COMPARATIVE POLITICS:

DEVELOPMENT
Lecture for PS Major 6: Comparative Politics

Presented by:
Ryan Dave Rayla
UJSR, college instructor
PRESENTATION ROADMAP

Why Models of
Development
Development Development
as Freedom
? ?
WHY DEVELOPMENT?
 • Underdevelopment
• Low levels of living standards
• Sodaro & Smith (2006)
• An economic situation in which there are persistent
low levels of living in conjunction with absolute
poverty, low income per capita, low rates of economic
WHY growth, low consumption levels, poor health services,
high death rates, high birth-rates, dependence on
DEVELOPMENT? foreign economies, and limited freedom to choose
among activities that satisfy human wants.
 • Political Legitimacy concerns
• Development = staying in power for regimes/
elites

• Academic interests
WHY • Political Science
• New States = New studies
DEVELOPMENT? • Politics beyond Western systems = Comparative
Politics
• Development as Politics
• International Studies
• Rise of Area Studies
• Development as a lens for state to state
interactions
 • Underdevelopment
• Low levels of living standards
• Sodaro & Smith (2006)
• An economic situation in which there are persistent
low levels of living in conjunction with absolute
poverty, low income per capita, low rates of economic
WHY growth, low consumption levels, poor health services,
high death rates, high birth-rates, dependence on
DEVELOPMENT? foreign economies, and limited freedom to choose
among activities that satisfy human wants.
 • Development
- The process of improving the quality of all human
lives

• Three Important Aspects of Development:

Raising people’s living standards
WHAT IS •
• Creating conditions conducive to the growth of
DEVELOPMENT? people’s self-esteem through the establishment of
social, political, and economic systems and
institutions that promote human dignity and
respect.
• Increasing people’s freedom
DEFINITIONS OF DEVELOPMENT
TRADITIONAL DEFINITION
• “The capacity of a national economy,
whose initial economic condition has been
more or less static for a long time, to
generate and sustain an annual increase in
its gross national income (GNI) at rates of
5% to 7% or more” – Todaro & Smith
(2006)
• Index or measurement for economic
development
• Income Per Capita
NEW DEFINITION
• “Development must therefore be
conceived of as a multidimensional process
involving major changes in social
structures, popular attitudes, and national
institutions, as well as the acceleration of
economic growth, the reduction of
inequality, and the eradication of poverty.”
– Todaro & Smith (2006)
• Development must address human needs
MODELS OF DEVELOPMENT
ROSTOW’S
STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
CRITIQUES AND INADEQUACIES
Too focused on Income as a main measure of development
• Only the level of economic activities are measured (e.g. GDP)
• Indicators look at productivity only and not on human outcomes

Biased towards Western Values

• Assumes that people are individualistic and materialistic
• Often neglects collective values

Primary focus is on Economic Growth as an End in itself

• Assumption: grow the economy and people will surely flourish
• Fault with this assumption: lack of emphasis upon social inequality
FOOD FOR
THOUGHT: • Checkout this article from the
WHAT ARE International Monetary Fund by author
Sam Ouliaris (2011)
ECONOMIC • (
MODELS? What Are Economic Models? - Back to Basics: Fi
nance & Development, June 2011 (imf.org)
 • For a complete report on regional or
global data on the World Economic
UPDATES ON Outlook this October 2021, checkout the
THE WORLD link below:
• World Economic Outlook, October 2021 (imf.or
ECONOMY g)
DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM
DEVELOPMENT
AS FREEDOM • Checkout the arguments of Prof. Amartya
Sen in this book. Instructor will send you
an electronic copy in pdf format

• Summary
• People need Capabilities to enjoy ‘freedoms’
• Capabilities empower people and better their
outcomes in life.
• Building capabilities of people should be the
concern of Development, not economic growth
alone.