The nature of politics in developing countries is, in many ways,
fundamentally different from politics in developed nations.
Developing countries must deal with problems such as pervasive
poverty, famine, disease, ethnic conflict, revolutions, corruption
and rapid population growth.  This course will examine both the
political and economic causes (and inevitably consequences) of these
problems.
We will focus on two different, yet very interrelated, perspectives:
1) the domestic socioeconomic, cultural and institutional factors
which impede political and economic development among these
developing countries, and 2) the international stratification of the
world economic system and the process of dependent and
unbalanced “development of underdevelopment.”  Throughout this
course, we will consider and critically examine many perspectives on
the development process. We will begin with Modernization Theory,
which has been the dominant view within much of the social sciences.
We will then examine other theories of underdevelopment, such as
dependency theory and world-systems theory.  We will continually be
confronted with several related questions throughout the course: 1)
What are the problems that developing countries face in their quest
for political and economic development? 2) Is development a positive
or negative force for developing countries? 3) Can nonwestern
societies develop without loosing their own (nonwestern) cultural
identities?  Or, is a nonwestern path of development possible?  And
4) What are the prospects for democracy throughout the underdeveloped
world?
This course is specifically designed to offer a broad overview that
will benefit students studying any developing country or region of
the world.  Thus, one goal of this course is to give students a
better understanding of the difficulties facing developing countries
in general, and the causes and consequences of such obstacles.  An
additional goal is that students learn enough information that they
can apply the knowledge from this course to their own, individual,
interests, regardless of the developing countries or regions they may
wish to study.