Preview

Structural Factors In Dictatorial Regime

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
811 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Structural Factors In Dictatorial Regime
In the theoretical framework, I argued that some structural factors influence economic development but depending on the political regime. Some of these factors can play strong and key role in determining ruler’s policy choices in improving and advancing national wealth and creating economic development in one regime but becomes less relevant in the other. This section have carefully explored and explained these structural factors.
Structural Factors That Affects Economic Development in Dictatorial Regimes

There are several structural factors that affect leader’s policy choices in dictatorial regime and as such determine how the regime impacts economic development. I examined such structural factors like (1) International political structure/external-threat.
…show more content…
This challenge most often compel rulers in dictatorial regimes to expand the wealth of nations in order to meet military expenditures as well as to reduce poverty and improve people’s living standard, which reduces the likelihood of revolutions. Thus rulers tend to adopt growth-enhancing strategies when they face external competition, because development could strengthen their survivability. Chin-en (2004) aptly captured the above as he …show more content…
One of those sources is external military threat. For instance, the geographic proximity of Germany induced Soviet Union to pursue industrialization policies during the interwar period (Boix 2003). Skocpol (1979) also emphasized how international pressures lead political leaders to make decisions independently from domestic, major classes. A recent account of how external threats influence economic development might be Jeffrey Herbst’ study (2000) on the formation of European nation states and modern Africa. It was argued that in Europe, high population density combined with limited land induces states to establish more efficient armies and bureaucracies in order to survive, whereas low population density combined with low external threats in Africa reduce the necessity of defending territory and hence allow rulers to survive without invest in institutional building. Also, economic and military donations in the Cold War periods from countries of the two camps contribute to the survivability of predatory rulers in Africa. More so, external military threats may also include the challenges confronting most of the countries surrounding the Iron Curtain such as some of the East Asian countries, which confronted severe challenges from neighboring communist regimes during the Cold War in their earlier stage of development. But the story here

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thesis Statement: Before the arrival of Europeans, African empires, kingdoms, and cities were very wealthy, well educated, and had protection.…

    • 639 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Egypt’s dictator for nearly three decades, Hosni Mubarak once said, “My aim was never to seek a force and take power.” Just like most dictators, Hosni Mubarak’s desire was to appeal to the Egyptian citizens, which he did at first. He never intended on obtaining enough power to be considered a dictator. Dictatorship is the ruling of a country with little or no help at all from the government or society. A dictator disregards checks and balances between the branches of governments and seizes most of the power. Another prevalent characteristic of a dictator is that they were once loved by society, but as they got ahold of more and more power, their main priority was to seize complete authority. Hosni Mubarak was a strong leader during his early…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pol Pot Research Paper

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages

    communists and caused the downfall of their country's economy. This includes the increase of poverty along with the increase of death rates. The two dictators we chose were Pol Pot, dictator of Cambodia and Idi Amin Dada the president of Uganda. Both were different ,but much alike in certain ways.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ap World

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages

    development and the role of the state in the economic development of ONE of the…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Name Professor Course Date Totalitarianism and Mussolini's Totalitarian Italy Totalitarianism and dictatorship are two concepts that confuse people because they are often used under the same contexts. However, such a case is not true. There is a wide difference between dictatorship and pure totalitarianism. Totalitarianism encompasses all the social concepts of life.…

