GOVT 203 Review Reading Summaries

Serbian Students Protest

Novi railway station crashing and how could brand new construction fail causing protest

Albania Flamingo Revolution

Protesting over multi-milllonaire dollar resort that is going to get rid of wetland. Uses flamingo as symbol

Nepal Revolution

Gen Z vote for prime minister in Nepal on Discord

Tilly's Take

States form out of war-making, extraction, and violence. Very Euro-centric

Fukuyama The Imperative of State Building

Argues that weak or failed states are the root of many world crises and we should strengthen global institutions

Somalia

Example of failed state due to civil war and. political division

Gellner Nations and Nationalism

Argues that modern nationalism is not a natural or ancient human instinct but mandatory byproduct of industrialization

Fearon and Laitin, "Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War."

Challenge the conventional wisdom that civil wars spiked after the Cold War or that ethnic and religous diversity are the main drivers of internal conflict. Civil wars happen because of insurgency (a technology of military conflict)

Syria Conflict

The Syrian Civil War is an ongoing multi-sided armed conflict in Syria fought primarily between the government of President Bashar al-Assad, along with its allies, and various forces opposing the government.

Hall and Soskice

"Varieties of Capitalism"--Advanced capitalist economies are NOT converging on a single, "best" model; they are remaining different. Compared to European workers, U.S workers tend to possess general skills, as opposed to technical and specific skills. LMEs and CMEs (see terms).

TLDR: There are two main types of capitalist economies--CMEs and LMEs. Neither is "best."

Why are Nordic companies successful?

Not afraid to go foreign, always adopts technology, government policy, patient shareholders

Frank The Development of Underdevelopment

Underdevelopment is not a natural or original condition rather direct, active product of global capitalist system of the West

Krugman The Myth of Asia's Miracle

Argues that rapid economic expansion of East Asian "tiger" economies were not genuine economic miracle driven by effciency, but rather result of massive resource mobilization

Beckley New Engine of Development

Aging rich societies possess abundant capital but face severe labor shortages, while the world's poorest countries—projected to add over a billion people in the next two decades—have a massive youth workforce but very little capital.