IR543

This seminar endeavors to understand the process of facilitating development as encompassing a complex set of social, economic, political, cultural and institutional transformations. The seminar aims to introduce students to the wide range of theories about development that inform issues such as the economic effects of different growth strategies, the difficulties of foreign aid as well as the role of markets, states and civil society. Specifically, we will study questions such as: How important are political institutions to economic development and what role do they play? How does economics affect political institutions and government policies? Why do inefficient and/or harmful institutions survive? Highlighted will be the interplay of theories and histories of various forms of development to provide a graduate level of introduction to the political economy of development in a theoretical, historical, and comparative perspective.