POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT
Class 1: Why a politics of development? Concept and theories
This class introduces the key concepts and development theories in broad strokes. We will trace how theory is rooted
in ideology and discuss how theory prescribes strategies for economic growth and social change. We will address the
notion of modernity as well as the basic theories of modernization, retrace the evolution of modernization thinking,
evaluate their relevance and controversies, compare different views on paths of development (dependency theories
and state-led development) and explain the current challenges of the development processes. We will also talk about
the advantages and disadvantages of using quantitative measures of development and we will explore why it is
important to consider colonialism, patriarchy, and globalization processes in the context of development.
I- What is development?
• Words we think about when thinking about development: progress, growth, betterment, evolve, freedom
o progress and freedom contradictory?
▪ Progress can be a loaded term – the meaning of progress is already decided by external actors
▪ Freedom to see and to decide what is progress
• It’s about at what level are we talking about? Countries, nation states are progressing, dev, free or is it about
individuals in these countries to be free to decide what progress is? Or it about progress at an international level,
all following the same path to progress like with climate change?
• All of these words are what the idea of development includes
o Everyone has a different idea of what progress is but indeed progress is a loaded term bcs what progress is
has been defined by the same group of countries that created the colonial system, then created the
international system and decided on how you measure dev, what it is,…
o But it doesn’t have to mean that – it’s just that in the history of development that’s how it is →why for some
scholars and ppl freedom and progress are contradictory
→you can see these ideas here,
which is an international
development project
→these 2 pictures are the
millennial development goals and
the sustainable development goals
We have both because the international community is listening to us and
realized that the millennial dev goals (the goals of the UN, the
international community) decided what it should be about in year 2000 should be attained in 2015 where not
enough bcs they are about health, education and no hunger →key things BUT:
1. We are not on target so we have to do it again
2. Development is not only for some countries but for the whole world, every country needs to keep on doing
this thing
3. You cannot achieve some goals if you only have certain countries complain to them
a. Eg goal 7 (ensuring environmental sustainability) is much more dev here in sustainable dev (14, 11,…)
• We need to be careful and pay attention to loaded terms such as progress but we have to be hopeful and keep
on thinking of these goals bcs we can have an impact in transforming them and making them better
• The concept of development understood by the UN, invokes a series of images. They go back to the idea of
modernization. Urbanisation, technological advancements, etc. (present in 50s & 60s)
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,idea of nation state- the countries that need to be developed
• Countries have a lot of poor people but also a lot of inequalities that is not
taken into account
o Nigeria is economy champion, India has big military power
• Idea that development project didn’t take into account the nation state
o Extremely inequality is not taken into account (eg in poverty also a lot
of poverty)
• Need to challenge this idea that there are developed countries, developing
countries, global north, global south
➢ Who and how did the world bank decided which countries was developed/developing?
Here countries are divided based on income (per capita) (GNI)→ typical way
of measuring of world bank but doesn’t show inequality
Based on this they see which countries are in need of aid
Assumption: the richer the country is, the more it invests in health,
education, life
Another way of measuring development: not using national income to
classify countries but the human development index (HDI)
Huan development index: average achievement in key dimensions of human
development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a
decent standard of living.
national income, takes into account inequalities in countries and that money
can be in hand of private investments
however, both maps don’t really change a lot, so maybe the world bank is right? Is it worth doing something complex
if we can just take the national income and divide it per capita?
o Maybe the “new” (blue) one is not complex enough and doesn’t take other important factors into account!
After the pandemic the global human development index has decreased
How development assistant has worked? Look OECD
The development industry is quite concentrated that
it has created a narrative about developed countries
that gives bilateral aid and developing counties that
receive the aid
24 counties that provide aid through OECD – mainly
of them being colonial powers
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,• Bilaterial aid: aid from one country to another → top donors in the world (EU,
US, Japan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Norway) -
Money that goes to development countries
1) Definitions – how different organizations understand dev
Don’t need to know these definitions by heart but to know whether development is seen as economic, social, for
nation, for community, for individual,… and that we need to hold all these things to know where these institutions
are coming from
• World bank: The low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high income groups are each associated with an annually
updated threshold level of Gross National Income (GNI) per-capita, and the low and middle income groups taken
together are referred to in the World Bank (and elsewhere) as the “developing world.
o Keyword: From Structural Adjustment Funds To Sustainable Development Goals
o Consequence of that measuring is that countries are classified to low, lower-middle,… which then further
gets categorized into categories of “developing”, “global north”,…
▪ Does that mean we want to stop using terms such as global north and global south as it makes
the data inaccurate?
