A substantial  majority of the world’s 190+ countries have yet to achieve the level of social, economic and political development enjoyed by the so-called developed nations. This substantial majority of states includes the majority of the world’s population. These two facts are reason enough to make the study of developing countries a priority for anyone interested in international politics, economics, sociology or history. The fact that a very large portion of the population of these countries lives in conditions of chronic material deprivation, political oppression and physical danger makes the study of these countries even more urgent. As we become aware of the magnitude of the gap separating the wealthier countries from the poorer ones we ask ourselves why this is so and what can be done about it: What explains the considerable difference in socio-economic and political conditions between developed and developing countries? What allowed Europe and North America to take the “right” turn at the development fork, while the rest of the world apparently took the "wrong" one?  Why have some developing countries established significantly more effective economic and political institutions than others? Why are some ruled by democratic governments while many others aren’t ? What accounts for the varying levels of domestic conflict and of compliance with human rights principles? What has been done, is being done and what else should be done to break the cycle of poverty, conflict, oppression and human suffering that afflicts a very substantial portion of mankind?

These are some of the questions that we shall address in this class. The tools we will use are those crafted by reputable specialists of various disciplines including political science, economics, sociology, history, anthropology and evolutionary biology. With their help we will try to uncover and shed light on some of the past and current factors that make the developing world what it is today. In so doing we will have the opportunity to appreciate the richness of this field of study and of the unique perspective on humanity that it offers.

We shall begin by exploring the very origins of the bifurcation between development and underdevelopment. This will take us as far back as the beginning of the Neolithic age and the different opportunities for farming available in different regions of the world. We will follow this historical trail through pre-colonial times, the colonial era and the decolonization period that followed World War II.

Our focus will then shift to the principal theories of development: growth theory and modernization; dependency and world systems theory; theories that privilege the role of class structure or state institutions, or focus on war as the mid-wife of state formation. We shall analyze in some detail the recent line of research that emphasizes the importance of the interplay between economic and political institutions in facilitating or hindering development.  

In the last part of the course we shall gauge the impact of selected factors on the political dynamics of developing countries: ideologies and political culture; ethnic rivalries, conflict and human rights; democracy and regime change; international organizations, international aid and foreign intervention.

Case studies of a large sample of developing countries will accompany our historical, theoretical and thematic journey. We will learn about the political institutions of several countries, the factors that affected their birth and those that influence their functioning today. The case studies will also allow us to assess the usefulness of some of the general explanations proposed by the development literature.

The very long roots of development and underdevelopment

-         The geography of primitive societies

-         From hunter-gatherers to farmers

Colonialism and decolonization

-         Very different colonial experiences

-         The promises of National Liberation

-         Independence or new dependence?

Theories of state formation and development

-         The role of class structures

-         The role of military organization and religion

-         War as the midwife of statehood

International Political Economy and development

-         Classical and neoliberal theories of development

-         Modernization

-         Structuralism, dependency and world systems theory

-         Statist theories

The interplay of economic and political institutions

-         Vicious circles

-         Virtuous circles

The role of ideology and political culture

Violence, ethnic rivalries, civil conflict and human rights

Democracy and development

-         Does development bring about democratic change?

-         Does democracy facilitate development? Is democracy necessary for development?

-         Rational choice and ethical arguments about the relationship between democracy and development

Regime change and political transitions

International Organizations, international aid and foreign intervention

-         The role of Global Governance mechanisms

-         International aid: help or curse?

-         The perils and potential of foreign intervention

 THE VERY LONG ROOTS OF DEVELOPMENT AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT

Unit 1: Introduction to the course
“Yali’s question”

Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies (“GGS”), by Jared Diamond (1999, Norton & Co.), pp. 13-28

Unit 2
Where it all started

GGS Ch 1



Unit 3
A natural experiment of history

GGS pp. 53-57 and pp. 62-66

The proximate causes of development disparities: Collision at Cajamarca

GGS  Ch 3

Unit 4
The importance of food production: where did it start and how?

GGS Ch 4; and GGS pp. 98-103; pp. 104-113; table 7.1 at pp. 126-127; and pp.128-130

Suggested additional readings: GGS Ch. 7: “How to make an almond”

Unit 5
Where did plant domestication originate?

GGS Ch. 8

Where did animal domestication happen and why?

GGS pp. 157-163; and pp. 174-175

Suggested additional readings: GGS the rest of chapters 8 and 9

Unit 6
The critical importance of continental axes

GGS Ch. 10

Unit 7
Livestock as engine of development and disease carrier

GGS Ch. 11

The origins and spread of writing and technology

GGS: pp. 236-238; and pp. 260-264

Unit 8
Forms of government: from bands to tribes, to chiefdoms, to states

GGS 265-292

Suggested additional readings: GGS Ch. 16 “How China became Chinese” and Ch. 17 “Speedboat to Polynesia”.

