Development Policies

This course focuses on the relationship between politics and development. We will adopt a multidimensional conception of development, based on the idea that the development of a nation should be assessed in terms of both overall wealth, distribution of welfare, actual improvement in the quality of life of citizens, and present and future sustainability. This relationship will be studied through the interpretative lens of political science and the use of the comparative method, paying attention to countries belonging to different regions, characterised by different levels of development and different political institutions.

Despite the progress made in recent decades at the global level, development remains one of the major challenges of the 21st century, both due to the persistence of certain obstacles that have historically determined disparities in the development of states, and the emergence of new problems, including those related to climate change. At the same time, we are witnessing profound transformations at the political level that, albeit in different ways and with different intensity, are global in scope. These include the international spread of democracy, which after experiencing a long period of expansion now appears to be in decline, and the concomitant re-emergence of old and new forms of authoritarianism.

The thesis that will shape this course is that politics and development are deeply interconnected and that the relationship between them is complex and reciprocal. Understanding the challenges of development - first and foremost, why some states are more developed than others - cannot be divorced from an understanding of politics, the different forms it takes across states, and its transformations. Similarly, understanding politics and its transformations - why some states are democratic and others are not - requires paying attention to the processes of development, the sources of a state's wealth, the changes and inequalities in the distribution of resources within a nation that it can bring about, and the obstacles that slow down or prevent it.

The topics covered during the course will be approached from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. This means that in addition to providing some basic notions, the course will involve the analysis of statistical data, the investigation of real cases and the study of scientific research aimed at testing, updating and/or innovating existing theories.

In addition, the course aims to encourage students to rework the knowledge that will be acquired in order to develop the ability to autonomously and critically interpret contemporary events and to communicate their arguments. To this end, part of the lectures will be devoted to collective discussion and oral presentations.

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.