Political and Economic Change

Revolution, coups, and war

• Coups, revolutions and wars are all catalysts of political change.• A coup d'état is defined by the textbook as “a forceful, extra

constitutional action resulting in the removal of an existing government”• There have been countless instances of coups throughout history . For

example, after the Iranian Revolution when the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah, an unsuccessful coup occurred in an effort to restore the Shah.

Revolutions, coups and war

• Revolutions differ from coups in that revolutions involve the masses whereas coups involve a much smaller segment of the population, often the military.• Examples of this are the American Revolution and the Iranian

revolution

Revolutions, coups and war

• War often has the effect of devastating an economy like in the case of Somalia. However, it can also trigger economic development like in the case of the U.S. in World War Two due to a need for workers to support the needs of the War. From, a policy standpoint, taxes are often increased to pay for costs of the war.

Components of Political Change

• The single most viable component to political change is an opposing force. For example, the major roadblock in Nigeria in achieving democratization is that there are lots of small parties but not one unified opposition party.

Promoting or Inhibiting Factors.

• The ability to cause political change is usually inhibited by a controlling government, such as China. The record of Tiananmen Square has largely been erased by the government, and even today people’s lives are endangered if they dare stand up to the government. China is also a one party system, so no official opposition can develop• In a country like the United States, protest has proven to be effective

in various movements.

Consequences

• The impact of efforts to promote political change have been varied. In the case of China, more often than not, it does not end well. In contrast, second wave feminism exemplifies the successes of political change.

Economic Change

• Economic change is very similar to political change in that it depends on the ability of citizens to influence policy. Citizens would have had very limited success influencing Soviet economic policy This changed somewhat when privatization (the process of previously public entities being privatized) occurred after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, in the UK, unions are allowed and other economic freedoms which provide for social mobility. Conversely, an establishment can also develop if capitalist policies allow for large conglomerates to emerge and are not in anyway regulated.

Political and economic change

• Political change-Social change that refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. Social change may include changes in nature, social institutions, social behaviors, or social relations. Ex. China has some riots and human rights issues recently. Japan changed its judicial system to gear more towards Roman and Common law during the mid 19th Century. Sometime after the world wars, Korea decided to split between the north and the south • Economic change- a transformation that occurs within an economy that either

increases, sustains, or depletes its vitality. Ex. China, Korea, India has become known as the emerging economies after they have provided cheap and educated high skill labor. Japan has started expanding since 1868, but its greatest economic expansion occurred during the 60s-80s.India has adopted a market based economy.

Globalization and fragmentation

• globalization -the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets ex. McDonalds in Japan, French films being played in Minneapolis, the United Nations, blending of cultures• Fragmentation-the process or state of breaking or being broken into

small or separate parts ex. When Yugoslavia broke apart in the 1990s

Cont. globalization and fragmentation• Interlinked Economies-occur internationally when one

nation/economy's actions in their own market and in the global market impact another's economy or market. Ex. if the United States government stopped drilling for oil in other countries and decided to use its own resources, that would not only impact the US and the nations from which it stops drilling, but could also impact economies of surrounding nations that have some form of involvement in that industry.

Global culture

• Global culture-defined as our overall way of life, including language, customs, beliefs, and the use of material things. Ex. If everyone in the world only spoke one language

Reactions against globalization

• Many countries don’t want to be globalized because the citizens in those countries want to stand out and not lose their culture that makes them significant. Ex. originate from decisions by Great Britain and France in the aftermath of World War I, after they defeated the Ottoman empire

Regionalism

• Regionalism-a linguistic feature peculiar to a particular region and not part of the standard language of a country. • Ex. The word “pop” for “soda” is a Midwest regionalism.

Approaches to development

• Development-the process of developing or being developed.• Ex. People-centered development is an approach to international

development that focuses on improving local communities’ self-reliance, social justice, and participatory decision-making. It recognizes that economic growth does not inherently contribute to human development and calls for changes in social, political, and environmental values and practices

Types Of Development

• The idea that resources flow from poor countries (periphery) to wealthier ones (core) is dependency development• The opposite of this is import substitution by which dependency is

ended by locally producing industrialized goods.