Political Economy

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and African Developmental States

Kathryn Brunton • Mar 6 2012 • Essays

Although the participatory approach is essential to development in its aims, its application through the PRSP initiative needs reworking.

Towards A Nuanced Understanding of Failed States

Ahmed Khaled Rashid and Elayna Hamashuk • Mar 6 2012 • Essays

Generalizations are not helpful in determining the causes and implications of state failure in particular cases, as the situation is Somalia demonstrates.

The WTO: Development or the Dollar?

Harry Naio • Mar 2 2012 • Essays

The WTO is nothing if not controversial. Many protests been motivated by frustration towards it’s advocacy of free markets and their effects on developing countries.

The Bretton Woods Institutions and Development Partnerships

Joshua Matthewman • Feb 8 2012 • Essays

If African countries are to benefit to the fullest extent possible from development partnerships, many issues must be examined.

Non-Intervention, or Responsibility to Protect?

Mareike Oldemeinen • Jan 14 2012 • Essays

In recent decades, the realities of globalization and growing interdependency make it impossible to turn our backs on large-scale Human Rights violations and Crimes against Humanity committed in foreign countries.

The Role of the Economic Elite in Mexico’s Democratic Development

Shaye Worthman • Jan 9 2012 • Essays

A widely held middle class critique of Mexico’s governing institutions is that politicians are accountable only to the private elites and do not respond to middle and lower class needs. Indeed, with a history of oligarchic-type rule and pervasive government corruption, private sector elites have consistently been major players in Mexican politics.

Is the Growing Criticism of the International Monetary Fund Justified?

Derek McKenna • Jan 8 2012 • Essays

The IMF is an international organisation that causes much debate. The neo-liberal ideological agenda, the control of the policy agenda by wealthy countries, and the conditionality attached to the loans it provides, all form the basis of worthy criticism.

Universals in a World of Difference: Human Rights in Sri Lanka

Holly Catling • Jan 4 2012 • Essays

The international community is fixated on the protection of human rights, and sees only one route to do this: the expansion of liberal democracy. The interest in propagating these models produced the conditions for conflict to break out in Sri Lanka.

Child Reconciliation in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone

Ashlyn Exley • Dec 26 2011 • Essays

The systematic inclusion of children in the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission process was unprecedented in the history of truth and reconciliation initiatives. Given the country’s history of child involvement in the war as both victims and perpetrators, it was especially important to include children in the post-conflict peacebuilding processes.

NEPAD and African Development Policy

Samuel Bullen • Nov 27 2011 • Essays

Many Africans wait for it to fail as its predecessors did, and mistrust its intentions. But the New Partnership for Africa’s Development has a set of ambitious forward-thinking goals and ideals and is an excellent example of what Africans can do when they come together to help the continent out of the mire of its history and dependence.

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