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Burnell & Randall: Politics in the Developing World 2e

Chapter 3

  1. Why have different developing countries experienced widely different fortunes as a result of engaging with the global economy?

  2. Does greater South-South economic co-operation offer a viable alternative to increasing reliance on economic integration with the world's most affluent countries? What political conditions would have to be met for that option to succeed?

  3. If China's economy continues to experience the dynamism that it has enjoyed over the past few decades will there be any specific consequences for economic and political prospects in the developing world beyond China?

  4. Do you envisage any circumstances in which developing countries might reverse recent and present neo-liberal economic trends and adopt development strategies that require much greater state involvement in domestic and foreign economic relations?

  5. Is globalization on balance a positive or a negative factor for democracy, better governance and human rights in the developing world?

  6. What was the legacy of western colonial rule for the economies of developing countries?

  7. What is 'Import Substituting Industrialization'? Assess its past contribution to economic development in developing countries.

  8. Why have neo-liberal economic arguments become so influential globally?

  9. What have been the main agents of economic globalization?

  10. What empirical basis, if any, can be found for dependency theory in the developing world today?

  11. Does the growing industrialisation of a number of developing countries alter fundamentally their relationship to the global political economy?

  12. Does the growing industrialisation of a number of developing countries significantly affect their political relations with other countries in the developing world?

  13. Do major increases in the price of oil make the oil exporting developing countries more politically independent of foreign interference?

  14. What are the domestic political consequences of being an oil rentier state?

  15. What lessons do you draw from the East Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s for governance in the countries that were affected?

  16. Does Africa's position on the periphery of the global economy make politics in African countries any less vulnerable to influence by external economic and financial forces?

  17. Have developing countries been able to exercise more influence over the World Trade Organisation than over the Bretton Woods institutions, and if so, why?

  18. A few developing countries like India now have multinational corporations of their own. What bearing would you expect this to have on the governance of those countries?

  19. Which matters most for understanding developing country attitudes towards globalization and world politics, their absolute poverty or their relative poverty compared to the OECD states?

  20. Does China's growing economic interest in a number of African countries present these countries with an opportunity or a threat?

  21. Do you agree that there is 'no escape from the laws of world economics' (Gunder Frank 1991)?

  22. Compare and contrast globalization theory and dependency theory as perspectives for understanding the economic position of developing countries.