DPI-410: The Politics of Development (Teaching Fellow)

This course is a broad-gauged introduction to the political economy of development. The thesis of this course is that the distribution of political power and the way it is exercised through institutions and organizations fundamentally shapes the prosperity of societies and the freedom of its members. The goal is to develop analytical frameworks and empirical evidence on politics and its influence on development that can be adapted to a variety of policy-making contexts. The topics covered include collective action; the development of states and state capacity; the impact of colonialism and imperialism; conceptions of democracy; democratic competition; the politics of inequality and exclusion; corruption and accountability; political clientelism; parties and their influence on growth; special interest and business politics; the functioning of authoritarian regimes; conflict and the international system; ideas, reform, and political entrepreneurship; and the future of democracy and development. 

Course instructor: Gautam Nair, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School