PIDC Exam 2

A Cumulative Study Guide Flash-Card for PIDC Exam 2

Connection of Political, Economic, and Social for Underdevelopment

A condition in which weak governance, limited economic opportunity, and poor social outcomes reinforce each other, creating a self-perpetuating cycle that makes sustained growth and institutional improvement difficult.

Modernization Theory

The idea that societies develop through a linear process in which industrialization, urbanization, education, and market expansion lead to higher incomes and eventually democratic political systems.

Dependency Theory

The argument that poorer countries remain underdeveloped because they are structurally tied to wealthier countries in unequal economic relationships that extract resources and limit independent growth.

Globalization and Development

The relationship between increasing global economic integration and national growth, where trade, investment, and the flow of ideas can stimulate expansion but also create inequality and vulnerability.

Institutional Approaches to Development

A framework that explains differences in growth and prosperity by focusing on how formal rules, informal norms, and political structures shape incentives, behavior, and policy outcomes.

Path Dependency

The idea that early decisions and institutional arrangements create self-reinforcing patterns that make alternative future paths increasingly difficult to pursue.

Conflict Trap

A cycle in which violence weakens institutions and the economy, making renewed instability more likely and trapping a country in repeated episodes of unrest.

Pressing Challenges for Developing Countries

Major structural obstacles that hinder sustained growth and stability, including slow economic expansion, vulnerability to external shocks, rising debt burdens, limited investment, and mounting environmental pressures.

Impact on Foreign Aid Development

External financial assistance can support growth by funding infrastructure, health, and education, but its effectiveness depends on governance quality, institutional strength, and whether it encourages accountability or fosters dependency and corruption.

Direct Colonial Rule

A system of imperial governance in which foreign officials directly administered territory, centralized authority, and often replaced or weakened existing local political structures.

Indirect Colonial Rule

A system of imperial governance in which foreign powers governed through local leaders, allowing them to maintain limited authority while ultimately serving external control and interests.

Colonizer Preference for Direct or Indirect Rule

The choice between centralized foreign administration or governing through local authorities often depended on factors such as settler mortality, economic interests, population size, and the cost of maintaining control.

Colonialism and Mercantilist Economic Model (Spain)

An imperial strategy focused on tightly controlled trade, resource extraction, and enriching the home country by restricting colonial economic activity and concentrating wealth and power in a small elite.

Colonialism and Liberal Economic Model (England)

An imperial strategy that promoted private enterprise, settlement, and market activity while protecting property rights, aiming to generate profit through trade and economic expansion rather than strict state-controlled extraction.

Extractive Institutions and Colonial Legacy

Political and economic structures designed to concentrate power and wealth in a narrow elite often persisted after independence, limiting broad participation, weakening accountability, and slowing long-term development.

Indirect Rule and Colonial Legacy

Governing through local intermediaries often strengthened personalized authority and weakened centralized bureaucratic development, leaving behind fragmented governance, lower rule of law, and higher corruption after independence.

Why Institutions Matter

Rules and norms shape incentives, distribute power, and determine how policies are made and enforced, which directly influences economic performance, stability, and long-term development outcomes.

Executive Institutions

The structures that organize and allocate authority within the branch of government responsible for implementing laws and directing national policy, shaping how leaders are selected, how power is exercised, and how they are held accountable.

Legislative Institutions

The structures that determine how laws are proposed, debated, and passed, including the number of chambers, representation rules, and decision-making procedures that shape policy outcomes.

Electoral Institutions

The rules that determine how votes are cast and translated into political power, shaping party competition, representation, and the incentives of political leaders.

Historical Institutionalism

An approach that explains political and economic outcomes by emphasizing how past decisions and institutional developments create lasting patterns that shape and constrain future possibilities.

Rational-Choice Institutionalism - Logic of Consequences

An approach that explains political behavior as strategic decision-making shaped by rules that structure incentives, where actors choose actions based on calculated costs and benefits.

Sociological Institutionalism - Logic of Appropriateness

An approach that explains behavior as guided by shared norms and values, where actors follow what is seen as proper or legitimate within a given social and institutional context rather than simply calculating benefits.

Formal vs Informal Institutions

The distinction between officially codified rules and structures that organize political life, and unwritten norms and practices that shape behavior in practice, sometimes reinforcing or undermining the formal system.

