Various arguments on why nations are rich or poor
Some structural arguments for wealth and poverty
What are, besides those of Diamond, geography ("environmental determinism"), natural resources, climate, amt. of coastline and arable land, mineral deposits, etc. (ex. lot of world's poorest countries are near equator, which has climate thought too extreme to be conducive to econ. growth)?
What we think of as the good life
Everyone in one group having the same thesis
What is not true, they just tend to have theses that can be grouped into one group?
Why nations are rich or poor
What is one of the most studied questions in politics?comparative politics??
Counter-arguments/rebuttals to above structural argument
What are a country can have too many natural resources, where resources such as oil have been more of a curse than a blessing-the success of 1 export drives up the currency of that country, which will increase the prices of its other exports, also some industries don't help the economy as much as other ones since the former don't use as many people in them; also if there are severe factions the country they may fight to control the one natural resource, also if that one resource is produced unstably or the price varies for other reasons, than when that resource is struggling, the whole economy is struggling?
To Professor Hollander the most important cultural determinant of economic development
What is the value that the people in a given country place on economic growth?
2 ways to attain wealth/the satisfaction of our desires
What is 1. using our technical and institutional capabilities to provide enough stuff to meet our demands, or 2. limiting our demands?
One thing forgotten in institutional and structural arguments, according to Professor Hollander
What is people's preferences, how they choose to interact with the govt or economy and climate?
Example of where politics makes a difference
What is Botswana vs. Zambia, where both countries have similar culture and structures?
Weber's importance
What is structural/a structural argument?
Some institutional arguments for wealth and poverty
What are, besides those of Lake and Baum, the idea that colonial powers differed in their goals for their colonies and so they difered in how much they invested (e.g. w/ infrastructure, a system of law, and legal institutions) in them (e.g. some GB colonies the emphasis was on settlement, others were mainly used for extraction of material resources to the home country-the former are wealthier than the latter-overall?all?)?
Mores
Rents
What are excessive payments?
Growth or inequality
What almost inevitably almost always sacrifices one for the other through economy policies?
Counter-arguments/rebuttals to above institutional argument
What is the fact that there are some notable exceptions, such as ETH, IRN, and Thailand, which were never colonized but remain poor, and also colonialism ended long ago?
Lake and Baum's argument
What is democracies are like markets, where people pick the candidate either the best policies that promote economic growth while politicians who don't promote economic growth go bye bye; whereas in authoritarian countries b/c "dictators usually don't face opposition, the quality of what they offer tends to go down"/states as firms that produce public services in exchange for revenues except that politicians want support/power instead of revenue, with politicians in democracy operating w/ competition that is high and so they are constrained from earning resets (i.e. they try to get your vote at the cheapest cost to you)/constraining the monopoly power of the state; i.e. to put it another way, it is competition or not competition in government that makes countries rich of poor?
NOT Lake and Baum's argument
What is that free market economies make countries richer, they may believe it, but it's not their argument; what they actually believe is that the institutions make the countries wealthier but if they run them like free markets in how the politicians act, then the country will be wealthy; ie a "free market" political system will lead to wealth?