THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPING AREAS: POL. SCI. #165
Professor Eleanor Zeff
Fall: 2001: 11:00-12:15
Office: Meredith 209
Off.Hrs. MW: 2-3: TR: 3-5:30
email: eleanor.zeff@drake.edu
Off. Tel. # 271-3102
The Department of Politics and International Relations: Mission Statement
The Department of Politics and International Relations seeks to induct students
into the community of liberally educated individuals who are capable of understanding
government and politics in terms of the theories, concepts, and tools of sophisticated
political analysis which characterize the discipline of political science.
The liberal-arts dimension of our mission stems from our belief that all people are
embedded in a political environment which acts upon them in ways they must understand
if they are to function effectively as active participants in a democratic society.
Our
goal, therefore, is not to train professional political scientists, but rather to
produce the liberally educated citizen who is fluent in the language of politics
and political analysis and thereby has a foundation for both citizenship in a democratic
society and successful training in a job, in a graduate school, or in a professional
school. Such a person has the capacity to recognize and evaluate assumptions,
implications, and causal relationships pertaining to government and politics and,
by extension, to other realms of human experience.
Department Web pages
For more information about the Department of Politics and International Relations
and the Faculty please use the following websites:
1. http://www.drake.edu/artsci/PolSci/PolSci_Home_Page.html
2. http://www.drake.edu/artsci/Faculty.html#Zeff or http://www.drake.edu/artsci/PolSci/Zeffwebpaag.html
REQUIRED READINGS:
1. Joseph, Kesselman and Krieger, Introduction to Third World Politics,
2nd. ed. Houghton/Mifflin,
2000.
2. Monte Palmer
, Political Development, F.E. Peacock, 1997. *
3. Annual Editions, Developing World , (01/02) Dushkin, 2001.
4. Handelman, The Challenge of Third World Development, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall,
2000. *
5. Joseph Weatherby, The Other World, 4th ed. Longman, 2000. *
6. Optional: Andrew Harnack, Writing Research Papers, 2nd ed. Greenhaven
Press, 1998.
7. The book store will also have available several copies of 5 different novels
about developing areas. Each group will read one of these novels and report
on i
t to the rest of the groups. We will choose the books later in the semester.
These books may be available in the Library as well.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
What is "development" and which countries are developing? Why do
some countries develop faster than other countries? Do some policies promote
"development" better than other kinds of policies? How do historical
events and diverse political cultures influence a countryís development, policy making
ability and leadership effectiveness? What effect do debt, corruption
, violence, the IMF, ethnic differences, health issues and the strength of the individual
state have on the development process? Is lack of development due to international
forces beyond the control of individual countries or is it the fault of the countries
themselves? These are some of the questions we will be asking this semester.
Political scientists try to find theories to explain the multidimensional process that occurs when a country begins to develop and to answer the many questions that arise. We will discuss and critique some of these major theories of "development" and try to apply them to specific countries such as Mexico, India, Iran, South Africa and Nigeria. Our goal this semester is to do some critical thinking about the problems facing developing nations and their leaders and about the increasing gap between rich countries and poor countries. We will also explore some pratical solutions and do some grant writing for aid projects.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1. Class participation: attendanc
=e: (more than 2 unexcused absences will result in a lowered grade, and excessive
absences could lead to failure of the course), group interaction, oral reports, etc.
10% of your grade
2. Special Topic paper: (5 pages) (due Sept.27): Topics will be
handed out in class. The topics lend themselves well to debates, so you must
also be prepared to debate your findings in class. Refer to
the optional Harnack book (in the Bookstore) or the Scott book, which is on
Reserve in the Library, for more details on writing papers for this class.
Be prepared to exchange and critique papers with your classmates. You may some
find good information for this paper from your assigned books or else in the Library
or on thawed. 15% of grade
3. Group Project/ Grant Writing: We will divide into groups of 4 during
the first or second week of class. Karen Ellis, from the Iowa Council for Internation
al Understanding (ICIU), will visit on Sept.13 to discuss grant writing. Each
group will write a grant on a project of their choice. We will discuss a number
of choices for these various development projects in class and with the representative
from ICIU. Some grants could probably entail bringing over groups of people
to work/study in Iowa, or they might request money to send Iowans, etc. over to a
developing area to help out with particular projects. You will be trying for
a real grant (from companies such as Pioneer or from the State Department), and it
is possible that if your groupís project is well done, ICIU might decide to
follow through with it and actually carry it out You will present these projects
in 2 stages. 1. The first stage group presentation (Oct. 4) will be to research
about the area of the world which your grant twill target. Each group will
present both an oral and a written report about the country, the conditions, the
rationale for the project, the projected costs, what has b
een done thus far, the people affected, etc. The groups will also prepare bibliographies
to hand out in class to go along with the first presentations. They may include
other handouts as needed. 2. The second stage ofthe project (Nov. 13),
again both oral and written, will be to present the finished grant to the rest of
the class. You will need to describe what your group did for the project (and
who did what), what problems you encountered, how successful you were, how
you worked out the amount of mon
ey you asked for and your general feelings about the project. This assignment
should be very exciting as the projects you work on could possibly be accepted, and
you will also learn practical grant writing skills.
20% of grade
4. 3 Readings Reports: ( 6-7 pages total, or about 2 pages for each
report). Each group will read and discuss books from the assigned readings
for two of the reports. The first one is due Oct. 11. We will keep the same groups
we have for the grant writing projects. Each student will be responsible for
an individual written report (to be handed in Dec. 11), but students will also critique
these books orally, as a group, in front of the rest of the class on ass
igned days (see the Course Outline for these dates). 2nd report is due Nov.
