Lectures Flashcards
What is the purpose of the state?
- the state is kind of new, 100 years old in the flow of history. Why did it emerge :
- Solving collection action problems- to resolve problems that arise within the citizenry that prevent citizen from acting in the common state interest. Example: Tax collection (temptation to benefits from the goods brought by taxes while avoiding paying taxes) so the State makes sure that everybody makes their part, contribution to the collective good.
- Protecting domestic populations from foreign attack
- Protecting citizens from each other - making sure that peace is kept
What is Charles Tilly saying about state formation
“War made the state and the state made war”
What are the 4 mechanism of state formation in inter-state war
- Raising an army (get together a critical mass of young men willing to go to war)
- Collecting taxes (convincing people to pay taxes, offering safety and benefits. War is a context in which people are willing to pay money)
- Building infrastructure (requires shipping lanes, railroads … when the war is over these infrastructure can be used)
- “Rally round the flag” effect (people feel a sense of identity based on statehood/citizenship- going to war against an “other” leads people to see themselves as a part of collectivity)
What are the impacts of war within states ?
- Where inter-state wars create strong states, civil wars weaken states, leading lasting divisions
- There have been more civil wars than interstate wars since 1945
- Civil wars (war within a state- government vs rebel group) are often the result of colonial legacies
- While European countries experienced inter-state war to build strong state , the process of state formation in the developing world ended up being the opposite outcome (weak, not organized states)
- How did colonizers draw borders ? What was it about colonization that left lasting division and violent legacies within many countries in the developing world
What were the two factors driving colonization ?
-Colonialism was driven by two factors : greed for resources and beliefs of white racial superiority
Driven by a desire for resource (greed), have tasted the promise of Africa’s resource rich geography they wanted more AND belief that African were inferior to colonizers so colonization was beneficial and just, wanting to enlighten Africans with religion and civilization
Explain the Berlin conference
1884-5
- There already were colonizers presence previously to 1884 but its around that time that European countries began to compete for African territory
- German, British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Belgian, and US delegates met to carve up Africa
- Driven by a desire for resource (greed), have tasted the promise of Africa’s resource rich geography they wanted more AND belief that African were inferior to colonizers so colonization was beneficial and just, wanting to enlighten Africans with religion and civilization
- European wanted to prevent competition over African land and resources from turning violent
How did the colonizers draw borders
- They drew borders arbitrarily, often splitting up pre-existing political units and creating territories that were not viable (as a strategy to weaken already existing powers)
- Different Ethnic and religious groups were often pitted against each other “Divide and rule”
- Different people put together to control them better too
What was the role of the colonial state ?
- Colonial state had two roles : controlling territory and extracting resources
- Need to control in order to claim territory (others were waiting and watching) , had to be able to enforce tight control and resource extraction
Depict colonialism in the Western Hemisphere
- European powers were driven by the exploitation/promise of natural resources
- Profitable ways to exploit land : agriculture and mines
- Land : vast agricultural plantations (and grow crop to trade) and mines
- Coffee and sugar were super popular and for this extraction to be profitable :
- This required vast reserves of cheap labor, leading to slavery and/or indentured servitude (not technically slaves but working slave tasks to earn very minimal gain)
- Spur to the transatlantic slave trade + indigenous slave
- Legacies of inequality remain today (many of the most unequal countries (GINI) have colonial history)
What is path dependency
- States and society often have difficulty changing their trajectory after formative experiences and processes
- Not impossible but difficult to change path
what are the legacy of colonialism
- Colonization has left certain broad legacies:
- economies reliant on natural resources (developing countries relying heavily on export of natural resources or agricultural product, economies tied in to the global system in the same way they were)
- economies geared towards exports
- Social, political and economic marginalization of darker-skinned peoples (inequalities based on race)
- Violent coercion of labor force (violence towards those who want to unionize etc..)
- Democracy often wont transform them
what is common about the countries with high GINI index
all the top ranked are in the developing world, all have history of colonization, some have very important history of civil war
Depict the state climate of Nigeria
- what the conditions in which this rebel group with the desire to overthrow government can rise ?
