IR 002: Lecture 19

Question 1

What is development?

Answer 1

Improvement of living and economic standards

Question 2

What is the Human Development Index?

Answer 2

-Created by the UN in 1990
-Life Expectancy
-Literacy
-Per Capita Income

Question 3

What were the UN Millennium Development Goals?

Answer 3

• Cutting extreme poverty by 50%
• Universal primary education
• Gender Equality
• Reduce the mortality rate of children

Question 4

What were the UN sustainable development goals of 2015?

Answer 4

• No poverty, hunger, clean water, etc.
• Environmental and social sustainability

Question 5

What was the main reason for the decline of extreme poverty between 1990 and 2019?

Answer 5

• The rise of China and India

Question 6

What are the causes of underdevelopment?

Answer 6

• Interdependence
• Bad government/leaders
• Possession of natural resources is more likely to hamper development

Question 7

What sectors dominate the national economy?

Answer 7

• Manufacturing Services: High Development
• Agricultural Sectors: Low Development

Question 8

Why do agriculture-based economies struggle?

Answer 8

• Global market prices are volatile
• Less technological breakthroughs
• Rich countries protect their agricultural systems and markets

Question 9

Why does the geography of a country effect its economy?

Answer 9

• Access to coastlines for trade (pro)
• Landlocked (con)
• Harsh climates or climates with increased risk of disease (con)
• Mountainous (con)

Question 10

How does the colonial legacy of a country effect its economy?

Answer 10

• Artificial colonial borders create inter-state disputes
• European wars against decolonization
• Lack of infrastructure
• Unfair trade terms

Question 11

Why is the West interested in the Third Worlds development?

Answer 11

• Spread democracy and fight off communism

Question 12

Why was it challenging for the West to develop Third World countries?

Answer 12

• Proxy wars
• Soviet weapons to communist Third World states
• Western support to corrupt anti-communist dictators
• Ineffective aid programs (design to secure strategic alignment)

Question 13

What was the cost of the Washington Consensus in the 1980s?

Answer 13

• Social consequences
• Most states saw no growth but rising debts
• Western corporations acquired local strategic assets

Question 14

What was the Washington Consensus introduced in the 1980s?

Answer 14

• Slash social spending
• Privatize public companies
• Deregulate the business environment
• Open strategic sectors/ industries to foreign companies

Question 15

Was the Washington Consensus or the Chinese loans/FDI system more beneficial for the development of Third World Countries?

Answer 15

The Chinese loans saw a 3.6% growth in GDP while the American-Washington Consensus only showed a 0.5% growth