The Comparative Political Economy Of Development

This book illustrates the enduring relevance and vitality of the comparative political economy of development approach promoted among others by a group of social scientists in Oxford in the 1980s and 1990s. Contributors demonstrate the viability of this approach as researchers and academics become more convinced of the inadequacies of orthodox approaches to the understanding of development. Detailed case material obtained from comparative field research in Africa and South Asia informs analyses of exploitation in agriculture; the dynamics of rural poverty; seasonality; the non farm economy; class formation; labour and unfreedom; the gendering of the labour force; small scale production and contract farming; social networks in industrial clusters; stigma and discrimination in the rural and urban economy and its politics. Reasoned policy suggestions are made and an analysis of the comparative political economy of development approach is applied to the situation of Africa and South Asia. Aptly presenting the relation between theory and empirical material in a dynamic and interactive way, the book offers meaningful and powerful explanations of what is happening in the continent of Africa and the sub-continent of South Asia today. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of development studies, rural sociology, political economy, policy and practice of development and Indian and African studies.

Explores the relationship between a government's political choices and its country's level of development.

A revised and updated edition of this student text which takes account of the major changes in the world's politico-economic systems since the first edition, published in 1990. The book is a comparative analysis of states, considering their affluence, democracy and public policy, describing the polity and economy in a number of countries, and surveying the dominant theoretical approaches.

Addressing the problem of searching for mainstream and alternative paradigms as a guide for comparative political enquiry, this work in particular introduces developments that have taken place over the last decade. These include the continuation of an ideological political science, methodological innovations such as rational choice and historical and post-behavioural approaches, new emphases on and links between political culture and participation, the recasting of modernization theory and the revitalization of class analysis, and a post-Keynesian political-economy point of view.

This is a book about how 21st-century capitalism really works. Modern economics strips away social, historical, and political context from analysis of 'the economic', but the economy is far too important to leave exclusively to the economists. Comparative Political Economy (CPE) is a much broader, richer intellectual undertaking which 're-embeds' the analysis of the economic within the social and political realm. This is at the heart of how to think like a political economist. This text maps the terrain and evolution of CPE, providing the analytical tools to explore the many variants of capitalism, unearthing their roots in competing visions of the desirable distribution of the fruits of growth. Connecting CPE systematically to the subfield of International Political Economy (IPE), the book explains how these visions generate ongoing political struggles over how to regulate and manage capitalism. This is the perfect introduction to the field for all students of CPE and IPE. New to this Edition: - Fully revised and updated throughout to take into account the latest empirical and theoretical developments in this fast-moving field - A brand New chapter on the political economy of inequality, populism, Trump & Brexit - New expanded 'how to use this book' aimed at student readers - More coverage of the types of economies covered, to move from an exclusively Western focus to cover developing and emerging global economies

In this study of the Comparative Political Economy of East and South Asia, the author adopts an interdisciplinary perspective on Third World development, thus recognising the importance of the interrelationships between the economy and the society and emphasising the need to direct attention to political, institutional and historical factors.

Over its lifetime, 'political economy' has had different meanings. This handbook views political economy as a synthesis of the various strands of social science, treating it as the methodology of economics applied to the analysis of political behaviour and institutions.