- Colonized by the British in late-19th and early 20th century
- British drew borders arbitrary to bring together many different ethnolinguistic and religious (a country that makes no sense in terms of diverse population- a state that lacked unity from the outset )
- Gained independence in 1960 (kept a lot of the borders)
- religion is only one of the dividing lines between the different groups on Nigeria
- Numerous coups-d’état (checker pattern of governance between difference forms of authority - military state, governments.. , civil war (1967), repeated political violence since then
- Very difficult to govern
- Large territory and very diverse state
- Boko-Haram in north-east Nigeria mostly
- State = patchwork of different ethnic groups, so much diversity
- Nigeria was not always in chaos in division but by in large, the issues that plagued it at the time of independence and colonial history keep resurfacing to this day
Depict boko haram as a group and why would ex-colonial powers would not get involved
- “snake that the government should ought to kill in its infancy but did not/failed. So now it grew and is now too big to be killed”
- Radical Islamist militant group in northeast Nigeria, founded 2002, split 2015
- Not transparent to what is going on internally
- Name translate roughly as “Western education is sacrilegious” -(meant to resonate with a broader global muslim and a local population - rejection Western influence) adaption of a radical string within islam- do not represent the views of the people they claim to represent ( muslim Nigeria for example) , majority of victims are actually local Muslims. Most of the people who suffer the worst from these groups are the people on who’s behalf the group claims to be acting
- Perpetrator of many murderous attacks on civilians, and high profile kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok - Michelle Obama “bring back our girls”. Launching attacks that attract global attention meant to announce the strong capacity and send their message beyond the local borders
- Has aligned itself with ISIS
- Boko Haram areas of Operation = north-east and spreading, porous borders (their activity have been operational in the neighbouring countries, causing a regional problem, leading to closer collaboration between neighbours)
- If an ex-colonial power were to get involve, it would play right into boko-haram’s hands who could say “ you see, the government is lacking and dependent in colonial power” which could backfire and lead more people to join boko-haram, recruitment boost
Depict the islamic and wealth distribution
In real terms, dense islam in the north. The most muslim states tend to also be the ones who are the poorest. Nigeria is a major oil producing country, it has had a large amount of oil revenue which was supposed to be shared, but what happened in practice (not only in Nigeria), there ends up having a lot of corruption and unequal distribution, government putting it in its pocket. What that means is that Boko-Haram is operating where there is very little economic opportunity where people are angry at the state, and where sometimes joining a rebel group can be the better option, it guarantee you that you will be fed, that you will be more powerful (gun), you can steal. Most of the people who fight with them, are mostly not driven by strong islamic motivations but much rather a practical purpose. Perception that the group is brutal but not any worse than the military - The government will mass arrest men (because not sure of who is who), which probably leads people into the arms of boko-haram
Depict ISIS
- Founded 2006 in Us-occupied Iraq
- Captured extensive territory in Iraq and Syria 2014
- Group able to thrive because of states with weakened government due to past events and porous borders
- Weakened states, porous borders have enable militant to move freely
- Not as powerful as before but still lots and lots of arms and money
- Religious divisions (between Shi’a and Sunni Muslims) have contributed to conflict
- Sunni Muslims feeling that even though ISIS is bad, not as bad as the government
- ISIS operating across borders
- Different ethnic and religious groups spread across territory and ISIS operation overlap with the sunni parts
- ISIS using social media very effectively to recruit and get message out- very media savvy creating images that will travel around the world
Depict the rise of Modernization Theory
- Emerged among Western police makers and scholars in the 1950s
- Independence was in the air for many countries (foundation of the UN etc..)
- Prescribed a formula for newly-independent countries countries to modernize (what states should do to achieve development)
- Aimed to transform economies as well as societies and value systems
- Recommended for the states from traditional to “modern” to facilitate economic development and the conditions for emergence of democracy
- Many assumptions today of what is setting countries back from development is based in modernization theory
- Emerged in European thinking circles so very Eurocentric
- Not just an academic way of seeing the world; it was a way of understand the world that became important at policy level - gained a large audience and be
Depict traditional society in the modernization view
- Rural
- Agrarian (subsistence agriculture, eat what they grow and maybe sell surplus locally)
- Bound by custom, religion (rather than being a “free-capitalist”, people thinking of duties to family, superstitions, etc..)
