Introducing Politics of the Developing World

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William A. Joseph, Mark Kesselman, and Joel Krieger INTRODUCING Chapter 1 POLITICS OF THE DEVELOPING WORLD

Section 1 The Global Challenge of Politics in the Developing World Section 2 What—and How—Comparative Politics Compares Section 3 Developing Nations in a World of Transition Section 4 Themes for Comparative Analysis Section 5 Organization of the Text

SECTION 3 Developing Nations in a World of Transition 15

For example, comparativists have analyzed the Southern Europe and Latin America, on the one hand, process in which many countries with authoritarian and in Eastern and Central Europe on the other.18 In forms of government, such as military dictatorships this book, you can study the transition from military and one-party regimes, have developed more partici- rule to democracy in Brazil and Nigeria, progress to- patory and democratic regimes. In studying this pro- ward deeper democratization in Mexico and India, and cess, termed democratic transitions, comparativists the prospects for democratic change in China and Iran, do not either treat each national case as unique or try knowing that these cases fit within a broader compara- to construct a universal pattern that ignores all differ- tive framework. ences. Applying middle-level theory, we identify the The study of comparative politics offers many influence on the new regime’s political stability of challenges, including the complexity of the subject specific variables such as institutional legacies, politi- matter, the fast pace of change in the contemporary cal culture, levels of economic development, the na- world, and the impossibility of manipulating variables ture of the regime before the transition, and the degree or replicating conditions. What can we expect when of ethnic conflict or homogeneity. Comparativists the whole political world is our laboratory? When have identified common patterns in the emergence we put the method of comparative politics to the test and consolidation of democratic regimes in southern and develop a set of themes derived from middle- Europe in the 1970s (Greece, Portugal, and Spain) level theory, we discover that it is possible to discern and have compared them to developments in Latin patterns that make sense of a vast range of political America, Asia, and Africa since the 1980s, and in events and link the experiences of states and citizens Eastern and Central Europe since the revolutions of throughout the world. Although doubtless we will not 1989. Note that comparing does not require assum- achieve definitive explanations, we remain confident ing that particular processes are identical in different that we are able to better understand politics in the regions. Indeed, some scholars have highlighted im- developing world by reference to middle-range theo- portant differences between democratic transitions in retical propositions.

SECTION 3 Developing Nations in a World of Transition Most textbooks and courses in comparative politics economic development and extensive poverty charac- were traditionally organized according to categories teristic of the Third World. that distinguished between the industrial (and pri- Democracy was another dividing line in this marily Western) democracies, which were referred way of looking at the nations of the world. The to as the “First World”; communist party-states in the capitalist industrialized countries were not only “Second World”; and the less developed countries of wealthy but also stable and democratic; Commu- Asia, Africa, and Latin America of the “Third World.” nist systems were unquestionably authoritarian; This categorization was based, in part, on distinctive and most Third World nations had personal dic- economic features that helped characterize different tatorships, one-party rule, military regimes, or—at political systems. Economic organization and per- best—democracies marred by high levels of social formance both affected and reflected the realities of conflict and political violence. politics in these different political systems: the capi- One of the consequences of the many profound talist (or market) economies and high standard of liv- political and economic changes in the world in re- ing in North America, Western Europe, Japan, and a cent decades, such as the end of the cold war, is that few other countries; the socialist (or planned) econo- the old categories of First, Second, and Third World mies of countries ruled by a communist party, such have lost or changed meaning. For example, follow- as the Soviet Union and China; and the low level of ing the collapse of the Soviet “bloc,” there are only

