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Course Description

Summary

Unlike the more stable democracies of Western Europe and North America, many countries of the developing world lack durable, legitimate and effective political institutions or governmental systems. These countries are in the throes of wrenching political transitions and crises that compound weak political institutions with economic malaise, social polarization and/or cultural‐territorial fragmentation. This course analyzes some of the basic issues and challenges associated with the struggles to create viable political institutions or modern states in the developing world. Topics to be explored include: the theory of political development; the historical lessons of state and nation‐building since the Industrial Revolution; the legacies of colonialism; the role or influence of non‐democratic or pseudo‐democratic regimes;  political corruption, clientelism and patronage; political order and political decay; and the struggles to achieve democratization and the rule of law.