Political Development & Economic Development Under the basic rubric of political development,

Under the basic rubric of political development, scholars have often been at odds to explain the manner by which certain countries and their indigenous political systems developed a certain way, while others exhibited quite different tendencies. For some, economic motivations have been the prime factors in political development, while others look toward the role of the state, and increasing bureaucratization as the moving force behind certain types of political development. This paper will discuss the question of whether or not political development can be measured and whether comparative statements between different states, different systems, or different periods of time can help with the conception of the general nature of political development. The essay will be broken down into four major components: the conception of political development, the conception of economic development, the relationship between political and economic development, and finally an assessment of each as tools for understanding and quantifying aspects of political behavior.

Generally speaking, political development has come to mean a process by which a state or government transcends a more primitive stage of development in exchange for a more advanced political system. The idea of development is then based on the notion of progress toward a particular goal. This was especially evident in the theoretical basis of Marxism, particularly in aspects of historical materialism.1

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almost indistinguishable.7 However, another way to look at the same situation is that political development and modernization do not occur in measurable ways and do not necessarily interact to produce a more enlightened system of political government. Instead, the more rapid the modernization, the more probability for decay in a system already gone wild with development.8 In this sense, one can envision a system that has been the product of First World imperialism that wants to become part of the producers and consumers in the world economic system. The developmental "rules," while not necessarily imposed by the First World, serve as brief guidelines for a process of development that ______________________ 6 Weiner and Huntington, 16570. 7 See, for instance, Polly Hill, Development Economics On Trial, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1986), passim. 8 Huntington, 1056. engenders rapid social mobilization, the movement of an agriculturally based privatesector to one based primarily in industrialization, and the all to rapid process of democratization. In fact, some argue, institutions that change too rapidly force change on the system that results in a breakdown of the traditional pillars that the system was b

Category: Economics - P