he countries of North and South Korea are separated by a "Military

T Demarcation Line" that is heavily fortified and tense. Yet the peoples
of these two states are separated by more than this: dramatic differences in
health, life expectancy, infant mortality, levels of education, prospects for ad-
vancement, access to information, and the freedom to participate in political
life. North of the line, indicators of all these good things are very poor, and
south of the line, astonishingly good. What makes this comparison still more
interesting is how recently this profound divergence occurred.
The comparison of North and South Korea is potentially
IN THIS CHAPTER
instructive in its own right, but it is just one example of a
Concepts 99
general situation that interests scholars of comparative poli-
Types 99
Poverty 100
tics who focus on development: Some countries are incred-
SoclaiOutcomesandHuman Development 100 ibly rich and give their citizens high "capability" to achieve
Gender Relations and Racial and Ethnic the ends they set for themselves, 1 and others are poor, leav-
Identities 101 ing their citizens with far fewer resources and opportunities.
Satisfaction and Happiness 103
The hope of comparative political analysts is that we can help
Cultural Development 104
Sustainability 104
explain why, and that in doing so, we will help citizens and
Causes and Effects: Why Does Development
policymakers maximize their own chances.
Happen? 105 North and South Korea are clearly different on various
Instit utions: The Market-State Debate, indicators, ranging from economic growth to poverty levels
Revisited 1OS
to citizens' opportunities. In this chapter, we examine the
Institutions: Beyond the Market-State
Debate 107 differing ways development can be understood. We begin
Culture and Development 109 by looking at the concept of "development," focusing on
Systems and Structures: Domestic and the most commonly used definition of the term, which is
International 112
overall income. The subsequent section, "Types," highlights
THINKING COMPARATIVELY the many other forms and definitions of development, in-
Explaining the Development of North and cluding other economic outcomes, more social indicators,
South Korea 116 and even measures of cultural values and ecological sustain-
CASES IN CONTEXT
ability. The "Causes and Effects" section then explores the
various theories that seek to explain why development hap-
India • Ni geria • China • Brazil
pens. In the "Thinking Comparatively" section at the end,
we return to this example from the two Koreas to illustrate
how we might use comparative case studies to test hypotheses about why
development happens.

98
 Types 99

Concepts
D evelopment is a complex concept, and there is heated disagreement about what development A process by which
counts as development and what does not. For example, would you say an oil- rich a society changes or advance~
country such as Saudi Arabia is experiencing development if its economy is grow- often measured in terms of eco-
ing rapidly, but nearly all of the benefits of that growtlh are going to a small number nomic growth, but also sometimes
of elites? Would you say that a country is developing if people are not getting measured in terms of quality of life,
wealthier but are living longer, healthier lives? What about a country like China, standard of Irving, access to free-
where wealth is increasing for many people, and poverty is declirung fast, but the doms and opportunities, or other
environment is being damaged severely? The indicators of development outlined indicators.
in this section range from narrow macroeconomic indicators, such as economic
growth, to social indicators, such as cultural development, that are more difficult
to measure. As you read them, consider which best captures for you the idea of
development.
The first and most straightforward sort of development to consider is eco-
nomic growth, or increases in a country's overall level of economic activity. Beyond
growth of the overall economy, development may also be evaluated using other
economic and soda! indicators, including income inequality, poverty levels, and
the standard ofliving. We could even define development in political terms, saying
a country is more developed when it becomes more democratic, though we will
leave this topic to chapter 6.
The simplest indicator of a country's economic development is how much the
economy produces, or how much income its people earn. As noted in chapter 4,
this can be measured using such indicators as gross domestic product (GOP) or
gross national income (GNI). Here we will not discuss all of the various economic
indicators that could be used to evaluate development, since several were explored
in the "Concepts" section of chapter 4. However, in the next section, we consider
some major ways that development has been evaluated in lower-income coun-
tries, beyond the economic indicators already examined and including a number
of soda! and political measures. These include questions of poverty and inequality,
such as whether people of different races and genders have comparable access to
economic and social opporturuties, and overall well-being. We consider measures
of well-being and "human capital" (such as health and education) and how or
whether development can be compatible with environmental sustainability and
respect for distinct cultural values in an age of global interactions.

