Dr Lloyd Gruber CON.6.03

This course is compulsory on the MPA in International Development. This course is available on the MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Sciences Po), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Tokyo), MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy and MSc in Development Studies. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This half-unit MT course explores why governments and organisations pursue the development policies they do.  Whenever experts get together to debate development policy, attention usually focuses on what all the relevant actors should be doing:  Which policies should the leaders of developing countries be adopting (or discarding) to stimulate growth and reduce poverty?  What new trade or aid strategies should policymakers in the industrialised world be implementing to help poorer countries develop?  In practice, however, people in positions of power do not always pursue the policy agendas that well-intentioned development experts say they should.  Rather than let this be a source of frustration, students who take this course will come away with a deeper understanding of the political incentives that drive development forward, or sometimes backwards, in the real world.  Attention will focus on the political pressures that motivate and constrain development policymakers at all levels of government - global, national and local - and across all sectors of the economy - public, private and non-profit.  Students will be exposed to a wide variety of political economy concepts along the way.  There will also be opportunities for students to apply these concepts to concrete cases of development management and mis-management.  Why do the governments of some developing countries take good care of poor rural families and their children, for example, while other governments privilege urban elites?  Why have inclusive democratic institutions taken root in some developing countries but not in others?  If you are curious about the larger political forces driving some developing countries ahead while others stagnate or decline - and you want more experience putting cutting-edge political economy theories to work in solving current development problems - this course is for you.

22 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT.

Each student will be expected to deliver one practice presentation during the first few weeks of the course.  Students can expect detailed feedback on the substance of these presentations as well as their delivery (presentations will be videoed where possible).  Each student will also be invited to submit an individually-authored policy memo on one of two different questions distributed in week 2.  These memos will be handed back - with comments - shortly thereafter.  

1. Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It (Oxford, 2007)
2. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (New York: Crown Publishers, 2012).
3. Lloyd Gruber, Ruling the World: Power Politics and the Rise of Supranational Institutions (Princeton, 2000)
4. Laurie Garrett, 'Ebola's Lessons: How the WHO Mishandled the Crisis', Foreign Affairs, vol 94, no. 5 (2015), pp. 80-107
5. Robert Wade, Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization (Princeton, 2003)
6. Michael Ross, 'Is Democracy Good for the Poor?' American Journal of Political Science, vol 50, no. 4 (2006), pp. 860-874
7. Dani Rodrik, The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy (W.W. Norton & Company, 2011)
8. Lloyd Gruber and Stephen Kosack, "The Tertiary Tilt: Education and Inequality in the Developing World", World Development 54 (2014) pp 253-272

Essay (15%) and presentation (15%) in the MT.
Take home exam (70%) in the LT.

All students will be required to take part in a Development Policy Application (DPA) project stretching over several weeks of the course.  A specific – and current – issue of major importance to developing countries will be introduced in the first week of this exercise.  Each student will then be asked to prepare an individually-authored essay (policy memo) on the topic.  This memo will be worth 15% of the overall course mark.

In the second part of the exercise, students will be randomly assigned into small groups and begin preparing a jointly-delivered oral presentation outlining and defending their group’s preferred policy.  These presentations – which will count for a further 15% of the overall course mark – will take place during seminars towards the end of term.

A final take-home examination will be administered via Moodle on the Thursday of week 0 of Lent Term.  Students will have a 12-hour window (from 09.00-21.00 GMT) within which to access the exam questions and complete the exam.  Once they have logged into Moodle and downloaded the exam questions, students will have 2 hours and 30 minutes to prepare and upload their answers.  The exam will consist of two equally-weighted essay questions, one from Part A (broad thematic questions) and one from Part B (specific topics). Both questions will encourage students to think creatively about the ideas and arguments presented in the course.  The best essays will (a) focus on just a few important points, (b) outline these points in the introduction, (c) bolster them by making explicit references to course readings and (d) anticipate, and respond to, at least one possible counter-argument.  No outside research will be required. This last component of the assessment will count for 70% of the overall course mark.