COLONIALISM AND DECOLONIZATION

Unit 9
Comparing the colonial heritages of Mexico, Peru, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Iran, Turkey, China and Indonesia

Comparative Politics of the Third World (“CPT”), by December Green and Laura Luehrmann (Lynne Rienner 2011, THIRD Edition), Ch. 5

Suggested additional readings:
- The Age of Empire: 1875-1914, by Eric Hobsbawm (Vintage 1987) Ch. 3
- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, by V.I. Lenin (International Publishers), Ch. 7

THEORIES OF STATE FORMATION AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

Unit 10
Theories of class structure and their critics

“A critical review of Barrington Moore’s Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy”, by Theda Skocpol (in Politics and Society, September 1973, Vol. 4, pp. 1-34)

Unit 11
War as the midwife of nation states

“War making and state making as organized crime”, by Charles Tilly (in Bringing the State Back In, Evans, Ruesschemeyer and Skocpol eds., Cambridge University Press 1985)

The Origins of Political Order, by Francis Fukuyama (Farrad, Strauss & Girould 2011), Ch 7 “War and the Rise of the Chinese State”

Additional suggested readings: Fukuyama: Chs 10-12.

Unit 12
Military organization, religion and state formation: the Muslim world

Fukuyama: Chs 13, 14 and 15

INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORIES AND COMPETING APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT

Unit 13
Alternative theories of development: growth, modernization, dependency and world systems theories

CPT pp. 103-139

Hand-out on theories of development

Additional suggested readings:

- World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction, by Immanuel Wallerstein (Duke University Press,  2004), Chapters 2 and 3
- “Wallerstein’s World-Capitalist System: A theoretical and historical critique”, by Theda Skocpol (in American Journal of Sociology, 1977, Vol 5, pp. 1075-1090)

Unit 14
The Washington Consensus and alternative development strategies

CPT pp. 141-162; and pp. 163-171

Unit 15
The impact of international economic factors: case studies

CPT Ch. 9

THE ROLE OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS: VIRTUOUS CIRCLES AND VICIOUS CIRCLES, INCLUSIVE AND EXTRACTIVE INSTITUTIONS

Unit 16
So close yet so different: institutions as promoters of prosperity or poverty

Why Nations Fail: the Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (Crown Business 2012), Chapters 1 and 3

Additional suggested reading:   

• Fukuyama, Ch. 1: “The Necessity of Politics”

Unit 17
The long term effects of critical historical junctures

Acemoglu: Ch. 4

Unit 18
Growth under extractive institutions

Acemoglu: pp. 133-151; pp. 213-215; and pp. 231-244

Unit 19
Reversing development

Acemoglu: Ch. 9


Unit 20
Vicious circles at work in Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Ethiopia and 19^th century USA

Acemoglu: Ch. 12

Unit 21
Why nations fail today: comparing the cases of Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Argentina, Nigeria, North Korea, Uzbekistan and Egypt

Acemoglu: Ch. 13

Unit 22
Changing institutions and creating prosperity: the experience of Botswana, the south of the United States and China

Acemoglu: Ch. 14

THE ROLE OF IDEOLOGY AND POLITICAL CULTURE

Unit 23
CPT: pp. 193-216

ETHNIC RIVALRY, CIVIL CONFLICT, VIOLENCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Unit 24
Violence as the engine of change and the tool to preserve the status quo

CPT: Ch. 12

Unit 25
The Conflict Trap

The Bottom Billion, by Paul Collier (Oxford University Press 2008), Ch. 2

CPT: Ch. 13

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT

Unit 26
From democracy to development?

Development as Freedom, by Amartya Sen (Oxford University Press 1999), Ch. 6

“Dictatorship, Democracy and Development”, by Mancur Olson (in The American Political Science review, September 1993, Vol 87, N. 3, pp. 567-576)

From development to democracy?

“Development and Democracy”, by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and George Downs (in Foreign Affairs, September-October 2005)

 Suggested additional reading:   

• “How development leads to democracy: what we know about modernization, by Ronald Inglehart and Christian Weizel (in Foreign Affairs, March-April 2009)

REGIME CHANGE AND POLITICAL TRANSITIONS

 
Unit 27
CPT: Chapters 15 and 16

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, AID AND MILITARY INTERVENTIONS

Unit 28
The Bottom Billion, Ch. 7 and Ch. 8