1. For the third report, students will individually choose an article from
the Annual Editions book. I will pass around a sign up sheet so that students
can choose which article they want to read, and each person will orally present a
critique of this article on Thur. Dec. 6. Your 3 written reports (6 to 7 pages)
should all be handed in together as a unit on Tues. Dec. 11, although we had the
discussions in class at earlier times. You will be graded on both your written
and oral work for this project.
20% of grade
5. A Midterm Exam (mostly essay): October 18 15%
of grade
6. A Final Exam (essay)
20% of grade
COURSE OUTLINE:
August 27-29: Introduction to the Course:
Aug. 27: Students will write their "Goals and Objectives" for the
course in class and a brief biography.
Aug. 29: Discussion: What is Development and how do you get it?
Readings: Palmer, pp. 1-62.
Sept. 4-13: Introduction to Theories of Development:
Sept. 4: Divide into groups for the grant writing projects and discuss class
readings on theories of development.
Sept. 6 and 11: Discussion of the Readings and the theories of development
and well-being..
Sept. 13: ICIU representative will visit the class to discuss grant writing.
I will hand out topic assignments for the first paper which is due on Sept. 27. You
need to read Palmer, Ch. 9 for some of these topics.
Readings: Weatherby, pp. 1-77; Handelman, pp. 1-22; Palmer, pp. 63-123.
Sept. 18, 20: Dr. Zeff is out of town this week. Please meet with
your groups
on Sept. 18 (you may use the regular classroom at the regular assigned time) to decide
on your projects. On Sept. 25 each group should be prepared to hand in a topic
for their grants.
Sept. 20: There will be a video shown in class, and a sign-up will be passed
around.
Sept. 25-27, Oct. 2-4: Selected Topics of Development: Violence, The
Military in Politics, Authoritarian Development
Sept. 25: Violence and the Military in Politics
Sept. 27-First papers due with in class debates. Palmerís chapter 9, pp. 265-282
will be a primary source for the topics for these papers. Be sure to also use the
articles in the Annual Editions book as some of your sources for these papers. We
will continue the debates on Oct. 2 if necessary.
Oct. 2: Authoritarian Development
Oct. 4 : First stage of Group Grant Writing Project, Class presentations.
Readings: Handelman, pp. 155-212, Palmer, pp.155-190, and Weather
by, pp. 78-109;
Oct. 9, 11: Aid to Developing Countries Discussion: Corruption:
Oct. 9: Aid and corruption. I will hand out a sheet on how to write
book reviews for the Oct. 11 assignment.
Oct. 11: Group Presentations and reading reports on the Palmer, Weatherby
and Handelman books ( only on the chapters covered so far in the weekly readings).
These discussions should also help you prepare for the Midterm.
Readings: the Zimmerman chapters on Reserve in the Library; Palmer, pp.
240-266, and Annual Editionsí chapters on aid and corruption.
October 15-16: Fall Break
October 18- Midterm Exam
October 23- 30, Nov. 1: Case Studies (Africa) and Issues of Corruption:
Oct. 23: Corruption as an Independent Variable
Oct. 25: Nigeria
Oct. 30: Is the International world to blame for Africaís and Nigeriaís woes?
Nov. 1: Book reports on the different novels will be presented orally
by class groups with discussion. Novel selections include: Achebeís Man of
the People, Things Fall Apart and A
nthills of the Savannah: Also: Wole Soyinkaís The Interpreters, Alan Patonís Cry
the Beloved Country and Markandayaís Nectar in a Sieve. The book store
will have copies of these books for you. About 4 to 5 people will be reading each
book.
Readings: Weatherby, pp.169-217, Joseph, pp. 3-22 and 233-294. Annual Editions,
chs. on Africa.
Nov. 6, 8: More Case Studies (Iran and Islam):
Nov. 6: Islam and Politics.
Nov. 8: Iran
Readings: Joseph, Ch. on Iran; and Weatherby , Ch. 8; Handelman, pp. 23-47.
Nov. 13-20: Brazil; How Debt Affects Development:
Nov. 13: Final group presentations of grant writing projects.
You may include class handouts for your presentations. Each group is also responsible
for a group report detailing what it did, what it accomplished and how it went about
preparing for the grant project and for getting it done. If any groups feel
that their projects were not successful, what do they think went wrong and why?
Nov. 15: Brazil
Nov. 20: Agrarian Reform and Rapid Unbanization.
Readings: Joseph, Chs. on Brazil; and Weatherby, Ch. 5; Handelman. pp.
103-150.
Nov. 21-25: Thanksgiving Vacation
Nov. 27, 29: India and Issues of Cultural and Religious Diversity:
Nov. 27: The Politics of Cultural Pluralism and Ethnic Conflict.
Nov. 29: India
Readings: Joseph, Ch. 3, pp. 83-128; Weatherby, Ch. 7, pp. 218-260, Handelman,
pp. 48-77.
Dec. 4-13: Women in Development and Prospects for the Future:
Dec. 4: Women and Development.
Dec. 6: In class today, there will be group debates on the Annual Editions
articles. Your written reports on all three of the books and articles you critiqued
are due on Dec. 11.
Dec. 8: Capitalism and the market economy and issues of development.
Dec. 11: Transitions to Democracy.
Dec. 13 Transitions to Democracy discussion continued along with discussion
on "Implementing Development."
Readings: Weatherby, Ch. 9, pp. 315-334, Annual Editions, articles on
women and democracy, Handelman, pp. 78-102, 251-269, Palmer, pp. 191-239.