Week 8 Journal

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Week 8 Journal

This week brought together the

fields of Global Development and Political Science in an especially starch

focus. The consideration of the rising political manipulation of foreign aid

and economic aid was a major theme which directly relates to citizens in ways

they my not consider when they go to their voting stations. The ‘tag-word’ this

week was governance, a term often

used when talking about development and was defined in our readings as

“referring to any mode of public decision making that helps to advance human

welfare, however conceived”(Jenkins, 516). With this in mind we can see how

depending on the political theology the public ascribes to the form of human

welfare being advanced can differ significantly. A major part of development is

economic development, its importance could be due to the capitalist-saturated

nature of our world, nevertheless since the end of the Cold War the world has

seen the growth of “conditionality-based lending” where poorer countries are

given loans and economic aid on the basis that the recipient country adopts

liberal constitutional values (Jenkins, 517).

Due to the

tensions between capitalism and communism that existed during the Cold War, and

consequently the economic and political downfall of communism, idea that

capitalism was the ideal economic and political form for states became popular.

This changed the course of development to trying to improve the underdeveloped

and impoverished former communist blocs to export-led capitalist economies. International

organizations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World

Trade Organization enabled the widespread establishment of capitalist

economies, and the ability for capitalism to be imposed if poorer countries

wanted to make any gains in the world economy. These international institutions

are weakening the sovereignty of nations, or as John Glenn describes it an

“unbundling of sovereignty”(Glenn, 217). The issue with removing state

sovereignty has the consequence of potentially removing state responsibility in

public well-being. The manifestation of this loss of state responsibility can

be seen in the decrease in social and welfare aid programs, as well as selling

previously state-owned industries such as water, gas and electricity (Glenn,

225). This is where political discernment comes in because capitalist liberals

would say this provides greater choice and therefore greater control for the

individual to control their own life choices. Whereas a socialist might

consider this as opening up society to big business manipulation which can

cause disparities in quality of life if the poor can’t afford the same basic

necessities. Thus, proving to myself the intersection between politics, development and history as being an important cross road.

Works Cited:

Glenn, John. “Global Governance and the Democratic Deficit:

stifling the voice of the

South”. Third World Quarterly 29.02 (2008):

217-238. Web.

Jenkins, Rob. "The

Emergence of the Governance Agenda: sovereignty, neo-liberal bias and the politics of international development". The Companion

to Development Studies. Ed.

Vandana Desai and Robert B. Potter. 2 ed. London: Hodder Arnold Group, 2008. 516-519. Print.

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