16 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Politics of the Developing World Introduction a handful of communist party-states—China, Cuba, to be as important as the then headline-grabbing Vietnam, Laos, and North Korea. Even most of these cold war and its superpower adversaries. To make (particularly China and Vietnam) are adopting mar- their point, these authors adapted terminology from ket-based economic policies and forging close ties the French Revolution of the eighteenth century to with capitalist nations. Obviously a “Second World” dramatize the global inequalities of the mid-twenti- made up of communist party-states is no longer a eth century: a long-neglected and oppressed Third useful category with which to classify countries. World, they noted, was struggling against the First Furthermore, sharp differences in growth rates World (the industrial democracies) and the Second among developing countries in recent decades make World (the Soviet Union and other Communist it difficult to generalize with confidence about the countries) for recognition and power just as the “Third World” on the basis on their shared poverty Third Estate of the common people in France had or other economic characteristics. For example, in the done against the privileged and powerful clergy three decades between 1977 and 2007, China’s econ- (the First Estate) and the nobility (the Second Estate) omy grew at an annual average per capita rate of 8.5 in the 1780s. percent, whereas India’s per capita growth rate was Some people criticize the label as suggesting a nu- less than half that (3.7 percent per year), and Nigeria merical order in which the Third World ranks behind experienced almost no per capita growth during that the First World and the Second World in a cultural period (0.2 percent per year). sense. But its creators intended the term Third World The Third World has changed a lot politically, too. to embody the struggle of poor nations for empow- In 1975, most Third World countries had some kind erment in the international system and a fairer share of authoritarian government; by the early twenty-first of global wealth. For many, the term Third World century, scores of developing nations, from Argentina remains a powerful symbol of common purpose and to Zambia, have become democratic, or moved in that determination and is still widely used by scholars, direction. This remarkable transition toward democ- government officials, diplomats, and others to de- racy is discussed in more detail below. The view that scribe the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and what Third World countries have in common is pov- Latin America.19 erty and dictatorship is certainly not valid today, if it This book uses the terms developing world and ever was. Third World interchangeably to refer to the economi- So should the term “Third World” be jettisoned cally poorer (“less developed”) nations. Many people altogether as a category for scholarly analysis? Recent also use the term South or “global South” as a way of trends have profoundly challenged and complicated referring collectively to developing nations in contrast the way that comparativists classify the world’s coun- to the developed nations of the “North.”20 Like Third tries. But we believe that despite major political and World, South has achieved a certain symbolic impor- economic differences, the countries included in this tance by conveying the fact that there are enormous book continue to share many distinct characteristics differences between the richer and poorer nations of that allow us to group and study them together as part the world. Granted, South is geographically somewhat of the developing world and, indeed, that a good case misleading since there are developed nations in the can be made for the validity of “Third World” as an Southern Hemisphere (like Australia) and less devel- analytical category. oped nations in the northern part of the globe (like Afghanistan). Third World or Developing But, whatever term you prefer, it is very important to recognize that the developing countries (which con- World? tain about 84 percent of the world’s population) are The term Third World was coined by French au- enormously diverse geographically, economically, po- thors in the 1950s to draw attention to the plight litically, and culturally. Some observers have asserted of the world’s poorer nations, which they believed that there is such great diversity among developing

SECTION 3 Developing Nations in a World of Transition 17

nations that they question whether it is still valid The Development Gap to use such a catchall category as Third World because it implies too much similarity in the chal- If there are such extensive differences among lenges facing the developing nations and too much developing nations, what gives coherence to the unity in their international policies. They point to concept of the Third World? Simply put, Third the huge differences in levels of economic devel- World nations are poorer, their peoples have a lower opment among countries usually considered part of standard of living, and their economies are not as the Third World. They question whether a country modernized as the industrialized countries: In other like the Democratic Republic of the Congo with its words, they are less developed. A few examples extreme poverty ($300 per capita average annual should make the realities of this development gap income) and overwhelmingly rural population (66 between the Third World and the industrialized percent) has much in common with Mexico, which is countries clearer.21 much more prosperous ($12,400 per capita average The World Bank, one of the major international annual income) and highly urbanized (75 percent). organizations that provides financial assistance to the Others argue not for abandoning the categories like Third World, divides developing countries accord- developing countries or Third World, but for taking ing to their annual gross national income (GNI) account of the differences among developing coun- per capita (a general measure of the total output of tries by adding more nuanced distinctions such as an economy divided by the total population) into four “low income,” “least developed,” or even “Fourth broad groups: low income, $935 or less; lower middle World” to refer to the poorest countries. income, $936–3,705; upper middle income, $3,706– This book acknowledges the rich diversity of the 11,455; and high income, $11,456 or more. The most developing world. In fact, the countries examined here developed countries are in the high income category were chosen, in part, to reflect this variety, as well as (above $11,456) but these countries, in fact, have an to illustrate important issues in the study of compara- average GNI per capita of over $37,500 per year. For tive politics. Table 1.1 indicates some of the important more about the meaning of these statistics and alter- differences that mark the developing nations that are native approaches, see “Global Connection: How Is covered in this text. Development Measured?”

