PSCI116 - Comp Pol of Dev Areas

This is a comparative politics course that examines patterns of political and socio-economic change across the developing post-colonial areas Asia, Africa and Latin America. The course is not as concerned with keeping up with current events as with analyzing the relationships between colonial legacies, the initial challenges of post-colonial political and socioeconomic development, and how these interact with contemporary problems and global trends. Although chiefly concerned with "political change" within countries, it will also devote substantial attention to economic, socio-cultural and international factors. The course is divided into three parts. The first examines the common and distinctive features of colonial rule in different regions as well as the varying challenges of political and economic development in diverse post-colonial settings. The second part focuses on elaborating on the themes developed in the first by looking more closely at the developmental experiences of Brazil, India, Algeria, Iran, Nigeria, and South Korea (with passing references to other countries as comparative referents). The third part focuses on trends and challenges that have emerged over the last two decades - including market reforms, democratization, and problems related to gender and the environment. The concluding lecture considers the implications of the distinctive perspectives offered above for revising some of the assumptions behind U.S. foreign policy and the organization of global institutions.