POLI 227 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Arab Spring, Demographic Transition, Sharecropping

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 227
• Professor: Rex J Brynen

Document Summary

Income, social status and economic role are diff categorisations. 1: middle peasants (have enough land to have a small surplus, small holding peasants (subsistence agriculture or share-croppers) Historically, where very dependant on irrigation system, likely to be unequal land distribution, whereas where dependant on rainfall, tends to be more egalitarian. Urban class structure: bourgeoisie, national/comprador (meaning business being run on behalf of a multi-national, petite bourgeoisie/middle class, traders, shopkeepers, artisan, professionals, civil servants. Welfare state has allowed dev countries to become more dev. Gini coef cient tends to decline as countries become more industrialised, allows redistribution. Class inequality and politics: class inequality can be a major source of political grievance, however, there isn"t a clear relationship between inequality and protest or political mobilisation. Inequality and the arab spring, the importance of political framing (what ppl perceive the situation to be)