Table 1.1 Diversity in the Developing World

Country Location Political System Economy Brazil South America Transitional democracy (from Upper-middle income; low growth military rule) China East Asia Communist party-state Lower-middle income, high growth India South Asia Consolidated democracy Lower-middle income; moderate-to-high growth Iran Middle East Islamic republic; theocracy Lower-middle income, moderate growth; (Western Asia) heavily dependent on oil exports Mexico Northern Central Transitional democracy Upper-middle income; low growth America (from one-party dominant to competitive democracy) Nigeria West Africa Transitional democracy (from Low income; low growth; heavily military rule) dependent on oil exports

18 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Politics of the Developing World Introduction

Global Connection How Is Development Measured?

s we have noted, we put particular importance (such as housing, food, and transportation) people can on understanding the relationship between the actually buy with their local currencies. Apolitical system and the economy in the study of An alternative and increasingly popular means the politics of the developing world and in our overall of comparing levels of economic development across approach to comparative politics. Each of the country countries is called purchasing power parity case studies describes and analyzes the role of the (PPP). PPP takes into account the actual costs of government in making economic policy. They also take living in a particular country by fi guring the purchas- special note of the impact of the global economy on ing price of the same “basket of goods” in different national politics. countries. For example, how many dollars in the U.S., This book makes frequent reference to three com- pesos in Mexico, or rubles in Russia does it take to monly used measures of the overall strength or power buy a certain amount of food or to pay for housing? of a country’s economy: Many analysts think that PPP provides a more reliable (and revealing) tool for comparing standards of living • Gross domestic product (GDP), which is a among countries. calculation of the total goods and services pro- As you will see, the differences between the two duced by the country during a given year calculations can be quite dramatic, especially for de- • Gross national product (GNP), which is veloping countries. When PPP is used to measure GDP, GDP plus income earned abroad by the country’s China is the world’s second largest economy behind residents the United States, followed by Japan and India. Per • Gross national income (GNI), which is a capita GDP income in China according to PPP rises new name for GNP that has been adopted by the from $2,320 to $5,400. Simply put, PPP takes into World Bank account that the cost of living in China is much lower The numbers generated by GDP or GNP/GNI than in the United States, so smaller incomes go further are, of course, different, but not hugely so. As conven- when it comes to purchasing things. We will specifi - tionally measured by GDP or GNP/GNI—in other cally note when purchasing power parity is used to words, in terms of total output—the United States has, present an economic statistic in this book. by far, the world’s largest economy, followed by Japan, The data boxes also give information about other Germany, China, Britain, and France. ways to measure a country’s development. The most A better way to measure the level of economic important of these is the Human Development development and the standard of living in different Index (HDI), which the United Nations introduced countries is to look at GDP/GNP/GNI per capita, as a way to evaluate a country’s level of development in other words, total economic output divided by total that considers more than just economic factors. The population. From the perspective of GNI per capita, formula used to calculate a country’s HDI takes into Norway ranked fi rst ($76,500) in 2007, while the account longevity (life expectancy at birth), knowledge U.S. was fi fteenth ($46,040), and China was number (literacy and average years of schooling), as well as 132 ($2,320) out of 209 countries measured. income (according to PPP). Based on this formula, But these fi gures use a calculation based on each country of the world for which there are enough the American dollar and offi cial international data is assigned an HDI decimal number between 0 currency exchange rates, which would, for and 1; the closer a country is to 1, the better is its level example, tell you how many Mexican pesos or Russian of human development. rubles you could get for US$1. Many economists Out of 177 countries ranked according to HDI believe this approach does not give a very accurate in the 2008 United Nations Human Development sense of the real standards of living in different coun- Report, Iceland (0.968) was at the top and Sierra tries because it does not tell what goods and services Leone (0.336) was last. Countries such as Canada

