Annual Editions: Developing World 10/11

Annual Editions is a series of over 65 volumes, each designed to provide convenient, inexpensive access to a wide range of current articles from some of the most respected magazines, newspapers, and journals published today. Annual Editions are updated on a regular basis through a continuous monitoring of over 300 periodical sources. The articles selected are authored by prominent scholars, researchers, and commentators writing for a general audience. The Annual Editions volumes have a number of common organizational features designed to make them particularly useful in the classroom: a general introduction; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites; and a brief overview for each section. Each volume also offers an online Instructor's Resource Guide with testing materials. Using Annual Editions in the Classroom is offered as a practical guide for instructors. Visit www.mhcls.com for more details.

Annual Editions: Developing World, 09/10

Preface

Correlation Guide

Topic Guide

Internet References

UNIT 1: Understanding the Developing World

Unit Overview

1. The New Face of Development, Carol Lancaster, Current History, January 2008

The nature and emphasis of development has shifted as some progress on reducing poverty has been achieved. While poverty continues to be a challenge, especially in subSaharan Africa, development has increasingly come to be identified with human development, civil and political rights, security, and sustainability. Government to government aid programs are increasing through the efforts of civil society organizations, philanthropists, and multinational corporations. Technology has also helped shift development emphases.

2. How Development Leads to Democracy: What We Know about Modernization, Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2009

A reinterpretation of modernization theory in a way that emphasizes the cultural changes that accompany this process helps to explain how pressures for democracy push societies toward greater openness and political participation. A key component is the connection between economic development and changes in society, culture, and politics that promotes tolerance, encourages self-expression, and fosters political participation.

3. The Ideology of Development, William Easterly, Foreign Policy, July/August 2007

William Easterly argues that the development model advocated by international financial institutions and the UN amounts to a discredited ideology. He criticizes the view that development is a problem that can be solved by externally imposed technical plans, which often fail to take the local politics and economics into account. Instead, development should rely on the ability of people to make their own choices, benefit from their successes, and learn from the failures.

4. Africa's Village of Dreams, Sam Rich, Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2007

Economist Jeffrey Sachs has initiated an ambitious program to alleviate poverty in Africa. The Millennium Villages Project is an effort to help people out of poverty by injecting large sums of aid into villages to boost agricultural production, improve health care, and provide schooling. The effort is controversial and critics question its sustainability over the long run.

5. The Case against the West: America and Europe in the Asian Century, Kishore Mahbubani, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2008

Kishore Mahbubani argues that the West is declining and is unable to recognize that a new era is underway. This failure to recognize its diminishing influence is evident in the West's approach to intervention, nuclear non-proliferation, international trade, international law and organization, and the environment. The West's positions on these issues represent an effort to preserve the status quo rather than usher in a more just and stable world order.

6. Development as Poison: Rethinking the Western Model of Modernity, Stephen A. Marglin, Harvard International Review, Spring 2003

The West's conception of development emphasizes markets and assumes that following its lead will result in development. In reality, Western culture undermines indigenous cultures, especially those of communities. The West should realize that the values underlying its culture are not necessarily universal.

UNIT 2: Political Economy and the Developing World

Unit Overview

7. Industrial Revolution 2.0, Antoine van Agtmael, Foreign Policy, January/February 2007

Emerging markets are rapidly becoming major economic players in the global economy. Multinational corporations headquartered in developing countries are increasingly challenging western companies in technology, marketing, and design. Moreover, emerging market economies will be larger than the economies of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan by 2035. The West will have to formulate a response to this global shift in economic power.

8. The Toxins Trickle Downwards, The Economist, March 14, 2009

Although poor countries did not contribute to the factors that led to the global financial mess, they will feel the effects as investments will dry up, aid drops, commodity prices decline, and unemployment rises. Coming on the heels of a decade of growth that has lifted millions out of poverty, the consequences of the global recession will be severe in the developing world.

9. The Poor Man's Burden, William Easterly, Foreign Policy, January/February 2009

The recent world financial crisis may result in greater government intervention in the economy, especially in poor countries. William Easterly argues that a return to policies reminiscent of the early years of development economics would have an adverse effect on the prospects for prosperity among the poor. The response to the financial crisis should be to avoid protectionism, resist extensive regulation, and be wary of top-down development strategies.

10. Social Justice and Global Trade, Joseph Stiglitz, Far Eastern Economic Review, March 2006

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues that there is something wrong with the global trading system. The industrialized world's tariffs on developing countries ' products are four times the developing world's levies on rich countries ' products. Poor countries are pressured to open their markets and eliminate subsidies, while the barriers to rich countries ' markets remain.

11. Cotton: The Huge Moral Issue, Kate Eshelby, New African, January 2006

Cotton production in poor countries is threatened by the subsidies paid to farmers in industrialized countries. Cotton subsidies in the United States exceed the GDP of Burkina Faso, a poor cotton-producing country. Because of these subsidies, there is overproduction that in turn results in lower prices for poor farmers. Although WTO rules prohibit subsidies that distort trade, rich countries are yet to eliminate them.

12. Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger, Marc Lacey, The New York Times, April 18, 2008

A growing global food crisis is threatening the world's poorest with starvation, and with eroding gains made by the working and middle classes, as well. Triggered by rising demand, high oil prices, and diversion of agricultural production to biofuel, food prices have skyrocketed. Across the globe, hungry citizens have taken to the streets to protest rising prices threatening the political stability of the countries.

13. The Politics of Hunger, Paul Collier, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2008

The sharp increase in food prices since 2005 has had an enormous impact in the developing world, triggering food riots in some countries and threatening longer-term consequences for the poor if prices remain high. Noted economist Paul Collier argues that to address the food crisis, the world needs to shift the emphasis from small-to large-scale farming, embrace new technology, especially genetic modification, and stop subsidizing biofuel production.

14. The New Colonialists, Michael A. Cohen, Maria Figueroa Küpçü, and Parag Khanna, Foreign Policy, July/August 2008

Non-governmental organizations are taking on increasing responsibility for humanitarian aid and development. As a result, state capacity to deal with these challenges is being undermined and the safety net that these organizations provide may allow incompetent governments to avoid accountability. An increasing amounts of aid is being both provided by and channeled through NGOs. The trend toward greater NGO responsibility is controversial.

15. Power to the People, Eric Werker, Foreign Policy, November/December 2008

Challenging the notion that NGOs are best suited to meet the needs of the world's poor, Eric Werker argues that distributing relief vouchers to the poor and allowing them to make choices is a better solution than distributing food handouts, which may adversely affect local food markets. While acknowledging that this practice has its drawbacks, it has already been used with some success and he advocates for its expansion.

16. The Micromagic of Microcredit, Karol Boudreaux and Tyler Cowen, Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2008

Since Muhammad Yunis founded the Grameen Bank some three decades ago, microcredit has become a worldwide phenomenon. Although it is has attracted some criticism, the success of microcredit has been touted as a major contribution to poverty reduction. Critics claim microfinance loans have exorbitant interest rates and that they help finance consumption more than business expansion. Boudreaux and Cowen argue that despite the criticism, microloans can have a significant impact on the lives of the poor.

17. The Coming Revolution in Africa, G. Pascal Zachary, Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2008

After years of s...