- United by clan ties, extended family
- Little or no upward mobility (horizon of future based on current position, family’s past)
- Lack of access to education (illiterate, semi-literate, religious education learning)
- Economy based on “primary” forms of production (related initial basic stages of production, example: natural resources extraction, getting mineral off the earth, not multiplying value of the commodity, the extra level of production happening outside the developing country)
Depict modern society in the modernization view
- Urban
- Industrial (linked to urban because factories are in cities, embracing industrial types of production creating massive waves of migration into the cites )
- Secular (values are transformed by this lifestyle change, ties to customs are eroded and worn down)
- Individual, nuclear family ties
- Upwardly, spatially mobile (moving to the city allows better opportunity allowing to join the middle class which would lead to a broad change at societal level- not bound to the land where your family lived, you would move where the jobs were)
- Access to education ( which facilitate mobility)
- Economy based on “secondary” forms of production (finishing resources)
What are the key premises from modernization theory
- Traditional societies are pyramidal and unfree (very small elite, middle class further down, and mass of poor at the bottom +lack of political freedom and democracy derived from traditional conception of political power comfortable with authoritarianism, top down structures of authority)
- Moderns societies are diamond-shaped and ready to democratize ( where the majority of the people are in the middle class, very rich and very poor still present but very small portion AND the poor had the possibility to aspire for middle class and mobility, overtime future generation would know upward mobility. Diamond shapes societies understood to be more stable, no antsy and restless, ready to rebel people as in the pyramid (poor people with nothing to lose would favour rebellion but the middle class have a little bit more to hold on to which created a buffer for rebellion SO the political system was stable enough to democratize)
- Modernization theory stressed the importance go a strong middle class
- Key US scholars like Samuel Huntington recommend modernization as a prerequisites to democratization - if you democratize prematurely, it would be too unstable (too many people fighting for resources, too many completion parties.. ) and would not work
Is Democracy Better for Economic Growth ?
-Good things go together?
-Those who though democracy would have to come after modernization argued that in a democracy, interest groups and police parties compete for state resources and may cause chaos. Authoritarian governments can just focus on strengthening the economy ( authority ruling over people avoiding conflicts… )
Does this make non-democracies better for achieving modernization
Societies need to complete modernization to be able to democratize successfully
BUT this has an embedded moral hazard
There was policy ideas sparking from these ideas (democracy as an “after economy is settled” factor)
What is the moral hazard in regimes and democracy
-Lack of accountability under authoritarianism can but both ways
-governments can push forth unpopular legislation to promote growth
OR
-they might just embezzle and be corrupt
depict the legacy of colonialism and economy
- Colonies were set up for extractive purposes
- This meant taking resources under threat of force
- Countries continues to bear the legacies
- These economies continue to be configured mourned resource extraction and after independence
how does dependency theory depict global inequality
- Theory that global North great wealth arose from the exploitation of the global south
- Developing implies a progression towards development but that was not the case - they were actively held back by exploitation
- Theorize underdevelopment as the active subversion of development
- Holds that global south country were condemned to the periphery of the global economy
explain the Bishop Maury example
- Example of slavery abolition advising “Slavery needing to go on for good condition and wealth to be maintained”
- this proves that Rich and poor countries did not happen by accident, they are defined by a history of exploitation
depict Walter rodney’s view
“Underdevelopment and development are not only comparative term but they a dialectical relationship one to the other; that is to say the two help produce each other by interaction”
Depict globalization
- Spread of technology, media, culture (mass culture, mcDonalds, Disney), tourism (from those who have disposable income- making international cultures visible) have accelerated globalization
- Globalization has political and economic aspects, as well as social and cultural ones
depict the impact of globalization on sovereignty
- Multi-national bodies like the UN, EU, WTO can make decision that States are forced to accept (weakens sovereignty by leading countries to play by rules they did not determine/have previously)
- Weakening by undermining the state ability to prevent outside actors to interfere with its internal activities + need for states to respect certain norms, requirements, principles
- States can also organize to help each other solve problems like human trafficking, drug smuggling, climate change (strengthens sovereignty)
- Climate change requires an international response for example
depict globalization in terms of the economy
- Foreign Direct investment provides local jobs, strengthens, local economies (strengthens- FDI is an highly sought after which lead to countries competing between each other to attract investment )
- Free trade can flood local markets with cheaper goods, harming local businesses, farmers (weakens- now a countries has to compete with global players )
- Total FDI has greatly increased over the 35 years (more and more as globalization increases, having uneven impacts for countries)
Debate the impact of globalization
