JUNIOR SEMINAR: Politics and Policy Making in Developing Countries

This course provides an introduction to the relationship between politics and policy-making in developing countries. We will examine the political institutions underlying the policy process, the role played by groups with diverse policy interests, and general theories of policymaking. In doing so, we will evaluate the characteristics of political competition and the dynamics of political participation in highly dynamic, largely democratic contexts. We will then apply arguments about the nature of policymaking to a set of policy issues facing developing countries today. Throughout the course we will often refer to the institutions in place in India, in contrast with other developing countries, so as to evaluate the ways in which differing institutional and interest-based constraints may lead to divergent policy choices at both domestic and international levels.