▪ The term of global south has used as a synonym of development but it’s also a term that has be
reclaimed by people that lives in countries that is considered global south bcs talking about
global south also means to talk about history of colonialism, imperialism, inequality,….. SO
sometimes the south intellectual/activist reclaim the term saying that in the global south they
have a different way of thinking of development (Oxfam)
• Oxfam- power shift project
reclaiming diff understanding of our world and how we should live
power shift project gave artist from global south the possibility to do art projects on
what development means and what it doesn’t mean
interesting to link this with the article of imperialism of categories - metrics,
categories are wrong,…
when you use a term such a “development”, “global south”, … know why you are
using it and explain what is your definition and why you are using it and why not (eg
designs a geographical region that doesn’t exist,…)
• UNRISD: Social development can be broadly understood as processes of change that lead to improvements in
human well-being, social relations and social institutions, that are equitable, sustainable, and compatible with
principles of democratic governance and social justice. This definition includes both material achievements, such
as good health and education, and access to the goods and services necessary for decent living; and social,
cultural and political achievements, such as a sense of security, dignity, the ability to be part of a community
through social and cultural recognition, empowerment and political representation.
o Social development – looks at development as social
• ECLAC (economic commission for LA and the Caribbean): (based on dependency theories) Development: The
analysis of the ways in which the region's institutional legacy and inherited production structure influence the
eco dynamics of developing countries and generate behaviours that differ from those of developed nations.
o Economic and social development & historical structuralism
o Established as a way to counter the world bank in understanding what LA countries needed for
development and says you have to take into account our regions, institutions in history in order to
understand why different regions need different things in order to develop
o You cannot simply apply a hegemonic development project to different regions of the world. They are
not late comers, it is actually something different.
• Navyanda: Through biodiversity, we envision improving the productivity and incomes of rural communities, thus
combining the conservation of nature with removal of poverty, destitution and misery. Biodiversity also enriches
our lives by sustaining cultural diversity. And it is through the flourishing of diverse cultures conditions are
created for peace and harmony among the human community.
o Earth & Women centric and Farmer led movement for the protection of Biological and cultural diversity
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, 2) The colonial origins of comparative development – Acemoglu et.al 2001
• Brings to our attention that this development project that started at the end of the 40s doesn’t come out of
nowhere – we cannot understand where dev project comes from or its limitations if we don’t understand history
• Article: look at influence of colonial history on current situation of countries
o When we are measuring the level of dev it’s important to take into account the institutions in terms of
nation state
▪ e.g when we say a country has a higher national income or human dev index, we can’t forget the
power of institutions!!
o the type of institutions that are present in all colonies depends on whether the colonies were settler
colonies or extractive colonies – which was determined on the mortality rate, to choose whether they
would live there or not
▪ settler colonies would stay and live there
• interest in creating national institutions that would protect their rights, private
property,…
▪ extractive colonies would only extract the resources and leave
• interest in having weak institutions that would not protect private property of the
citizens, would not protect the extraction of natural resources,….
• If no protection: more difficult for a country to have a higher human development index
• Impact of institutions on economic performance
o (potential) settler mortality → settlements
o Early institutions → current institutions
o current performance
• institutional persistence
1) cost of introduction of better institutions
o difficult to introduce new institutions that place restrictions on gov power & enforce property rights
is costly
o if you are in power you might have an interest not to change the existing institutions bcs you prefer
yourself to be able to extract the resources for yourself
2) size of the ruling elite
o if big country with a small elite you prefer to be able to keep extracting bcs you are a small group of
people (easy to have consensus & more money) on sharing the benefits of the current system
3) irreversible investments
o if these elites that got installed after independence have made certain investments (for their
benefit), taking into account the current institutions, they are not going to be willing to change the
system as they would loose their investments
• link to Fanon, you have to take into account that there are certain elite in the countries that were colonized that
have an interest with collaborating with at the time colonist and now neo-colonial arrangements through
multinational corporations, political arrangements,…
• convincing argument?
o State and institutions and we know that states are just one actor in the whole arena of many other
powerful actors presents such as international cooperation, social media,…
o Since the 60s until now, institutions have evolved differently in different countries
▪ Rwanda has strong institutions and it was a extractive colony
a- historical frame: four main stages
putting the definitions in historical frame – but these 4 different
periods are not “hard reality”
idea of development project started after WWII with the creation of
UN and the reconstruction of EU through development aid
in the 90s we realize that all the program of privatizing,
restructuring,… are not going to work for many countries so we shift
to a new paradigm with the whole debate on globalization
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