Development Policies

Over the past 30 years, there has been a two-thirds reduction in extreme poverty, the fastest progress in history. However, billions of people still lack access to primary healthcare and education; inequality is rising, democracy is backsliding, violence disrupts the security and daily lives of millions, and non-state armed groups govern the lives of many in both urban and rural settings. In light of this, can we truly argue that the world has "developed"? If so, what do we mean by development, and when does it work? Why are some countries poorer, more violent, and less democratic than others, or even less so than they were a generation ago? How can politicians, bureaucrats, citizens, and international actors promote development? This course evaluates and examines uneven progress in development from a political science perspective.

The course provides a (necessarily broad and selective) overview of the politics of development. Its core thesis is that the distribution of political power and how it is exercised by a multiplicity of state and non-state actors fundamentally shape societies' prosperity and create enormous inequalities across the world. To empirically account for this, the course adopts a comparative analytical approach to the dynamics of societies in the so-called "Global South." However, the issues and debates covered are (concerningly) increasingly relevant to the study of politics and society in other contexts.

The course seeks to maintain a balance between conceptual and theoretical debates and real-world issues and challenges in development politics. The first part, which is more theoretical (and admittedly more dry), introduces some of the central concepts and theories of development from various research traditions, explicitly incorporating the voices of authors from the developing world. The second part, taking a more empirical approach, explores the political issues most critical to political development. These include state formation and capacity; the legacies of colonialism; the functioning of autocracies and democracies; processes of democratization and democratic regression; the politics of inequality, poverty, and exclusion; political corruption and clientelism; internal armed conflict; and organized crime.

The language of the course is English and Italian. Lectures and readings will be in English, but questions, in-class discussions and the exam can be done in the language each student prefers.

At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:
1. Recognize, understand, and critique the different conceptual and theoretical perspectives surrounding the notion of "development."
2. Identify some of the most critical challenges to development in contemporary societies.
3. Understand some of the main political factors that help explain why some places are more developed than others and how these factors can influence different dimensions of development.
4. Develop fundamental knowledge to propose theory-backed, evidence-based solutions to overcome these challenges and boost development.