Description
The final exam consists of two essay questions. Answer them in a full and complete manner. Save them in a file and upload the file in the “Assignments” section of the course. It is due on Friday, December 4 at noon.
Note: Addressing this topic entails writing your answer in an essay format, not a list. The more specificity and detail that you give, the more that you will demonstrate to me that you understand the material and thus, the higher your grade.
This course has dealt with the idea of development and the theories that seek to explain it. Over the years, the idea of development has changed in many ways.
Development was first understood to be a natural and historically determined process characterized by rising standards of living, which in turn would be reflected in better health, nutrition, education, employment, and political stability (democracy).
Since the 1990s, there is less consensus among scholars about what development entails. Choose one particular theory reviewed in the course (Modernization, Dependency, Neoliberal/Neoclassical, Institutional), and explain and review the following questions: What lessons have scholars learned from past development experiences? How have major theories of development changed and evolved? Can there even be one development strategy applied to all developing countries across the world? What factors and processes can be explained by a given theory? Where has such a theory failed to explain what happened? What is the best theoretical approach to date (in your opinion)?
In contrast to the development explanations that focus on the nation-state, the role of the state, and the role of decision-making elites, an alternative development explanation focuses on the individual, individual human rights, group human rights, and gender issues. How is the dimension of gender and gender issues a counterpoint to the traditional development explanations? What does it mean that women’s rights are human rights? Why is it important to consider gender and the role of women in development? Does expanding female participation in society, politics, and the market generate development? How? Why? What is the relationship with democratization and political stability?
The only sources needed are the ones attached to the additional materials file.
