Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Developing countries and the concept of development
- Chapter 2 Development of the international economic order, 1450–2000
- Chapter 3 Growth and stagnation: theories and experiences
- Chapter 4 Technology and development
- Chapter 5 Population and development
- Chapter 6 Health, health care and development
- Chapter 7 Education and development
- Chapter 8 Economic development, structural transformation and primary exports
- Chapter 9 Industrial development
- Chapter 10 Agricultural development and rural development
- Chapter 11 State formation and political aspects of development
- Chapter 12 Cultural dimensions of development
- Chapter 13 The international economic and political order since 1945
- Chapter 14 Foreign aid and development
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
Chapter 11 - State formation and political aspects of development
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Developing countries and the concept of development
- Chapter 2 Development of the international economic order, 1450–2000
- Chapter 3 Growth and stagnation: theories and experiences
- Chapter 4 Technology and development
- Chapter 5 Population and development
- Chapter 6 Health, health care and development
- Chapter 7 Education and development
- Chapter 8 Economic development, structural transformation and primary exports
- Chapter 9 Industrial development
- Chapter 10 Agricultural development and rural development
- Chapter 11 State formation and political aspects of development
- Chapter 12 Cultural dimensions of development
- Chapter 13 The international economic and political order since 1945
- Chapter 14 Foreign aid and development
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
This chapter focuses on the processes of state formation in developing countries. Until recently most economists ignored the relationships between state formation and economic development. Nevertheless, political and economic developments are closely interconnected. For example, it is of little use to discuss the economic development of Nicaragua in the 1980s without taking the war with the USA into consideration. Also, it is not much use analysing the economic development of African countries, if one does not realise that many countries on the African continent are in a state of open or latent civil strife or international conflict. At the moment of writing (2003), this applies for instance to countries such as Burundi, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the Sudan and Zimbabwe (Marshall and Gurr, 2003).
The political aspects of development will be discussed from two perspectives with which the reader will by now be familiar. In the first place, the interactions between state formation and economic development will be analysed. In this context an interesting paradox comes to the fore. The tasks and demands nowadays facing the government apparatus in developing countries are heavier and more comprehensive than ever before in economic history. At the same time, the apparatus of government is less well-equipped to fulfil these tasks.
In the second place, the characteristics of state formation and political development will be discussed as important independent aspects of development in their own right.
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- The Dynamics of Socio-Economic DevelopmentAn Introduction, pp. 426 - 485Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005