Measuring Development & Early Debates
This development measure combines life expectancy, education, and income into one composite index.
What is the Human Development Index (HDI)?
Dependency theory divides the world economy into these two groups, where one exploits the other.
What are the core and periphery?
ISI protects domestic industries using this trade policy tool.
What are tariffs or protectionist trade barriers?
This term refers to the money a government must pay annually to creditors, often reducing funds available for social programs.
What is debt servicing?
Escobar argues that development is not neutral but a discourse that defines the Global South as lacking, demonstrating this central insight of post-structural analysis.
What is the power of discourse to construct subjects?
Adam Smith argued that this economic principle — separating tasks into smaller, specialized roles — is the key driver of productivity.
What is Division of labour
Przeworski & Limongi argue that this classic claim of modernization theory — that wealth causes democracy — does not hold empirically.
What is the causal link between economic development and democracy?
What are debt crises or IMF/World Bank conditionalities?
Many Latin American countries shifted from ISI to neoliberalism in the 1980s due to domestic fiscal crises and these international pressures.
Interest-rate hikes or capital flight are examples of these sudden economic changes that harm Global South economies.
What are global financial shocks?
Critical development scholars argue that the Green Revolution restructured rural power, not just agricultural output, because it favored wealthy landowners over small farmers. This illustrates...
What is unequal development?
Name one reason why two countries with similar GDP per capita might have very different development outcomes.
What is:
Different levels of inequality
Different health or education systems
Differences in public spending
Environmental or geographic constraints
Political stability or institutional strength
What is the relationship between global markets and national development?
Modernization theory sees global markets as opportunities for development, while dependency theory sees them as mechanisms of exploitation; this fundamental contrast explains different predictions about development outcomes.
What is international competition?
A core critique of ISI was that protected domestic firms often lacked incentives to improve efficiency because they were shielded from this market pressure.
China’s rapid economic rise is widely attributed to its unique mix of gradual market liberalization combined with continued state control over key sectors like land, finance, and investment.
What is a state-led market reform model?
Climate change worsens global inequality because poor countries are hit hardest despite contributing the least to the crisis. Scholars call this moral imbalance this.
What is climate injustice?
Explain some structural or historical reasons why countries today cannot simply replicate Britain’s Industrial Revolution model.
What is:
Britain’s unique access to coal and natural resources
Colonial extraction that financed industrialization
Technological first-mover advantage
Different geopolitical conditions today
Contemporary global competition
Environmental limits
What is asymmetric bargaining power?
Hira argues that neoliberalism was adopted not because it was effective but because indebted Latin American states faced this structural constraint when negotiating with creditors.
The tension between ISI and neoliberalism reveals a core debate in development studies: whether economic transformation requires state planning or exposure to global markets. This debate hinges on differing assumptions about this central variable.
What is the role of the state in development?
What is a highly unequal world capitalist system dominated by global capital?
Ruparelia describes today’s global economy as one where wealth and income are increasingly concentrated among a small global elite because profits flow to mobile capital rather than labor.
India and China argue that they should not make large emissions cuts because historically, developed nations have contributed far more to global greenhouse gases, and poor countries need space to grow economically.
What is the principle of historical responsibility and right to development?
Compare two different approaches to measuring development and explain how each reflects a different theory about what “progress” means.
Examples of comparisons:
GDP emphasizes economic output, while HDI emphasizes well-being.
Multidimensional Poverty Index includes education, health, and living conditions; GNI per capita does not.
Measures based on capabilities differ from measures based on material outcomes.
What is structural dependence?
Dependency theorists argue that peripheral states’ attempts at autonomous development fail because their domestic industrial sectors are inserted into global markets in ways that reproduce subordination, illustrating the concept that global capitalism shapes national development trajectories regardless of domestic policy choices.
What are economic protection zones?
These zones are areas where domestic industries are shielded from international competition through tariffs, quotas, or subsidies, but they often fail to promote efficiency or innovation, undermining the intended benefits of industrialization.
What is dependence on external finance?
Global South countries are hit harder by financial crises because they rely heavily on external borrowing and foreign investment, making them vulnerable when global interest rates rise or investors pull out.
What is exacerbation of poverty, food insecurity, and developmental challenges?
Climate change in the Global South amplifies poverty, reduces food and water security, and forces governments to divert resources from health and education to disaster response, creating a cycle of development setbacks.