness internationally and
• Appeal to constituents domestically.
• The objectives and goals
of development are
constantly shifting;
• Each century sees a new
measure of development
• Textiles to steel
• Steel to technology and
• Technology to services.
• Measuring development
is problematic,
particularly in terms of
economic development,
• Ex. China
• On the aggregate level it is
considered quite powerful;
• However, at the individual
level it is considered one of
the least developed
countries.
• The UN’s Millennium
Development Goals for
2015, focuses primarily on
human and social issues.
• The human and social issues
include an emphasis on:
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Poverty,
Education,
Gender equality,
Child mortality,
Maternal health,
HIV/AIDs and other diseases,
and
• Environmental stability.
• As part of the efforts to
address human and social
goals, there is an
international campaign to
reduce the poorest
countries’ debt burdens;
• Debt prevents these states
from financially addressing
human and social crisis such
as:
• One example of
international efforts has
been the Live 8 concerts
held in 2005.
• G-8 leaders agreed at the 2005 Gleneagles meeting to
forgive eighteen of the world’s poorest nations’ debts to the
World Bank, the IMF, and the African Development Bank (AfDB)
• And to double the aid to Africa to $100 billion a year by
2010;
• Civil society is defined as
a politically active, issueorganized public;
• Internationally civil society
comprises of NGOs, MNCs,
and other non-state actors,
• Domestically civil society
includes all kinds of groups
other than government
itself.
• Modernization theories suggest that economic, political, and
cultural conditions within states play a significant role in their
development;
• Modernization theorists contend that LDCs will develop only by:
• Shedding their traditional social, political, and economic institutions in
favor of
• The types of practices and institutions found in Western states.
• The fundamental obstacle
to development is
traditional culture;
• Serves to block the societal
transformations needed for
rapid economic growth and
democratization.
• Trade is seen as the engine
of growth
• Modernization theorists call
for free trade and open
markets;
• LDCs, through trade and aid,
can “pull themselves up by
their bootstraps.”
• The process of modernity, leads to political, social, and
economic problems that developing countries must address for
development to continue.
• The trends most often affected are demographic transition and
urbanization;
• the result of dropping death rates at a faster rate than dropping
birthrates leads to rapid population growth, which in turn results in
urbanization.
• Modernization theory,
however, generally views
urbanization as an
essential step in
development and a
modern economy;
• Though the transition is
difficult for the individual, it
is necessary as the city
becomes the focus of the
diffusion of new ideas, of
science and technology, and
social mobility.
• Critics question whether earlier paths of development can be
duplicated in developing states.
• Stress that traditional social and political institutions are difficult to
change.
• Contend its Eurocentric (Western).
• The current international economic system is biased toward developed
states.
• Political development takes a more narrow view of
development;
• Problematic considering a lack of consensus on which type of regime type
is considered the most developed:
• Democracies;
• Soviet system of communism;
• “Asian values” promotion of order over rights;
• Islamic states.
• However, democratization can be used as a measure of
political development because of its prevalence worldwide;
rather than a normative view, this has been the trend
worldwide.
• The requirements for political development go beyond the
normal trappings of democracy
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Political parties,
A constitution,
Separation of powers,
Elections,
• And include the standard that political development has
occurred when both political rights and civil liberties are
present.
• Theories of political development focusing on political culture
suggest that political beliefs and values represent a social
framework that is independent of institutions, economics, and
other factors that explain political behavior.
• Additional theories of political culture focus on patterns of:
• Individual orientation (behavioralism),
• Material interests and
• Social class (materialism).
• Ronald Inglehart argues that there is a crucial link between
economic development and democracy whereas
• Robert Putnam found that the development of civil society was
more compelling than institutional, structural, and class-based
explanations for democracy.
• Finally, constructivists describe political cultural as a unified
understanding and interpretation of politics among states’
elites;
• They suggest that political culture drives the process of development by
informing elites’ decisions about which approaches will work best for them
and their constituents.
• Dependency theory rejects the premise that the source of
underdevelopment is domestic in nature;
• Contends that the main reasons for development and underdevelopment
may be found in the structure of the world economy, which is inherently
biased against poor countries.
• The disadvantaged position of the developing countries stems
from its dependence on export of primary products, usually a
single commodity such as coffee, cocoa, copper, or oil;
• Their economies are highly vulnerable to price fluctuations.
• The unequal terms of trade between developed and
developing countries further impoverish the LDCs.
• Modernization theorists suggest that MNCs promote
development, and provide capital, technology, and training.
• Dependency theorists contend that MNCs are exploitative,
hinder development, and contribute to the widening gap
between the rich and the poor states. They have three
complaints against MNCs.
• MNCs avoid paying their share of taxes through accounting tricks.
• The technology that MNCs transfer to LDCs is often inappropriate for the
region.
• MNCs do not bring capital into LDCs.
• In general, dependency theorists allege that MNCs can control and
manipulate the production of primary commodities in developing countries,
creating a neocolonial situation.
• There are several critiques of dependency theory.
• It has been proven false by the LDCs that have managed to industrialize
with the help of developed states.
• The plight of primary product exporters may not be as bad as originally
claimed.
• They lay the blame for LDCs’ poverty squarely on the more developed
countries, with little blame placed on factors within the developing country.
• Import-Substitution Industrialization (ISI) is a strategy of
economic isolation intended to encourage domestic production
of goods traditionally imported;
• Accomplished via overvaluing the currency and erecting trade barriers to
potentially competitive imports;
• ISI has not been very successful at either emancipating LDCs from
economic dependence or providing a basis for long-term economic
development.
• Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) became the focus of the
World Bank beginning in 1980 rather than an emphasis on
development projects.
• SAPs were intended to lower LDCs governments’ debts by
reducing their expenditures, opening their markets to investment
and trade, and promoting exports.
• Although consistent with liberalization theory, SAPs failed to
take into account domestic economic, social, and political
concerns; in addition, SAPs fail to consider the environmental
impact of their policies.
• The World Bank and the IMF have created new ways to
address the failures associated with SAPs;
• Have implemented “greener” policie
• Focused more on social programs and the elimination of poverty.
• In searching for practical solutions, institutions and states are
turning to two factors: technology and microfinance.
• Technology has created all kinds of opportunities for economic and
political development.
• Microfinance represents a new financing practice that promotes
development from the bottom up.
• Banks and other financial institutions make small loans (mostly to
women) who want to start or sustain small businesses;
• Focuses the ideas of development on the poorest of the poor rather than
the elite within a society.
• The issue of corruption in developing states must be addressed
in any discussion of development (economic and political); it is
conventional wisdom that corruption stifles development.
• Corruption is institutionalized and socialized but always comes down to
the individual.
• Corruption, like development, spans economics, politics, security,
and human welfare;
• Most institutions focus on promoting good governance and seek to reward
steps taken toward this absence of corruption.
• Development is difficult on several fronts;
• It is complicated by different agendas and priorities resulting in different
approaches.