GSD Flashcards
What were the 8 millennium development goals?
- Extreme Hunger
- Universal primary education
- Gender equality
- Child mortality
- Maternal health
- HIV/AIDS & malaria
- Environmental sustainability
- Global partnership
How many goals and targets for 2015 sustainable development goals?
17 goals
169 targets
Define sustainability
An assurance for the continuation of development for current & future generations. 3 dimensions: social, economic, environmental.
Name a few of the 17 SDGs
Poverty, hunger, education & its quality, gender discrimination, clean water, clean energy, employment & Econ growth, inequality, over consumption & production, peace & justice
What was the first confrontation between human & environment?
10,000 years ago first agricultural revolution. Allowed humans to settle down in 1 place and consume what they plant instead of continuous relocating for hunting & wandering for food. Problem was reduction in soil fertility due to exhaustion & repeated irrigation.
How was the first confrontation solved?
3000/4000 years later: used crop rotation (planting dissimilar crops) & animal dungs = sustainable solution. Later started 2/3/4 field crop rotation leaving parts of the land fallow.
What is the second confrontation?
After the industrial revolution 18C
What is feudalism? In which centuries did we have a feudal society?
A social, economical & political system on some legal and military obligations between Lord and his subordinates in a small state called a manor.
9C to 15C.
5 characteristics of a feudal society
Main production was agriculture Labour intensive Low level of surplus Money had a minor role Poor health and sanitation
Which FOP was very important in a feudal society?
Land = main source of wealth
In what way was there no role for money in a feudal society?
Peasants worked for landlords and given food/shelter in return = no wages. Money not seen as a store of value. It was only a Unit of account & medium of exchange in bigger cities.
As money didn’t play a big role in feudalism, what was the economy called?
Real exchange economy
What is the goal of a real exchange economy?
NOT MONEY - it was just a neutral link between the transaction of real things and real assets.
What is a monetary production economy?
An economic market based system where money plays a central role.
Goal = to accumulate wealth.
7 events that led to collapse of real exchange economy
Famine & Black Death
Renaissance
Mechanical printing press
Extravagant lifetime of aristocrat nobles
Flourishing cities & markets since 13C
Increasing trade & finally rise in population (after Black Death)
How did famines & Black Death lead to collapse of feudalism?
People questioned their beliefs and faith. Catholic Church had no answers = lost their legitimacy and power. Peasants wanted to work for wages now.
How did spread of renaissance lead to end of feudalism?
Started in Florence, Italy 14C. Stood against roman Catholic Church. Individualism & secularism encouraged = weakened power of church, led to new identity based on nationalism & colonisation.
When & how did introduction of mechanical printing press lead to end of feudalism?
1439 in Europe
Knowledge, skills & ideas spread - previously just relied on church
Fuelled tech change in navigation, mining and engineering. Printing industry grew = jobs in cities.
How did flourishing cities & markets since 13C lead to end of feudalism?
Cities in Italy, Netherlands and British ruled by local authorities which were merchants, not monarch = more freedom.
Many people with skills free from obligations of countryside & could live independently in cities and expand business
Why & how did increasing trade lead to end of feudalism?
Developed Astrolabe for sea navigation in 15C and bill of exchange = easier for international trade. Moneychangers converted currencies & started making loans and holding deposits, charging a % for their services.
What was the first manifestation of monetary production economy called?
Mercantilism
What is the core idea of mercantilism?
Accumulate money through the expansion of production & exports, while controlling trade to reduce imports & secure cheap resources through colonisation.
5 reasons for colonisation
Colonial power = more development
Access to raw materials for production
Cheap resources in production = profits financed IR
Control over trade routes & monopoly power
Making monetary profit from all the above
How is mercantilism a zero sum game?
If one country has a positive trade balance, another has a negative so winners win at the cost of losers.
What is capitalism? When did it manifest?
Rose alongside the industrial revolution. Accumulation of wealth. Believing in the price mechanism & free markets. Free trade & free competition.
4 Differences between mercantilism & capitalism
- Free trade and competition in capitalism vs limiting competition and imports in mercantilism
- Universalism in capitalism. People treated as atoms despite race, religion, nationality - model as utility max consumers
- Cosmopolitanism: production defined beyond borders
- Free capital movement: individual interest not national interest
2 similarities between mercantilism & capitalism
Goal = money & monetary profit - both monetary production systems.
Disregard for global imbalances.
Define GDP
An estimated monetary value of all produced and traded final goods and services in an economy during a specified period of time (usually a year)
What is GDP a measure of?
Accumulation of wealth in a monetary production economy
5 problems with GDP
Doesn’t include production of non-market goods e.g. Domestic work or black market, doesn’t show distribution between different FOPs, doesn’t account for environmental damage, doesn’t reflect happiness & quality of life, doesn’t show political/social aspects.
What are the 3 dimensions of the social progress index?
Basic human needs - food, water, basic medicine, shelter, safety
Foundations of wellbeing - basic knowledge, health, environ quality, info & communications
Opportunity - advanced education, freedom & choice, rights,
What Curve legitimises the self correction mechanism?
Kuznet’s (environmental) curve - eventually the relationship betweeen human & environment will improve as development continues.
What is the result for developing economies from the global division of labour?
Dual development - specialise in export of primary products while other sectors underdeveloped. Low value added, volatile price productions. Bad terms of trade, staples trap.
Define externality
The side effect or indirect consequence of an activity on a third party which is usually unintended & not reflected in market prices.
3 characteristics of public goods
- Non excludable –> free rider problem
- Non rival / non diminishable
- Non rejectable
Why doesn’t the price mechanism account for externalities?
Producers & consumers only account for private costs and benefits. Do not take into account external costs and benefits = produce at private optimum, not socially optimum level. Market failure.
Conclusion: 5 reasons why we cannot reach the SDGs
- GDP a bad measure - SPI better
- Capitalism as a zero sum game
- Global division of labour –> dual development
- Self correcting mechanism fails - Kuznet’s curve not supported empirically
- Externalities & public goods