Reforming England’s Parliament and Monarchy

The gradual process of limiting royal authority and strengthening representative government through legal changes that expanded parliamentary power, increased political participation, and institutionalized constitutional constraints on the executive.

When Government’s Decide to Implement Economic Reforms

Leaders are more likely to adopt major policy changes when economic crises create pressure, when they have sufficient political support to absorb short-term costs, or when maintaining the status quo threatens their survival.

When Government’s DO NOT Decide to Implement Economic Reforms

Leaders often avoid major policy changes when reforms threaten powerful elites, impose short-term political costs, risk social unrest, or when existing arrangements benefit those in control.

Command Economy

An economic system in which the government owns or controls most production and centrally determines what goods are made, how much is produced, and how resources are allocated instead of relying on market forces.

Latin American Statism & Import-Substitution

An economic strategy that protects domestic industries by restricting imports, subsidizing local firms, and expanding state involvement in key sectors to reduce dependence on foreign goods and promote industrialization.

Nationalization

The transfer of privately owned industries or assets into government ownership and control, typically to increase state influence over key sectors of the economy.

East Asia Development State & Export Competing

An economic model in which a strong state strategically supports selected industries and promotes export-oriented growth, encouraging domestic firms to compete in international markets to drive rapid industrialization.

Neoliberal State

An economic model in which the government limits direct intervention, emphasizes deregulation and privatization, promotes free trade, and relies on market forces to allocate resources and set prices.

Measuring Economic Development and Policy Outcomes

The use of indicators such as income levels, poverty rates, employment, health, education, and inequality to evaluate a country’s growth performance and assess the effectiveness of government policies.

State Capacity

The ability of a government to effectively design, implement, and enforce policies, including collecting revenue, maintaining order, and delivering public goods..

Governance Quality

The degree to which political authority is exercised transparently, accountably, and effectively, with strong rule of law, low corruption, and reliable delivery of public services.

Addressing Economic Development

The set of policies aimed at promoting long-term growth and improving living standards, such as expanding productive capacity, strengthening institutions, reducing poverty, and encouraging investment and industrialization.

Economic Development and Globalization

The relationship between national growth and integration into the global economy, where trade, investment, and financial flows can create opportunities for expansion but also expose countries to external shocks and inequality.

Economic Development and the Environment

The interaction between economic growth and ecological sustainability, where expanding production and consumption can generate wealth but also create environmental costs that require regulation and long-term planning.

Dutch Disease

A situation in which a boom in natural resource exports causes a country’s currency to rise in value, making other industries less competitive and weakening economic diversification.

Resource Curse

A paradox in which countries rich in natural resources often experience slower growth, weaker institutions, and higher corruption because resource wealth can concentrate power and reduce incentives for diversification and accountability.

Paradox of Plenty

A situation in which abundant natural resource wealth leads to economic instability, corruption, and poor development outcomes instead of broad prosperity.

Rent Seeking

The pursuit of income or advantages through political influence, favoritism, or manipulation of rules rather than through productive economic activity.

Patron-Client Relationship

A hierarchical exchange relationship in which a powerful individual provides benefits or protection to a dependent supporter in return for loyalty and political backing.

Offsetting the Resource Curse

Policies and institutional reforms aimed at reducing the negative effects of resource wealth by strengthening transparency, diversifying the economy, improving fiscal management, and investing revenues in long-term public goods.

Laos and Chinese Investment/Loans

A case in which large-scale foreign financing for infrastructure increases growth potential but also raises debt burdens, dependence, and vulnerability to external influence.

Liberal Democracy

A political system characterized by free and competitive elections, protection of civil liberties, rule of law, and meaningful institutional constraints on government power.

Electoral Democracy

A political system in which leaders are chosen through regular, competitive elections, but broader protections such as strong civil liberties and institutional checks on power may be limited.

Illiberal Democracy

A political system where elections occur but civil liberties, rule of law, and constraints on executive power are weakened or undermined.

Authoritarian Starting Point of Democratization

The initial condition in which a transition toward greater political openness begins from a system where power is concentrated, political competition is restricted, and civil liberties are limited.

“From Above” Coups

A takeover of political authority initiated by senior military leaders who remove the existing government to protect elite interests or consolidate control.

“From Below” Coups

A takeover of political authority initiated by lower- or mid-ranking officers, often driven by internal dissatisfaction or ideological grievances against the current leadership.

Democratic Consolidation

The process through which a newly established democratic system becomes stable and widely accepted, making a return to authoritarian rule unlikely.

