Development Terms
Name one sustainable development goal.
Poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, or peace and justice
Give an example of a strictly economic measurement of development.
GDP and GNP (GNI)
List the five factors that promote and inhibit development.
Political, Economic, Environmental, Social, and Institutional
What are three examples of economic pathways towards development?
Trade liberalization, export orientation, commodity-led growth, tourism,
entrepreneurship, and knowledge economy
With reference to MNCs, give a reason why the removal of obstacles to free market capitalism may lead to the exploitation of less developed states.
Dependency theorists argue that neoliberalism is merely a way to open up countries so they are more easily exploitable by MNCs. MNCs do not tend to invest in the poorest countries.
Define sustainable development.
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
What does the gross domestic product value tell you about a country?
The GDP of a country measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. GDP is used to indicate the health of a country’s economy. It can be found by adding what everyone spent or what everyone earned throughout a year.
Name three considerations that are taken into account when defining political development.
Ideologies, history of & persistence of conflict, legal frameworks, political consequences of different development paths, political culture
Detail an example of commodity-led growth.
Literally any country exporting a lot of one thing (China/Steel, South American countries/fruit/coffee/chocolate. etc.)
What is the name of the theory that explains why underdeveloped countries are restrained from developing and what is one key point of this theory?
Dependency Theory: Development of the West was based upon capitalism, which in turn is a mechanism to exploit the underdeveloped and restrain them from developing. Developing nations are kept in a state of dependance to support economies of West.
Explain the difference between a developed and a developing country using two examples.
A developed country possesses a large GDP with a low birth and death rates, whereas developing country possesses a smaller GDP with a high birth and death rate. The United States is an example of a developed country, and Malawi is an example of a developing country. (most answers are valid with justification)
Describe how Human Development Index and Gross Domestic Product differ in how they consider the development of a country.
The HDI considers Life expectancy, average levels of education & adult literacy rates, standard of living (GNP), which are aspects of social development, whereas the GDP measures of national income and output for a given country's economy, which relates to economic development.
Describe an example of how conflict can limit the social development of a state.
Tamil Tigers and the Burkina Faso government
Name an approach for achieving social development.
Concern for citizenship skills: citizens education in China; Improving education & healthcare: Room to Read, Doctors Without Borders; Changing roles of women: Global Fund for Women; More ecological living: Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies; Indigenous revitalization movements: Cultural Survival
Define the modernization theory of development.
The theory that there is a single, linear path to development, reflected in the transformation of western countries from traditional, pre-industrial, agrarian societies to modern, industrial, and mass consumption ones.
Explain the difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty.
Absolute Poverty: Psychological; “Needy”; A standard of poverty that is based on an income level or access to resources, especially food, clothing, and shelter, which are insufficient to “keep body and soul together”.
Relative Poverty: Social; Based on people’s relative position in the social order; “Less well off”; A standard of poverty in which people are deprived of the living conditions and amenities which are customary in the society to which they belong
Name and describe 3 of the 4 indicators for a country’s Happy Planet Index.
Wellbeing: How satisfied the residents of each country say they feel with life overall, on a scale from zero to ten, based on data collected as part of the Gallup World Poll.
Life expectancy: The average number of years a person is expected to live in each country based on data collected by the United Nations.
Inequality of outcomes: The inequalities between people within a country, in terms of how long they live, and how happy they feel, based on the distribution in each country’s life expectancy and wellbeing data. Inequality of outcomes is expressed as a percentage.
Ecological Footprint: The average impact that each resident of a country places on the environment, based on data prepared by the Global Footprint Network. Ecological Footprint is expressed using a standardized unit: global hectares (gha) per person.
Offer a contemporary example of how climate change adversely affects the development of people and communities?
The thawing permafrost in Norilsk, Russia is weakening soil structure and releasing significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The unstable conditions are causing buildings to collapse and crops to fail. These consequences not only affect Norilsk’s economic development by hindering its exports, but also impacts the families who need safe homes and rely on their crops for food.
Name one NGO and give an example of how they have had an impact on a state’s development.
The Red Cross helps all people during crisis without descrimination, reducing inequality; Unicef provides foreign aid to states which they use to support sustainable development
State capitalism is a political system in which the state has control of production and the use of resources. Name one outcome of state capitalism on development.
-Poor sustainable development due to a countries want for resources
-Increase in a country's power/ability to survive
-Improve social development due to increased jobs
What is the impact globalization has on a developing country?
Globalization is the process where organizations develop an international influence or start operating on an international scale. While globalization can aid countries with different trade agreements, especially in the case of Mexico, it can also lead to expansive immigracion into the United States, which deterrs its development.
How may only referencing some scales for development (ex. GDP, HPI, HDI) lead to a limited view of a country’s development? (Hint: Costa Rica is a great example!)
Only considering/using tools that evaluate one sector of development (social, political, etc) may lead to someone having an incomplete analysis of a country’s development. For example, Costa Rica may have an extremely high HPI rating, but the country is still considered to be “developing” due to the prevalence of absolute poverty within the state. By valuing an analysis of economic development over social development or vice versa, people may miss the full depiction of the country’s process of development.
Define foreign aid, provide an example, and list a pro and a con for this factor.
An example of foregin aid is the United States providing financial assistance to Israel. A benefit of this transaction is that the United States maintains a good relationship and alliance with Israel, but a drawback is that Israel might rely on the United State’s financial aid.
Detail one “pro” and one “con” of how tourism can impact an economy.
Pro: brings in additional revenue to a state.
Con: may limit the spread of culture, commercialize the area, and/or create a heavier ecological impact due to air fare and other activities with high carbon emissions
Name the core component of Neoliberalism and name an example of a Neoliberalist method of development.
Neoliberalism: Ideology and policy model that emphasizes the value of free market competition. Focuses on development through sustained economic growth and belief that free market system ensures the best allocation of resources. One example of this could be US economic development