- The number of people living in absolute poverty (living on 1.25$ or less per day, according to the world bank) has declined rapidly over the last 30 years
- On the other hand, the percentage of global wealth concentrated into the hands of the ultra rich has grown dramatically over the period (inequality is rising, the top 1% is gaining share of wealth, which suggest we are not moving away from turmoil regardless of decreasing poverty)
depict globalization uneven impacts
-China becoming a huge player, predicted to take over
-China and India have reduced poverty, become major economic powers, most of the data indication a decline in global poverty are driven by these 2 countries (perhaps skewing the data)
-Latin America and Africa have not grown much wealthier since 1990; in fact, their share of global exports has defined since 1945
-There remains much opposition to globalization in many parts of the world (economic system that does not solve poverty)
The sense that globalization is a net good- is contested
Reason for Public resistance to globalization
- The poor do no necessarily benefit from FDI
- Political and economic elites in developing countries usually welcome globalization and FDI, and often benefit personally
- Corruption reduces distribution of wealth but is also not unique to developing world (ex: Montreal, Trump hotels)
- Globalization also means cheaper goods, raising living standards
- BUT
- Cheap foreign goods can bankrupt local industries by under-selling them (example: Chinese goods taking over Africa which fully undermine local industries , textiles for instance)
- So, to what degree is the market good ?
How much is the free market good ?
- If the state controls the entire economy(owns land, business, tariffs..) , this can stifle growth
- If the state has no control (let the market do its magic, eliminates safe guards), financial elite can concentrate wealth without limits
- Cuts in government subsidies for basic goods (food, fertilizer, seeds) harm the world’s poorest
- Controversial: Should the State privatize and sell off tulips, health services, resources to overseas investors ?
Explain the case study of the Egyptian bread crisis
In 1975, Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat adopted a diplomatic and economic policy of infitah (openness)
- He implemented Western-imposed policies of “streamlining” government spending by cutting state subsidies to basic goods for the poor
- This included cutting the bread subsidy upon which millions of Egyptians relied for their daily subsistence
- Massive riots broke out across population centre in Egypt; over 70 were killed and 500 injured
- Crisis ended when Sadat called in the army and renewed the subsidies
- Saving some money by cutting back was not worth it
- This case is not unique by any mean
- Which brings us back to ; what is the government for ? If they don’t provide for the poorest ? What does the state do ?
Depict globalizing and resource privatization
- Government have licensed or sold resources and utility to multinational corporation
- Countries like Bolivia and South-Africa have experimented with privatized water
- Disproportionate **
- if you privatize (and charge) clean water in a country where the majority is extremely poor- it becomes another form of oppression and Inequality
- Anti-privatization Forum (APF)
- Leading to massive demonstration within communities ( Philippines for example..)
Explain renterism
- Why doesn’t oil wealth produce wealthy, stable societies ?
- Oil wealth tends to undermine democracy and good governance for 3 reasons
1. Vast natural resources wealth (esp oil) enable government to collect rents —> Oil rents can by used instead of tax revenue to buy off population (patronage); governments that don’t collect taxes have no accountability (leading to a divide between public and government)
2. Oil-rich states spend more on security forces to repress the population (rather than education, infrastructure)
3. Economic growth from oil doesn’t produces societal engagement with democracy - Resource curse emerges
Depict the resource curse in Equatorial Guinea
- Former Spanish colony has tremendous oil wealth
- China, Western countries have kept dictator in power to secure resource access by selling weapons, training security forces, keeping diplomatic ties (Obiang has the longest standing dictator in recent history who’s position has been secured by oil wealth)
*Taps into path dependency, ongoing over reliance on natural resources which kept counties more on the periphery of the global economy
Depict the disadvantages of relying on raw materials
- vast majority of global south (collonial states)
- Raw materials pieces tend to net keep pace with manufactures goods prices int he long term; this means development countries to produce more to keep up revenue
- Raw materials are subject to broad price fluctuations due to factors beyond the producers control
- Boom and Bust cycles makes it hard for countries to plan
- In 2015, primary commodities lost nearly 1/3 of their purchasing power relative to manufactures goods
- Falling oil prices, in particular, have hit oil producing countries (they experience important shocks)
- Prices spike and crash (ex: 2009)
- Countries with diversified economies (Canada, Russia, USA) have other sectors to fall back on when oil experiences a price shock
- Plummeting raw material cost can also lead to political shocks (example: Venezuela)
Explain the case of Zambia in terms of comparative advantage and reliance
- Zambia gained its independence from UK in 1964
- “ The Cooper Belt”
- For the first 10 years of independence, the global copper boom made Zambia a middle-income country
- They were hopeful that overtime, their economy would rise and strengthen. Hope for Zambia, from its strong copper economy, to follow the modernization theory path (steady growth overtime)
- By the early 1970s, copper prices started to drop dramatically, and Zambia found itself in an economic crisis by the 1980s. Much of the infrastructure that had been invested in began to decay .
