L1 – WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?
COURSE INTRO
Using tools of polisci to:
Explain why some places are more developed than others
Diagnose why development initiatives often fail
Propose solutions that have proven evidence of success in boosting development
Politics – how public decisions are made; who gets what, when and how (Lasswell)
WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?
Development = freedom (reading)
“Bringing to the dark places of the earth, the abode of barbarism and cruelty, the torch of culture and
progress” – Lugard, 1926
“The manner in which people are able to live and die” – Dasgupta, 1993
“The modification of the biosphere to improve the quality of human life” – IUCN, 1980
“Good change” – Chambers, 2004
“The practice of development agencies” – Thomas, 2004
“Since development depends on values and alternative conceptions of good life, there is no uniform or
unique answer” – Kanbur, 2006
Who are we developing?
o The 3rd world? Underdeveloped? Less developed? Developing? Low and middle
income? The global South? Everyone?
What are we developing?
o Economic development e.g. GDP, political development e.g. democracy, social
development e.g. healthcare, subjective development e.g. personal wellbeing and
happiness
Modernisation theory – a linear transition from the same ‘traditional’ start to the same ‘modern’ end
Subjective development: voices of the poor
The rich are those who are able to save & sell part of their harvest when prices rise (Niger)
economic activity
What one shouldn’t lack is the sheep, what one cannot live without is food grain (China)
Most important asset is an extended and well placed family network from which one can
derive jobs, credit and financial assistance (Senegal) network
Poverty is humiliation, the sense of being dependent and forced to accept rudeness, insults and
indifference when asking for help (Latvia) hierarchy & power
Development as freedom (Sen)
Freedom to do what?
o Participate in politics, engage in economic transactions, social opportunities through
education and healthcare, transparency during interactions, security of life
What limits freedom?
o Poverty, violence/repression, poor public services, state restriction on activities, lack
of opportunities
Why does freedom matter?
o Intrinsic reason: freedom matters in itself
o Instrumental reason: freedoms promote other freedoms
o E.g. democracy prevents famine…but also matters for political freedom in itself
, o E.g. markets promote wealth…but also represent economic freedom itself
Development is about complementaries, not trade-offs
Freedom = capabilities (e.g. to live a long life, to become a teacher)
o Capabilities depend on resources/commodities
o And on needs: how resources are converted into capabilities
Freedom vs income: income is not enough as not all ends can be bought
Freedom vs utility/happiness: people who are easily pleased do not deserve less
Freedom vs libertarianism: freedom ‘from’ doesn’t guarantee freedom ‘to’
HDR (UN): new dimensions/freedoms of importance change/are adapted
How do we choose which capabilities/freedoms matter?
o For Sen, this is the purpose of democracy
o But he still proposes his 5 freedoms
o How do we choose for countries under authoritarianism?
Not just a normative question
o Politics is the conflict between people with interests in different dimensions of
development
Sustainable development – development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland commission)
Sustainability means renewable resources are
extracted/consumed at a slower rate than they are replaced
Strong sustainability: natural capital does not fall
Weak sustainability: the sum of natural and physical capital
does not fall
Are continued economic growth and environmental
sustainability compatible?
o The “development” route to sustainability
Rapid tech innovation helps us solve
problems like climate change
Wealth and education reduce fertility, reducing environmental pressures
The Kuznets curve
o The “sustainability” route to development
Tackling environmental challenges will stimulate new innovation and
investment
Conserving assets improves their productivity e.g. new medical cures in the
rainforest
Avoiding climate stresses prevents conflicts and boosts yields
o These approaches are blurred and complicated
What conflicts in ‘freedoms’ lie behind the debate on financing new natural gas projects in
developing countries?
o Economic, political (on both sides), economic autonomy states having political
decision-making power to be independent (financially),
Post development critiques
The discourse of development makes people think of themselves as ‘underdeveloped’
o Rejecting modernisation theory: we’re not all traveling in the same direction, more is
not always better
o Poverty is a myth, a construct and the invention of a particular civilisation
Development is an imposition of power and hierarchy
o A weapon of the cold war and post colonialism
, o Development as planned poverty
o A top-down, ethnocentric and technocratic approach
o Westernisation and eradicating diversity
Development has failed on its own terms
o Rising inequality
o Delusions and disappointment, failures and crimes have been steady companions of
development and tell a common story: it did not work
Development is an industry
o $152.8Bil
o Govts, NGOs, BINGOs, profit oriented companies, foundations
o Reliant on the continuation of poverty
o Lobbying govts for new contracts
o Govts seeking markets for their companies
Is it time to replace the concept of development?
HOW DO WE MEASURE DEVELOPMENT?
Challenges to measurement
Multidimensional, frequent
Lack of data collection capacity on most important countries
Representative data on the most vulnerable is challenging
Hard to attribute progress to specific policies when many things change at the same time
HDI (UN):
More income helps, but can’t compensate for poor health; HDI depends on all indicators being
of a particular ranking; all dimensions need to be paid attention to
Multidimensional poverty index
Are the people who lack
income the same people
who lack healthcare?
We add up how many of the
10 indicators you lack; if
you are deprived of at least
1/3 of the indicators, you are
considered poor (need to
face multiple challenges to
be considered poor)
consequence: MPI helps us capture the multiple challenge of escaping poverty
Sustainability
HDI and MPI reward resource use but ignore consequences for future generations.
, Ecological footprint: how much biologically productive area it takes to provide for all competing
demands of people (in Hectares)
1.75 earths would be needed to support current activities, 5 if we all lived like the US
ARE WE MAKING PROGRESS IN DEVELOPMENT?
Data, its production and interpretation are crucial to developing solutions to these problems.
Did we achieve the MDGs?
Achieved 5/17 targets; not terrible, but not particularly good
Did incredibly well in reducing absolute poverty, decrease seems more rapid each decade;
absolute number of people in poverty has shown extreme decline (2/3 reduction; especially in
China)
o But Africa has more people living in poverty and it is only increasing
Countries making fastest progress in reducing multidimensional poverty are all African
CONCLUSION
What is development?
Contested: development as many possible freedoms
Increasingly a question of sustainability and freedom of future generations
What people value as development generates competing political interests
How do we measure it?
Many imperfect measures; all are simplifications and make difficult value judgements
Are we making progress?
Quickly, but unevenly and decelerating
Poverty increasingly concentrated in Africa
L2 – GEOGRAPHY
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEAST DEVELOPED?
By far, greatest concentration of poverty is in central Africa. In general, most of Africa faces a great
challenge, followed by South Asia.
6/7 impoverished people live either in Africa or India
HOW DOES GEOGRAPHY AFFECT DEVELOPMENT?
Some countries are doomed not to develop (Hausmann)
Tropical: 1.5% points slower growth & 7 years lower life expectancy
Landlocked: 0.6% points slower growth
Why?
1. Transportation and coordination costs limit trade and globalisation
