POLS 248-01: Politics of Development
Syllabus
Week 01
9/1/09: Introduction
- Markandaya, Nectar in a Sieve, Chapters 1-15, pp. 1-96
9/3/09:
- Markandaya, Nectar in a Sieve, Chapters 16-30, pp. 97-189
Week 02
9/8/09: Defining Poverty; Global & Historical Survey
- Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty, pp. xii-xv, 1-89
9/10/09: China, India, Africa; Millennium Development Goals
- Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty, pp. 148-243.
- Concepts:
Relative poverty, moderate poverty, extreme or absolute poverty; income/consumption deprivation approach; poverty trap, fiscal trap, demographic trap; clinical economics; global map of poverty; purchasing power parity (PPP); Millennium Development Goals (MDG); UN Millennium Project; governance, corruption; Poverty & disease: malaria; tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS; Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ARV); official development assistance (ODA); Doha Declaration; Monterrey Consensus; Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
Week 03
9/15/09: Investment & Technology
- Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty, pp. 244-308.
9/17/09: Politics of Aid Coordination
- Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty, pp. 309-368.
- Concepts:
Human capital; Green Revolution; High Yield Variety (HYV) seeds; United Nations system (e.g., United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), [UN] Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFP), etc.); World Health Organization (WHO); World Food Program (WFP); World Trade Organization (WTO); International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank); International Monetary Fund (IMF); poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP); heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative; global compact; failed states; Marshall Plan; Jubilee 2000.
Week 04
9/22/09: Planners vs. Searchers
- William Easterly, White Man’s Burden, pp. 3-59.
9/24/09: Planning and Markets
- William Easterly, White Man’s Burden, pp. 60-162.
- QUIZ 1
- Concepts:
Planners; searchers; Live Aid and Live8; Group of Eight (G8); United States Agency for International Development (USAID); development banks; Big Push; structural adjustment program.
Week 05
9/29/09: Aid Bureaucracies; Debt Crisis, Health Crisis
- William Easterly, White Man’s Burden, pp. 165-265.
10/1/09: Foreign Policy & Aid
- William Easterly, White Man’s Burden, pp. 269-338.
- Concepts:
Principal; agent; participatory development.
Week 06
10/6/09: Homegrown Development
- William Easterly, White Man’s Burden, pp. 341-384.
- Concepts:
Neo-imperialism
10/8/09: MID-TERM EXAMINATION
Week 07
10/13/09: FALL BREAK [No Class]
10/15/09: Problematizing Poverty
- Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development, pp. 3-54.
Week 08
10/20/09: Economics & the Space of Development
- Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development, pp. 55-101.
10/22/09: The Dispersion of Power
- Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development, pp. 102-153.
- QUIZ 2
Week 09
10/27/09: Power and Visibility
- Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development, pp. 154-226.
10/29/09: The Purpose of Development
- Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, pp. 3-53.
Week 10
11/3/09: Capability Deprivation
- Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, pp. 54-110.
11/5/09: Democracy & Development
- Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, pp. 111-188.
- QUIZ 3
Week 11
11/10/09: Women’s Agency; Culture and Rights
- Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, pp. 189-248.
11/12/09: Individual Freedom & Society
- Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, pp. 249-298.
- Concepts:
Capability deprivation approach, freedom, utilitarianism, libertarianism, “missing women,” Pareto optimality, Arrow-Debreu theorem, gender and poverty; famine prevention, Malthusian pessimism, Asian values, Condorcet’s paradox.
Week 12
11/17/09: Failure of Capitalism in the Rest
- Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital, pp. 1-37.
11/19/09: Mysteries of Capitalism
- Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital, pp. 39-103.
- QUIZ 4
Week 13
11/24/09: America’s Property Rights Regime; Critique
- Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital, pp. 104-228.
- Concepts:
Braudel’s bell jar, capital, inclusive capitalism; titling, extralegality; preemption, pre-capitalist social contract.
11/26/09 THANKSGIVING RECESS [No Class]
Week 14
12/1/09: Micro-credit; History of the Grameen Bank
- Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor, pp. 1-130.
12/3/09: Applications of Micro-Credit Model; Grameen Enterprises
- Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor, pp. 131-262.
- QUIZ 5
- Concepts:
Poor, poorest (P1 – “hard-core” poverty), Micro-credit, purdah; Grameen Classic System (GCS or Grameen I), Grameen Generalised System (GGS or Grameen II).
Week 15
12/8/09: Case Study
- Aminur Rahman, Women and Microcredit in Rural Bangladesh, 1-97.
12/10/09: Micro-lending and Sustainable Development
- Aminur Rahman, Women and Microcredit in Rural Bangladesh, 98-154.
Week 16
12/17/09 – 1:30 to 4:30 pm
FINAL EXAMINATION