Democracy and Neighborhood Effect

The idea that a country’s likelihood of becoming or remaining democratic is influenced by the political systems of nearby countries, as regional trends can encourage diffusion, pressure, or imitation of similar institutions.

Election Observers and Democracy

Independent domestic or international actors who monitor the entire electoral process to assess whether elections are conducted openly, fairly, and in accordance with national laws and democratic standards, helping build confidence in the integrity of outcomes and sometimes deterring or exposing fraud and irregularities.

Military Regimes - Personalistic, Institutional, Bureaucratic

A system of armed-forces rule that can take three main forms: one centered on a single dominant leader who relies on personal loyalty, one governed collectively through a military council or junta, or one that operates through a structured alliance of officers and civilian technocrats using centralized administration and repression.

Limiting Military Intervention, Institutions, Political Culture, Economic Development, Coup-Proofing

The reduction of armed forces involvement in politics through strong legal constraints, norms that support civilian control, sustained economic stability, and deliberate strategies that prevent coordination or rebellion within the security apparatus.

Military Governance

Rule by armed forces leaders who directly control political authority, often justifying their control as necessary for stability, order, or reform while limiting civilian oversight and political competition.

Military Withdrawal

The process in which armed forces leaders relinquish direct political control and transfer governing authority back to civilian institutions, often through negotiated transitions or elections.

What Affects Military Expenditures?, Conflict (external vs. internal), Neighborhood Effect, Military Interests

Spending on defense is shaped by external threats or internal rebellions, competitive pressures from nearby countries, and the institutional interests of the armed forces in maintaining resources, influence, and organizational strength.

Ramifications of High Military Expenditures

Heavy defense spending can crowd out investment in social services and infrastructure, strain public finances, slow economic growth, and reinforce political influence of the armed forces.

Myanmar and its Military Resurgence into Politics

A case in which armed forces leaders reasserted direct political control after a period of partial civilian rule, reversing democratic gains amid power struggles, institutional tensions, and concerns over their influence and security interests.

Authoritarian Regime Types: Hybrid, Monarchy, Personalistic, Military, Single-Party

Systems of concentrated political control that vary by who holds power—whether through controlled elections with weakened checks, hereditary rule, domination by one individual, governance by armed forces leaders, or monopoly control by a single dominant party.

Challenges of Authoritarian Regime Classification

Difficulties in categorizing systems of concentrated rule because many cases combine features from multiple types, shift over time, or blur the lines between personal, party, and military control.

The Problem of Authoritarian Power-Sharing: Contested Autocracy, Established Autocracy

The tension within concentrated rule over how authority is divided among elites, where in some systems allies retain the ability to check or remove the leader, while in others power is fully consolidated and elite constraints are minimal or nonexistent.

The Problem of Authoritarian Control: Repression & Co-Optation

The challenge of maintaining rule in the face of public opposition, managed either through coercion and force to suppress dissent or by incorporating rivals and influential groups through rewards and inclusion to reduce resistance.

Selectorate Theory and Authoritarian Regimes

A framework explaining how concentrated rule operates by focusing on the size of the group that chooses the leader and the smaller group whose support keeps them in power, shaping whether leaders rely on private rewards or broader public goods to survive.

Authoritarian Regimes, Selectorate Theory, and Environmental Public Goods. Winning Coalition, Size State Capacity, Expected Durability

This framework argues that the provision of environmental public goods depends on how many supporters a leader must satisfy, the government’s ability to implement and enforce costly regulations, and whether leaders expect to remain in power long enough to benefit from long-term investments.

Urbanization and Authoritarian Regime Survival

Rising concentration of people in cities can increase communication, collective action, and pressure on leaders, making organized opposition more likely and potentially threatening the stability of concentrated rule unless regimes respond with redistribution or control strategies.

The State as a Physical Entity

A political unit understood in its material form: a bounded territory with borders, land, infrastructure, and a population located within that space.

Features of a Modern State

Clear territorial borders, a permanent population, a governing authority, sovereignty, and the recognized ability to make and enforce rules within its territory.

The State as an Idea

A political community people imagine as legitimate, unified, and authoritative, even beyond the actual officials, buildings, or land that make it up.

Functioning States

Political systems that can reliably exercise authority, provide basic services, enforce rules, maintain order, and carry out decisions across their territory.

State Collapse

A condition in which governing institutions can no longer maintain authority, provide order or services, or effectively control the territory and population.

