5 Feb 2019

POL351
Lecture 1

Development =
Deliberate process of change to liveable societies…
Development of countries manifested in three ways:

1. Prosperity  Economic growth

2. Improved distribution
3. Importance of democracy

How do poor countries free themselves from authoritarian rulers become egalitarian?
How is development facilitated?

This course emphasis on political economy: politics of economic growth, inequality,

interaction of states and markets.
Comparative methods.

Planned development
Asia, Africa + LatAm began deliberate development in post WW2 period after 1945.
That is what we will be studying.

Key comparative question: why have some regions done better than others…

Some say: reasons are rooted in regional cultures

- E.g. asia does better cos of Confucianism.
Others say: modernization theory, turn to left for progress

If you want to understand success of a country, you must understand quality of govt.

Nature of politics  policy choices  development outcomes

5 Feb 2019

SUBSTANCE!

Scholars often impose a framework on a situation when studying comparative politics

This is an a priori judgement call. Is what gets people professorships in Princeton.
- How to filter out what is more or less important.

The most impt part of studying developing countries:

How do states and markets interact?
- Qs: how free should the market be? How much should states interact?

Defn.
- “State” = Max Weber said “human community that successfully claims monopoly
over legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.”
o Create a community in which citizens can live.
o Corporations ought not to have an army.
o Modern state monopolises force
- State is also a place for dynamism or repression emerge.
- States as Actors
- Governments come and go, but states remain.
- Politics > State > government
- Qs for us: what do these rulers do to help societies.

- “Market” = “whole of any region in which buyers and sellers are in such free
interaction with one another that prices of the same goods tend to equality.”
- Generate competition, efficiency
- Dynamic quality
- Distinguishable from capitalism, don’t need pvt property to have markets.
- Pro market does not have to mean pro business.