States & Development Flashcards
Weber and Development
Weber famously notes that bureaucratic states are enormously influential and can do things individuals cannot
Most notably, the “rise” of the West or more commonly known as “development”
Four Definitions of Development
- Development as social change
- Just as individual organisms and species develop to do more complex tasks , so do societies
- Not necessarily good - Development as modernization
- Progress (traditional to modern, capitalism, democracy) and necessarily good - Development as discourse
- Postmodern view that development is a powerful idea (discourse) created by the West - Development as freedom
- Amartya Sen, the expansion of individual capabilities to pursue personal well-being
- Desirable: Economic opportunities, health, education, freedom from violence, gender/racial equality
Theories on States and Development
- Neoliberalism
- Suggests social wellbeing maximized with expansion of the market mechanism to nearly all realms of exchange - Developmental State Theory
- Markets are limited in their ability to promote cooperation/collective action, so associations and the State must step in
How the state affects development
- Provision of Public Goods (roads, health care, education…)
- Managing the Economy to Benefit the Public
Getting economic producers to produce particular goods to increase efficiency & competition
Evans and Heller critics of DST
– Focused on autocratic state directing economic investment and production
– Focused on strong state ties to economic elites
– Focused on economic growth through industrialization, not knowledge-based economy
Policy Prescriptions of Neoliberalism and DST
- Neoliberalism:
Countries should specialize in areas they have comparitive advantage and open markets - DST:
Countries should specialize in high-value added goods and the state needs to intervene to encourage this
Often associated with economic policy called Import-Substitution Industrialization (ISI)
Import-Substitution Industrialization (ISI)
- State promotion of industrialization through protectionism (close the market to competition) and active economic management (encourage production of high-value added goods)
- Neoliberal critiques:
Negative effects because the state is disrupting the market mechanism, lack of competition limits efficiency and product quality - Solution to Neoliberal critique: Export Oriented Industrialization (EOI)
Export Oriented Industrialization (EOI)
- Focus on production for export, not domestic
- State forces competition to avoid neoliberal critique
- The success of East Asian countries like South Korea may have also been due to other factors like geopolitics (US opened markets despite protection) and cheap labour
The “New” Developmental State
The New Developmental State differs from traditional DST in several ways:
(1) Senian Perspective: Looks at broad-based development
– Suggests states can’t just focus on the economy
(2) Human Capital: Recognizes that continued economic development requires a population with high levels of human capital
– Example: Education and health promote economic growth
– Therefore important in themselves but also as a means of economic development
(3) Democratic Deepening: State needs ties with diverse actors within society
– Vibrant civil society key to state-led development
– Able to harness the participation and know-how of civil society
* Benefits many interests, not just capitalists
Define Globalization
- Over the past 2 decades, some have claimed states have gotten weaker due to globalization
- Globalization affects diverse types of social relations
- Political: International treaties and global actors like UN and US
- Cultural: Intermingling of cultures
– McDonald’s everywhere but so is Thai and Ethiopian
– Debate over whether world is becoming multicultural or dominated by the cultures of the powerful - Social: Many people maintain relationships with people all over the world
- Crime: Criminality also a global phenomenon
- Movements: Occur around the world
History of Globalization
- Contrary to claims, globalization is not new
- Human History: characterized by growing interactions among peoples from all parts of the world
– Trade and conquest among societies thousands of years ago
– Colonial Era: European powers went off and conquered much of the world
– Today: economic, political, cultural relations are all global
The Rise of Globalization
- Globalization requires both a will and a way
- The Will: Different attitudes toward openness
– Global powers looking outward, expanding influence
– People more open to outside world - The Way: Two technological advances made it possible
- Transportation: Horses, sail boats, cars, airplanes
– Allowed people and goods to travel further and faster - Communication: Drum and fire signals, writing, telephone, radio, TV, email
– Allow people to communicate over long distances
Neoliberalism, DST, and Globalization
- Common claim is that globalization weakens the state and expands market mechanism.
- Focus on global capitalist system
- Neoliberal view: Positive since expands market mechanisms
- DST: Destructive since it supresses wages, race to the bottom, limit state power and ability to manage the economy and provide the population with goods
Weiss and Globalization
- More DST view
- Disagrees that globalization weakens the state
- Argues that globalization creates a greater need for states, so countries without effective states are not well equipped to deal with globalization
- Increases global inequalities
