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Instructors: M. A. Aleksei Pobedonostev
Event type:
Seminar
Org-unit: Dept. 02 - Institute of Political Science
Displayed in timetable as:
02-03-0154-se
Subject:
Crediting for:
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 35
Official Course Description:
Why are some nations rich, while others are poor? The course ‘Political Economy of Development’ is dedicated to deal systematically with this oldest question of development studies. The course aims at providing a self-contained introduction to the academic study of development for general social scientists and at covering the preparatory material for more advanced development courses (such as Comparative Political Economy, Economic Sociology, International Political Economy, Historical Sociology, etc.).
The first classes are dedicated to the classical theories of development. Three basic theories of development are considered in the course – institutionalism, Marxism (including world-system approach), and geographical determinism. The postmodernist criticism of the developmental paradigm is also discussed in the course.
In the historical part of the course students will discuss the phenomena of the economic rise of Europe (or the ‘Western civilization’) after the 16th century as well as the problem of the ‘great divergence’ (the book by Kenneth Pomeranz). This class is theoretically connected with various topics from other social sciences – the economic role of Protestantism, the birth of capitalism, modern state formation, the origins of industrial revolution, the demographic transition, the modernization process (and alternative paths to modernity), democratization, etc.
One-two classes will be dedicated to the problem of political regimes and regime changes. What is a basic difference between authoritarian and democratic regimes? Why are some nations democratic, while others are authoritarian? Why have some nations experienced successful transitions from authoritarianism to democracy, while other nations have not created stable democratic political systems?
In several classes students will discuss the economic and political development of various regions – China, India, the Muslim world, the ‘Asian tigers’, Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, etc. Students are encouraged to make presentations about the development of these countries and regions.
In the final class we will discuss the perspectives of global development and try to speculate about the future of the human civilization. What is the current trajectory of global development and what is the destination of the development of the human civilization?
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