SOCI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Sub-Saharan Africa, National Question, Democratic Republic
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Monday February 12th
Development Actors
Midterm exam:
• Focused on key terms, focused on the main take-aways rather than the details of the
thinkers
• The lectures are the basis, go to the textbook if confused, then the readings are just to
clarify/occasionally reflect on the response papers
What is the state?
• Legitimate force within legitimate borders that has legitimate power
• Set of institutions designed to maintain order in a given territory and protect its
population from other states
o City states, empire states, etc.
• Nation-state: nation is the people, state is the political institution
o Modern world + belonging aspect and solidarity
• Institutions: decision making bodies, defense and security, and set of laws and
enforcement mechanisms
• Dimensions of strength:
o Infrastructural power
▪ How far and how efficiently can they extract taxes
▪ High for modern European states
o Despotic power
▪ Power to use coercive action without consulting civil society
▪ Some developing nations very high on this
• Crush rebellions/ethnic rebellions without consulting
o National sentiment
▪ Countries more homogenous in Europe were able to get over the
financial crisis more efficiently
• War and war-making the most efficient one (nation state) is the one that wins
• Hobbes: thought of it in terms of order
Scarcity of Political Order
• Political order = key to state
• Scarcity due to:
o Ineffective governments, short-lived governments, ethnic/class violence
o Democratic republic of Congo went through both being as deadly as the first
world war
▪ Death due to displacement and disease
o Afghanistan caught in its own cycle of disorder
• Corrupt elites: predatory states
o Governed by personality rulers that use government resources for personal use
▪ Mabuto from Zaire/Congo
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• Sub-saharan Africa: not populated heavily due to climate. State was implemented by
colonial powers, the state tradition does not run very deep
Ineffective states and development
1. Discourage private investment
a. If market is not stable, no stable judiciary system, then there needs the
guarantee of the rule of law and effective government
2. Hurts society (less-than-professional armed forces, civil bureaucracies)
a. High despotic power: coercion, instead of public good they are repressing the
citizens
3. Can take a turn for the worse, if ethnic or class divisions exist
a. Especially when the rulers are ethnically/class-based distinct
b. Exclusion that breeds this conflict
Why some parts of the developing world ended up with more ineffective states than others?
Developing world is not uniform; there are states that are moderately functional, but there are
some that are not. What are the reasons?
1. Geographical conditions
a. Development determined by geography?
b. The reason that Europe rose was solely because of geography?
c. Afghanistan with mountaneous terrains; majority of population is out of reach of
the state
2. Economic resources
a. Agriculture in US, abundant land = factor in development
b. Economic resources can be a bad thing
i. Diamonds in Sierra Leone, opium in Afghanistan etc. when gotten into
hands of rebels
3. Legacies of colonialism
a. Created a power vacuum when it left
b. Japanese colonialism in Korea produced positive results brought in
institutions
i. For majority, the colonial powers were extractive and not interested in
setting up institutions
c. Why did colonies not want a homogenized society that would get together and
rise against colonial powers
i. DIVIDE AND RULE weaker civil society
ii. Privileged minority in security forces
iii. Created social hierarchies where certain ethnicities were able to work in
industries
1. Minority that has power, where they are seen as the foreign agent
4. National question
a. Sense of belonging
The state in different contexts:
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European Experience
• Destruction of populations after wars that established institutions
Developing World
• Expecting developing countries to build the institutions over 20 years; not feasible
Video:
Difference is that historically societies got organized in different ways that diverged along the
way. Variation across economic institutions is about politics, how power is distributed and
exercised in society. Institutions in different societies that create the nature economies.
Effective centralized state with broad distribution of political power = successful economic
development.
Institutional differences due to variations in history (hold constants, and isolate diverging
patterns)
• Democracy is good, on average, for economic growth
o Not much for equality
• Narrow elites do not have interest in public good provision
• Spreading power; empower people interested in spreading public good provision
• Set of social norms/values underpinning the institutions that make it very functional
• You have to provide access to power to people
• Population as a whole accepting that the state has the right to do so legitimacy of
institutions
o Where this is not happening are divided societies
▪ Different ethnicity governing over you
State and Economic Growth
• Developing country states have helped to promote and to hinder economic growth
o Promote: South Korea, Taiwan
o Hinder: Sub-Saharan Africa
▪ Most countries fall in between: Brazil, India etc.
• Two schools of thought produced via controversies:
o Neoliberal (limited state)
▪ Sub-saharan Africa: corrupt elites, state hindering development
o Statist (state involvement)
▪ Revial of statism; East Asian growth occurred only because the state
subsided the export industry, collaborated with business, linkage
between state and private groups
• TYPE of state: neo-patrimonial
• Embedded Autonomy
o In-between statist and neoliberal
States collaborating with businesses can promote economic growth. Society has moved from
pure statism.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Institutions: decision making bodies, defense and security, and set of laws and enforcement mechanisms: dimensions of strength: Scarcity of political order: political order = key to state, scarcity due to: State was implemented by colonial powers, the state tradition does not run very deep. Developing world is not uniform; there are states that are moderately functional, but there are some that are not. European experience: destruction of populations after wars that established institutions. Developing world: expecting developing countries to build the institutions over 20 years; not feasible. Difference is that historically societies got organized in different ways that diverged along the way. Variation across economic institutions is about politics, how power is distributed and exercised in society. Institutions in different societies that create the nature economies. Effective centralized state with broad distribution of political power = successful economic development. States collaborating with businesses can promote economic growth. Not clear about how one can go about charging good institutions.