SECTION 3 Developing Nations in a World of Transition 19

(4th), Japan (8th), France (10th), the United States countries—all in Africa—were scored as having “low (12th), Britain (16th), South Korea (26th), Cuba (37th), human development.” As you read the case studies in Mexico (52nd), Russia (67th), and Brazil (70th) were this book, be on the lookout for particular aspects of classiﬁ ed as having “high human development”; history, politics, and policy that might help you under- China (81st), Iran (94th), and India (128th) were in the stand a country’s human development index ranking. “medium human development” category; twenty-two

Generally speaking, a country’s GNI per capita re- a person can expect to live seventy-nine flects its level of economic development and modern- ization. But it also tells us a lot about the capacity of a years on average. In the poorest coun- government or an economy to meet the material needs tries, such as Afghanistan, life expectancy of the people of a country. Thus, low GNI per capita is only about forty-four; in Angola, it is figures reflect the low average standard of living and thirty-eight. greater poverty that distinguish less developed from • The child mortality rate (which measures more developed nations. how many children die between birth and Many of the world’s poorest nations have very low and sometimes even negative economic growth age ! ve) in low-income countries is 135 per rates, and for many of their citizens, the physical qual- 1,000 live births, and in the very poorest ity of life is hardly improving and may even be dete- countries it reaches well over 250 per 1,000; riorating. Life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa in in the middle-income countries, the average 1990 was an already low fifty years; in 2008 it was child mortality rate is 49 per 1,000; in the forty-seven (largely a reflection of the toll taken by world’s richest countries, the child mortality HIV/AIDS). Some countries may be experiencing in- creases in production, but their swelling populations rate drops to 7 per 1,000 live births. are swallowing up the gains of increased output, mak- • Two of the leading causes of death for the ing real economic expansion impossible. The economy approximately 10 million children under of Guatemala, for example, grew by an average of age ! ve who die annually in developing 3.6 percent per year in the period 2000–2007; but its countries are malnutrition and diarrhea, population grew 2.5 percent per year during the same the latter a disease that people in devel- period. The result? Per capita income in Guatemala hardly grew at all. oped countries consider to be at most an The stark contrasts among countries in statistics uncomfortable nuisance usually associated used to measure some of the important noneconomic with foreign travel and dealt with by pop- aspects of development can give you a sense of just ping a Pepto Bismol tablet. For nearly two what low GNI per capita means in terms of people’s million children in Third World countries lives: each year, diarrhea contracted from unsafe • Life expectancy in the forty-nine coun- water means death from severe dehydra- tries the World Bank classi! es as low- tion. The solution to this killer of kids is income averages only ! fty-seven years; in simple and cheap: oral rehydration therapy the 95 middle-income developing coun- (ORT), which involves giving the stricken tries, it is sixty-nine years, and in the sixty- child a solution of sugar and salt that allows ! ve high-income developed countries, the body to retain " uids. The solution can

