Prof Elliott Green CON.8.07

This course is available on the MSc in Anthropology and Development, MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Management (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Economic Policy for International Development, MSc in Environment and Development, MSc in Health and International Development, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, MSc in Political Economy of Late Development and MSc in Urbanisation and Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is also available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. 

Students will be allocated places to courses with priority to ID and joint-degree students.  If there are more ID and joint-degree students than the course can accommodate, these spots will be allocated randomly.

One could argue that the ‘holy grail’ in the study of political economy is the relationship between democracy and development. Does economic development lead to democracy? Are democracies better at promoting development than non-democracies? This course examines this topic in a broad perspective, in both historical and contemporary contexts, and in theoretical and empirical debates.

The course is roughly divided into two, with the first half tackling theories of democracy and development while the second examines empirical evidence. In the first half we will examine historical theories explaining why development can promote democratization from authors such as Seymour Lipset and Barrington Moore, before focussing on contemporary debates from Acemoglu/Robinson, Przeworski and Rodrik. We then focus on the effect of democratization on both economic development and public goods provision, before examining the topic of inequality, redistribution and democracy with attention to Thomas Piketty’s recent work. We conclude the first half of the course by discussing the indirect effects of development on democracy via changes in religion, ethnicity and nationalism, with attention to how development can promote secularism, ethnic homogenization and national identity formation.

The second half of the course focusses on specific countries and groups of countries. We start by examining countries which have developed without becoming democracies, with a focus on examples from East Asia (especially China and Vietnam) and the Middle East (the Gulf states). We then have lectures on three of the BRICS countries, namely South Africa, India and Brazil, as countries which have seen complex and varied attempts to democratize and develop. Finally, we conclude by speculating on the future of development and democracy in the developing world.

20 hours of lectures and 13 hours and 30 minutes of seminars in the AT.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the AT.

Formative assessment will be based on questions provided to students on the reading list assessed by the seminar leader, such that the feedback is given to the student before the end of Michaelmas term.  Students will submit a practice essay that is 2000 words long. The marks will be indicative (i.e., P for Pass, D for distinction). 

Drèze, Jean and Amartya Sen. 2013. An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions. London: Penguin.

Guriev, Sergei and Daniel Treisman. 2022. Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Haggard, Stephan and Robert R. Kaufman. 2016. Dictators and Democrats: Masses, Elites, and Regime Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Krishna, Anirudh (ed.). 2008. Poverty, Participation and Democracy: A Global Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Min, Brian. 2015. Power and the Vote: Elections and Electricity in the Developing World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Przeworski, Adam. 2019. Crises of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, Evelyne Huber Stephens and John D. Stephens. 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Tudor, Maya. 2013. The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wimmer, Andreas. 2018. Nation-Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Essay (25%, 2000 words) in the WT Week 1.
Essay (75%, 4000 words) in the ST Week 1.

Students will submit a 2000- word long summative essay, at the beginning of Winter Term. They will then revise the essay according to the comments they receive and resubmit it as a 4000-word essay in Spring Term.