Variation between State Collapse and Functioning States

The degree to which governing institutions are able to maintain authority, enforce rules, provide services, and control territory, ranging from highly effective systems to ones that have largely broken down.

Outside Actors and State Capacity

The way foreign governments, international organizations, NGOs, colonial powers, or outside military and economic forces can strengthen or weaken a country’s ability to govern, enforce policy, and provide services.

Corruption

The abuse of public power or office for private gain, often through bribery, favoritism, embezzlement, or misuse of state resources.

High-Level Corruption

The misuse of power by top political leaders or senior officials for personal, political, or financial benefit, often involving major state resources or institutions.

Everyday Corruption

Small-scale, routine abuse of authority in daily life, such as minor bribes or informal payments people make to access services or avoid problems.

Causes of Corruption

Weak institutions, low accountability, poor oversight, low public-sector pay, concentration of power, lack of transparency, and political systems that reward patronage over fairness.

Patronage

The practice of distributing jobs, resources, or political favors to supporters in exchange for loyalty rather than merit.

Cost of Corruption

The social, political, and economic damage caused by abuse of public power, including weaker institutions, lost trust, poorer services, and misused resources.

Anti-Corruption Initiatives

Efforts to reduce abuse of public power through stronger oversight, greater transparency, legal enforcement, institutional reform, and public accountability.

State Capacity and Conflict/Political Instability

The relationship between a government’s ability to govern effectively and the likelihood of violence, unrest, or repeated power struggles; weaker governing ability often makes conflict and instability more likely.

Religion & Dependency Theory

A perspective that links underdevelopment to external economic dependence and may also examine how religious beliefs or institutions either reinforce acceptance of inequality or help people challenge systems of exploitation.

Religion & Modernization Theory

A perspective that examines how belief systems and religious institutions can either support or slow social change associated with economic growth, industrialization, secularization, and political development.

Dominant Religions and Importance of Religion in the Developing World

The major faith traditions that shape social and political life across poorer countries, where religious belief often plays a central role in identity, community, morality, and sometimes government itself.

Theocracies

Political systems in which religious authorities or religious law directly shape government, public policy, and the legitimacy of rule.

Religious Hierarchical Structure

An organized chain of authority within a faith tradition, where leadership is ranked and decisions, teachings, or authority flow from higher levels to lower ones.

Gender and Society

The way socially constructed expectations about masculinity, femininity, and other identities shape roles, power, behavior, and opportunities in everyday life.

Gender and Economic Activity

The way socially defined gender roles shape people’s access to work, wages, property, labor expectations, and participation in formal and informal economies.

Women and the State & Colonialism

The relationship between women’s lives and political authority, especially how colonial rule reshaped gender roles, labor, law, and power in ways that often deepened women’s subordination while also creating new forms of control and resistance.

Women and the State & Nationalism

The relationship between women and political power in projects of nation-building, where women are often treated as symbols of cultural identity, moral guardians, or reproducers of the nation while still being denied equal power.

Women and the State & Military Rule

The relationship between women and authoritarian rule by armed forces, where women may face repression, violence, or exclusion, but can also become central to resistance, protest, and demands for democracy.

Women and the State & Democratization

The relationship between women and political change as authoritarian systems open up, often involving expanded rights, greater participation, and new opportunities for representation, though not always full equality.

Representation/Participation and Women

The extent to which women are present in political institutions and actively involved in political life, including voting, organizing, holding office, and influencing decisions.

Gender Quotas

Policies that require a minimum number or percentage of women to be included in political positions, candidate lists, or representative bodies.

Traditional View of Ethnic Group Inclusion

The older assumption that stability comes from absorbing minority communities into a dominant national culture rather than recognizing or sharing power across differences.

Weak Institutions, Commitment Problems, and Ethnic Coalitions - Ethnic Group Size

When institutions are weak, political leaders may rely on ethnic alliances for support because promises are hard to trust, and the size of a community can affect how powerful, necessary, or excluded it becomes in coalition-building.

Ethnic Group Coalitions and Authoritarian Regime Types

The way non-democratic rulers build and maintain power by relying on alliances among particular communities, with different regime types depending on how broadly or narrowly those alliances are organized.

Ethnic Group Coalitions and Authoritarian Regime Types - Personalist Regimes

A form of non-democratic rule centered on one individual, where support is built through personal loyalty and selective alliances rather than strong institutions or broad power-sharing.