POLI 227 Lecture Notes - Unequal Exchange, World Politics, Class Conflict
Document Summary
Approaches to the study of third world politics. What does much of the developing world have in common: colonial experience, socioeconomic challenges. Lower levels of industrialization, poorer social conditions, imperatives of economic growth: weaker state structures. Less effective institutions, political instability, problems of national integration, imperatives of state building: lack of international power and leverage in global politics/economy. Still, there is considerable variation and the distinction drawn between developed and developing countries is very blurry. Political science- methodology: experimental method rarely viable in political science due to ethical concerns i. e. offering people money to compromise on moral principles doesn"t work, means that offering aid to stop civil wars will usually not work. Problem of lack of data or lack of relevant data: statistical method, comparative method. Least generalizable, sensitive to nuances of the case, finding may be a product of the particular case. Using case studies and comparisons to tease out the causal relationship between variables.