Types
As noted previously, there are many ways of understanding and measuring devel-
opment beyond income per capita, and we exarrune some of these here. We still
consider some economic measures related to how income is distributed in a popula-
tion. Yet we also look at other possible ways of understanding development. One
is to focus on more social indicators, such as those based on health, education, and
other measurements of quality of life or standard ofliv:ing. Another is to think about
whether a society treats different groups equally (such as men and women, or major-
ity and minority ethruc groups). Finally, we \viii consider the relationship between
development and issues such as environmental sustain:ability and cultural autonomy.
100 Chapter 5: Development

• What Explains India's Recent Growth? PAGE465

India is a country that in recent years has achieved consistently
strong growth but that nevertheless still has a large population
suffering from extreme poverty. in many ways, India's develop-
ment story has been Idiosyncratic, above all because the coun-
try became the world's biggest democracy decades before
achieving strong growth. Ordinarily, as we discuss in chapter 6,
the opposite is the case, and economic development precedes
democratization.
For more on Indian development, see the case study in
Part VI, p. 465. As you read it, keep in mind the following
questions:
1. Why was India's performance so poor for so long, and
why did it finally take off?
2. Was democracy bad for India's economic development?
3. What are the prospects for india's poor in the coming
years?

poverty The state of being poor. as
measured by low income. depriva-
tion, lack of access to resources, or
limited economic opportunities.
poverty line A specified threshold
below wflich individuals or groups
are judged to be in poverty.
absolute poverty A conception
of poverty that 1nvolves setting a
certain line below which people
will be defined as poor, typically
understood in terms of the inability
to purchase a certain set of basic
goods or serVices.
Poverty
Poverty is usually measured with respect to an established poverty line, a basic
level of income needed to maintain a reasonable standard of living in a given
country. Traditionally, major international agencies such as the World Bank and
the United Nations Development Programme used about one dollar or $1.25 per
day (per person) as the absolute poverty threshold world\vide, though in recent
years many have turned to a two dollars per day threshold (or, often, $1.90/day in
2011 dollars at purchasing power parity). There has also been an effort to expand
the criteria for measuring poverty, taking into account additional indicators such
as access to public services and public goods. Poverty may be understood as an
income measure but also as a. measure of whether people have access to health care
and education.2 The number of people facing absolute poverty is about one billion
worldwide, though in relative terms, thls number has declined in recent years.3
Poverty lines may also be measured by individual countries, and each country
may do so in different ways.• In the United States, for example, the poverty line is
defined for households and families of different sizes, and is recalculated on a reg-
ular basis to reflect the cost o f living. The U.S. poverty line for 2015 was $12,060
for a single person under the age of 65. 5 However, looking at only the poverty line
does not indicate poverty depth, or how far someone is below the poverty line. I t
is simple just to count the number of people living below the line, but a person
with income of $12,059 will be counted the same as someone with $8,000 or less,
even though there is clearly a difference in how deeply someone is in poverty in
the two cases.

Social Outcomes and Human Development

life expectancy The average age
until members of a society (orsome
group within society) liVe.
Several indicators of an individual's overall well-being and standard of living are
not based only on income and macroeconomic performance. They may be termed
human capital because they represent the accumulated skills and investments
people have made in their own capacities (or, indeed, that others have made in
their capacities). Health is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of human capital.
It can be measured by a number of instruments. One is life expectancy, or the
age to which a given person may expect to live, depending on the circumstances
 Types 10 1

