1st Edition

Nation Building, State Building, and Economic Development Case Studies and Comparisons

By Sarah C.M. Paine Copyright 2010
    344 Pages
    by Routledge

    344 Pages
    by Routledge

    Why do some countries remain poor and dysfunctional while others thrive and become affluent? The expert contributors to this volume seek to identify reasons why prosperity has increased rapidly in some countries but not others by constructing and comparing cases. The case studies focus on the processes of nation building, state building, and economic development in comparably situated countries over the past hundred years. Part I considers the colonial legacy of India, Algeria, the Philippines, and Manchuria. In Part II, the analysis shifts to the anticolonial development strategies of Soviet Russia, Ataturk's Turkey, Mao's China, and Nasser's Egypt. Part III is devoted to paired cases, in which ostensibly similar environments yielded very different outcomes: Haiti and the Dominican Republic; Jordan and Israel; the Republic of the Congo and neighboring Gabon; North Korea and South Korea; and, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. All the studies examine the combined constraints and opportunities facing policy makers, their policy objectives, and the effectiveness of their strategies. The concluding chapter distills what these cases can tell us about successful development - with findings that do not validate the conventional wisdom.

    List of Maps and Table, Acknowledgments, Introduction, PART I. Imperial State Building: La Mission Civilisatrice, PART II. The Anticolonial Reaction: The Rejuvenation of Old Polities, PART III. Creating New States: Divergent Pairs, Conclusions, About the Contributors, Index

    Biography

    Sarah C.M. Paine