20 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Politics of the Developing World Introduction be easily mixed at home, if there is access us part of the story of the China “miracle”; they don’t to the ingredients; premixed packets cost tell us that the benefits of the country’s rapid develop- about $0.20 each—that’s 20 cents. ment have been spread very unequally, with the coastal areas doing much better than the interior, and urban • Illiteracy (people over age ! fteen who living standards rising much faster than those in the cannot read or write) averages 39 percent countryside. In fact, over the last few decades, China in the low-income countries (and up to 70 has gone from being one of the world’s most egalitari- to 80 percent in some) and about 10 per- an (if poor) countries to being one of the most unequal cent in the middle-income countries. In the in terms of the distribution of income and wealth. developed countries, almost all adults can We shouldn’t fail to acknowledge that there has been significant economic and social progress in many read, although there is some debate about parts of the developing world in recent decades. Quite a how functionally literate a sizable part of few have experienced impressive economic growth (of the population of these countries really is. those included in this book, China and India stand out), and the under-five child mortality rates in the develop- It is very important to recognize that there are vast ing world as a whole have dropped by 60 percent in differences in the noneconomic quality of life statis- the last 40 years, due largely to a reduction in diarrhea- tics among Third World countries. Take a look at the related deaths through ORT (although, as noted above, statistics presented for each of the countries in this there’s a long way to go). Similar positive trends are book in the charts and tables at the end of this chapter. apparent in some of the other figures that are used to Note, for example, the variations in life expectancy, measure poverty in the less developed countries. infant mortality, and literacy. The case studies in this One of the most important steps taken by the in- book analyze how such differences reveal important ternational community to face the challenge of global contrasts in the historical experiences and government poverty and inequality was the setting by the United policies of various developing nations. Nations and several other organizations in 2000 of We also need to be aware that national averages eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be tend to mask class, gender, racial, and regional inequal- achieved by the year 2015. The eight goals are: ities within countries. Although this is true in all countries, developing or developed, these types of dispari- • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger ties are particularly acute in the Third World. A couple • Achieve universal primary education of examples: Pakistan has an overall adult literacy rate • Promote gender equality and empower of 49.9 percent, but among women it is only 36 percent; for males, it is 63 percent. Some people have even sug- women gested that poor women in the least developed “Fourth • Reduce child mortality World” countries should be called the “Fifth World” • Improve maternal health because they are, indeed, the poorest of the poor. • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other And consider what the jaw-dropping statistics that diseases tell the story of China’s spectacular economic growth • Ensure environmental sustainability over the last three decades don’t reveal. Overall, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is sixty times • Develop a global partnership for the size it was in 1978; per capita incomes have risen development from $50 to about $2,400 per year, and foreign invest- These are certainly noble and ambitious objec- ment has zoomed from near zero to nearly $75 bil- tives.22 Progress toward achieving the goals will depend lion in capital from abroad injected into the Chinese on a combination of concrete actions taken by inter- economy in 2007, from thirty-second place to second national organizations and financial institutions, non- among the world’s trading nations (after Germany and governmental organizations, the most developed (high- before the United States). But these numbers only tell income) countries, the governments of the developing

SECTION 3 Developing Nations in a World of Transition 21

nations, and some parts of the private sector, espe- FIGURE 1.1 cially those with large investments in the developing world. Promoting this kind of multifaceted action is the These charts show graphically just how unequally essence of the eighth MDG: Develop a global partner- the world’s wealth is divided between the developed high-income) and developing (lower middle-, ship for development. As a step in this direction, in upper-middle-, and low-income) countries. June 2005, the G8 (the Group of 8, an informal coali- tion of the world’s most developed nations) announced Population % of world total 2007 a plan that would erase the nearly $40 billion in debt High-income that the world’s poorest countries (mostly in Africa) countries Low-income 16.0% countries owe to international lenders. Nevertheless, the enor- 19.6% mous development gap that separates most of the Third World from the industrialized nations remains one of Upper-middle-income countries the most important ways of categorizing the world’s 12.4% countries (see Figure 1.1). Lower-middle-income countries Third World States 52.0% There are many types of political systems in the Third Gross Domestic Product (GDP) World. As Table 1.1 indicates, the countries presented % of world total 2007 in this book include a well-established democracy (India); a country that had been a single-party-dominant democracy for decades but has in recent years moved toward multiparty competition (Mexico); two Low-income countries nations that can be categorized as transitional democ- High-income countries 1.5% racies, but one of which (Brazil) is fairly far along in 74.0% Lower-middle-income the transition from a military dictatorship, while the countries other (Nigeria) started its rocky democratic transition 12.7% only a decade ago; a communist party-state (China), Upper-middle-income and a theocracy (Iran), in which supreme political countries power is held by the religious elite. Analyzing the dif- 11.9% ferences among such varied types of political systems World Trade is one of the most important and interesting tasks in % of world total 2007 the study of comparative politics. But it is also important to note some of the political characteristics shared by Third World states in general that distinguish them Low-income politically from the developed nations. countries High-income 1.7% First, politics and government in most develop- countries Lower-middle-income 71.3% ing countries are shaped by the basic facts of scarce countries economic resources, extensive poverty and inequal- 14.7% ity, and a relatively weak position in the international system. Government leaders in less developed coun- Upper-middle-income tries simply have fewer options available in resolv- countries 12.2% ing problems or responding to demands from various groups for a bigger piece of the national economic pie. Source: World Development Report 2009 Economic conflicts therefore are more likely to lead to violence or repression in Third World states; for example, peasants may rebel in their quest for more