into which they were born. Another is infant mortality, often measured as the infant mortality A major public
percentage of children who do not survive to the age of one. O ther health mea- hea~h indicatOf, which typically
sures include infection and morbidity rates for different diseases, and accessib ility measures the number of infants per
of health care and health insurance coverage. Education is a second major aspect 1,000 bom that do not survive until
of human capital. The most important and commonly used measures are literacy the age of one year.
rates and school enrollment and completion (often thought of as "educational
literacy rate The percentage of a
attainment," frequently measured in terms of years of schooling). The quality of
population who can read.
education is important as well, as the standardized scores of youth on math and
science tests are often compared across countries, for example.
Some analysts who want to define development broadly have aimed to capture
the "standard ofliving."These often use some of the indicators just discussed. O ne
of the most commonly used measures of standard o f living around the world is
the United Nations' annual Human Development I ndex (HDI).This brings to- Human Development Index
gether income with life expectancy and educational measures (literacy and school (HOI) A composite measure
enrollments) in a single index to give a broad view of development and well-being. developed by the United Nations to
Standards of living often go along with (or are positively correlated with) other provide a broad view of annual
indicators of development. Yet the evidence suggests that inequality actually in- development and well·being
creases as income increases at certain stages of economic development, specifi- around the work:l, based on
cally in moving f rom low-i ncome stages of development (where nearly everyone is income, life expectancy. and literacy
poor) to m iddle- income stages (where a f raction of the population grows wealthier and school enrollments.
and the remainder does not see much increase). Conversely, some societies (such
as Cuba and the state of Kerala in India), have aimed to increase access to educa-
tion and health without necessarily doing so via increasing the personal incomes of
their citizens.6 1here are many routes to improving standards of living and reduc-
ing poverty, but many countries remain behind. In many African countr ies, such
as Nigeria, for example, standards of living and human development remai n lower
than in wealthier countries (see the "Case in Context " box "Why A re Natural
Resources Sometimes a Curse? The Nigerian Case").

Gender Relations and Racial and Ethnic Identities

In recent years, scholars have begun to break down statistics by groups, and a
leading example is gender. We now recognize that a society with large differences
in life expectancies between men and women, for instance, may be seen as a less-
developed society than one where life chances are more equitable. Likewise, if
women and men have radically different educational or professional opportunities,
we might consider this a development challenge. We examine gender and politics
in depth in chapter 14, but we note here that gender matters for development in
two major ways: it is both a means to development and one of the ends of devel-
opment.7 I n terms of ends, we m ight define development to say it occurs when
economic and social opportunities are available to women and men alike. Regard-
less of how well a cou ntry's economy does, that society might not be considered
developed if its women are not allowed to own property, or hold jobs outside the
home, or voice their opinions.8 In terms of means, gender also matters because
empowering women in particular helps advance other aspects of development.
Well- known examples include the benefits of extending education and small busi-
ness loans (sometimes as little as S25 or less) to women in low- income countries.
These small changes often have the effect of increas.ing women's incomes, which
102 Chapter 5: Devel opment

Why Are Natural Resources Sometimes a Curse?

The Nigerian Case PAGES22

Nigeria has some of t he largest oil deposits in t he world. So it

must be a rich country, right? Actually, Nigeria remains one of
the poorest countries In t he world. Although the Nigerian econ-
omy is one of the most important in Africa, historically, it has
performed poorly. Perhaps surprisingly, this may be because
of the oil. A number of scholars have argued that countries
like Nigeria suffer from what Is sometimes called the resource
curse, as oil or other high-value commodit ies can potentially
produce corruption, distort the formation and functioning of
key institutions, crowd out Investment in other areas, and affect
a country's currency in negative ways.
For more on Nigerian economic development and the re-
source curse, see the case study in Part VI, pp. 522-523. As you
read it, keep in mind the following questions:
1. How has oil helped, and how has it hurt, Nigerian
development?
2. What policies m ight t he Nigerian case suggest to the
leaders of a country t hat has just d iscovered large oil
deposits? Natural gas burns as oil is welled In t he Niger Delta region in
3. If oil is so bad, why is Norway not poor like Nigeria? (Or Nigeria. Nigeria is a major oil prod ucer, and yet its population
does this indicate that other factors are involved?) remains among the world's poorest.

in turn typically results in households making more resources available for nutri-
tion, family health care, and. children's education. I ndeed, evidence suggests that
women, on average, are more likely than men to invest scarce resources in their
families (and, thus, in human capital).
Major differences in development levels of other population groups may also be
an indicator of development (see Table 5.1 ). Ifcertain racial or ethnic rrunorities are
systematically deprived of the opporturuty to participate equally in the economy,
we can argue that development is incomplete. This gap between groups may not
always be captured by economic statistics like GDP, inequality, and poverty, and
it may go beyond political rights as well South Africa under the official racism of
apartheid (1948- 1994) was one example. Blacks certainly had lower incomes than
whhes, and no political rights to speak of, but they also suffered from separate and
inferior systems of education, health care, and housing. U nder apartheid, South
Africa had higher average social indicators than most other African countries,
but its inequalities were especially shocking. Unfortunately, however, disparities in
development due to discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender are
not only found in extreme cases like apartheid-era South Africa.