- The “lost decade”
- Beginning in the early 2000s, rising Chinese demand for copper boosted Zambia’s economy again
- But that 2000s boom also declined, Zambia economic growth also slowed
- Copper accounts for 40% of Zambia’s GDP and 74% of export revenues
- Factors that Zambia has no control upon that has a huge impact on its economy
Explain the problem of comparative advantage and a solution undertaken by countries
Comparative Advantage : economy focusing on one thing that its good at as a way of finding a niche in the global market in which it has an advantage
- In practice focusing on only one thing- prevents the diversity of the economy
- Relying too much heavily on comparative advantage prevents the diversification of the economy
- This hinders potential emergence industrial and sectors
- Meanwhile, developing countries have huge obstacles to building an industrial economy, because developed nations possesses a comparative advantage in manufactured goods
- This obstacle prevents countries for building their economy on a global and local level
- In the 1960s, many developing countries tries to solve this problem with Import-Substitution Industrialization (ISI)
- Substituting imports by imposing large tariffs to grow your own sectors (to industrialize)
Depict ISI
- In the 1960s-70s, many developing countries in Latin America and Asia developed indigenous industries; In Brazil and Mexico, even steel and cars (cars are not easy to build if lack industrial infrastructure)
- ISI also encouraged corruption (because a lot of state spending allocated to build goods which was often skimmed) , lack of competition (leading to the products to be poorly manufacture)
- The jobs these created were outweighed by the costs of buying and maintaining machinery
- Countries started borrowing money; used foreign exchange reserves to buy Western goods
- In short order, ISI stopped being profitable
- This was a strategy many countries did adopt in the hope for their industries to flourish; most of the time, that did not work
what are interventionists principles
- The State government (not the private sector) controls and allocates land and natural resources, industries and assets
- States intervene to prevent market failure
what is an example of state-directed development
-In “Asian Tigers” (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore) government triggered economic growth
-How did they achieve this ? How did they get from under-developed to developed ?
Example: Samsung in S. Korea
Depict the case and strategies of the Asian tigers
(going against the “magic hand” or let them fail ideologies)
- State spending : government injected cash into new industries to help them grow
- Control of labor : government make sure unison weren’t too powerful, worker were therefore paid a living wage but to ensure profit was still big, government made sure the unions were not asking for more pay
- Investment in human capital : governments subsidized education, training for workforce ( need for skilled and educated workers so theses spendings are a huge investment)
- “If the Japanese government had accepted the theory of comparative advantage in the 1960s, rather than taking a more interventionist approach and subsidizing certain industries, Sony and Toyota would not have been formed” (Ahearne, p.65)
- When looking at countries that made leap- they all used an interventionist approach
Can the success of the asian tigers be repeated else where
- Tawain , S. Korea and Japan were all key US allies during the Cold War
- The US protected them military from rival states (USSR, China, North Korea), giving theses countries an opportunity to incest in building their economies
- The US also gave these countries favourable trade terms providing them with massive, tariff-free markets in which to sell their goods
- Security and Defence aspect but also economic access to US market
what is the Washington consensus
- Post-Cold war US/UK economic approach
- Forbids interventionism
- Recommends privatization as the path to economic success and integration into the global market : cut budget deficits, privatize state enterprises, reduce tariff protection; emphasize export development; cut subsidies; reduce regulations; broaden the tax base