22 CHAPTER 1 Introducing Politics of the Developing World Introduction land, or the government may actively suppress labor favoring one ethnic, religious, or economic group or unions striking for higher wages. Corruption, a recur- even actively discriminating against some groups. rent theme in the case studies in this book, is a very Economic failure, political repression, extreme cor- serious problem in much of the Third World because ruption, and military defeat may cause people to lose public officials personally profit from the state’s con- faith in the government. New democracies, which are trol over various kinds of economic transactions and quite common in the developing world, simply have the weakness of mechanisms for holding those with not had enough time to establish legitimacy in the eyes political power accountable to the law. Resistance to of their citizens. Whatever the cause, states with weak democratization in the Third World has often come— legitimacy are prone to political violence, radical and as it also did during earlier stages in the political de- sudden changes (such as a military coup d’état), and velopment of Europe and North America—from elites government paralysis. And such chronic instability who fear that greater popular control of the govern- only further erodes the legitimacy of governments. ment will jeopardize their economic privileges as well Third, the effective power of governments in the as their political power. But, as we will discuss later, less developed countries is often very limited. The there has been a significant spread of democracy in state may have little ability to exert its authority many parts of the developing world. much beyond the capital city and a few large urban Second, the political legitimacy of many Third centers. In the rural areas and small towns where World states is very weak. Citizens often lack faith in much or most of the population lives, political life their political leaders or perhaps even in the basic struc- is frequently based more on traditional relation- ture and values of the political system of their country. ships that comparativists call patron–client politics. They may obey the law, and they may even vote. But This involves a situation in which locally powerful they do not see the government as being very relevant and usually wealthy individuals (“patrons”) exercise to their lives or as being able to do anything about their control over and ensure the loyalty of poorer citizens most serious concerns; they may even regard the na- (“clients”) by dispensing favors or instilling fear. As tional government as having an adverse impact on their you will see in the case studies that follow, in much lives if their only contact with the authorities comes of the Third World, the formal aspects of government through experiences like tax collection, bribe taking, such as laws, political parties, and elections are less or police brutality. Membership in a religious or ethnic important to most people than is informal politics group is often a much more important source of politi- based on personal relationships. cal identity in the Third World than formal citizenship There are substantial variations in how govern- in a particular country. For example, many Tibetans ments in the developing countries face the political feel only loosely (and perhaps negatively) connected struggle over scarce resources, weak legitimacy, and to the Chinese government even though Tibet is for- the influence of patron–client politics. But to one de- mally part of the People’s Republic of China. gree or another, they all experience these problems in There are various causes of weak state legitimacy ways that make the Third World state a distinctive and in the Third World. The government may be seen as important entity in the study of comparative politics.

SECTION 4 Themes for Comparative Analysis This section describes the four themes we use in In- and why, and what patterns are specific to a particu- troduction to Politics of the Developing World to or- lar country. We also suggest a way that each theme ganize the information on institutions and processes highlights a particular puzzle in contemporary Third in the country chapters. These themes help explain World politics. continuities and contrasts among countries and dem- Before we introduce the themes, a couple of warn- onstrate what patterns apply to a group of countries ings are necessary. First, our four themes cannot