    • 2035 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    By understanding what went wrong in the Congo’s case, we can apply what and why to avoid forming more weak states. Samuels credits the difference between Botswana, a successful African state, to Zimbabwe, a disaster similar to the Congo, to “diamonds, civil war and political leadership” (Samuels 49). Through the corruption and exploitation of natural resources, the Congo’s profits were never returned back to the people. Unlike Botswana, the Congo’s post-independence government failed to use the natural resources, like diamond, to improve infrastructure and stabilize the interior of their nation. Through a poor legacy from the colonial government, the Congo was not equipped with enough educated people nor the self-sustaining intuitions to govern themselves. The lack of qualified political leadership contributed to their failures and perpetuation of a weak state. And finally, because the Congo started as a weak state internally, it opened opportunities for external violence to invade as well as civil war. The lack of enforced borders leads to violence destroying infrastructure and stealing valuable potential income. By understanding these factors, today’s new states can learn how to avoid these pitfalls and the international community can…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    After World War II, the people of Africa fought to end the effects of European imperialism in order to achieve political independence and reclaim African culture. However, tensions caused by artificial political boundaries established by European powers exacerbated preexisting tribal and religious divisions. The newly ‘freed’ African states were unstable and struggled to deal with these conflicts, often resulting in civil wars and genocide. During this struggle, Africa received very little support to help develop African economies or governments from the very countries who caused Africa’s weak infrastructure. 19th-century European imperialism was a major factor in causing the political weakness within African states, but the fact that the solution…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the 20th century approached, more and more countries wanted more and more power. At the end of the 19th century, the Belgian King Leopold sent emissaries to the African Congo to establish trade. This single act caused France, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and Portugal to go over to Africa and do the same. However, the European countries did not just establish trade, they invaded the African territory and took control over it. This became known as the Imperialist Scramble for Africa.1…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All Civilizations strive to expand and conquer in hope to achieve power and security. After the Industrial Revolution the thirst for Africa’s resources and land was seen in all of Europe. In the 19th century, European countries all scrambled for authority and control, following the British Empire’s success and wealth. The reasons for this sudden hunger to imperialize africa was due to social darwinism, nationalism, and the vast raw materials africa had to offer. This raid of european people had great to effect to the african people.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Naked Economics Chapter 8

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages

    b. Strong economic growth could lead to political stability because when people have high incomes they tend to be satisfied with the political system and are less likely to overthrow or change the government.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The scholarly article, “Democracy and Dictatorship Revisited”, written by José Antonio Cheibub, Jennifer Gandhi, and James Raymond Vreeland contemplates the strengths and weaknesses of the two respective systems of government. Cheibub writes, “Differences in authoritarian regimes account for variance in their economic growth and investment”. Cheibub later goes on to explore these differences and their effects. The authors also address the importance of value differences between regimes, and study the effectivity of government.…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The importance of studying history lies in the fact that by analyzing past events, one can gain insight on how something came to be. The fact that many countries in Africa today are underdeveloped for example, can be explained by European colonization and exploration in the past. Some historians would disagree with this view and assert that European colonialism actually served a moral purpose and was mutually beneficial to both parties. They argue that European influence in the area led to political centralization and an overall improvement in infrastructure. Also, defenders of this view tend to underestimate the impacts of the Atlantic slave trade by mentioning that slavery was already a part of Africa prior to European arrival. This essay will analyze the impacts of European colonialism on African economy and society in order to assert whether or not European involvement has helped or has hurt development in the area. Furthermore, this paper will attempt to propose ideas to improve negative effects left behind due to European exploration in Africa.…

    • 1771 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the above paragraphs, the best factors behind should be leadership, political stability and state capacity. Note that any one of them alone is not enough for the economic boom. They are actually interdependent. Political stability is a prerequisite for state capacity. With a high degree of political stability, enforcement of policies are not obstructed by political chaos, and thus state capacity increases. With high degrees of political stability and state capacity, leaders with good aims can put economic plans into practice. Political stability and state capacity alone would not do good to economy if leaders are corrupt and never care about livelihood of people while leadership alone would not guarantee that policies of good aims can…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    No elections, imagine not having to deal with all the political rhetoric, you already have your leader for life.…

    • 3596 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Economic growth is defined by, among other things, material capital formation, human capital formation and the creation of innovation. Put another way, economic growth is determined by the amounts and types of capital and labor that are invested, and how they are utilized for production. The objective of economic growth through economic policy is not necessarily GDP or GNP maximization but maybe enhancing and improving quality of life or other values that cannot be measured by GDP. If we limit our outlook to economic growth itself, the questions of what to assume as the objective of economic growth and how to measure it is decided by people. It is possible and desirable, to have a scheme wherein issues that are not easy to quantify, such as quality of life, are taken into account when policy choices are prepared and decisions carried out. The idea here is only that no matter what kind of economic society one visualizes, the issues of investment of capital and available resources are of extreme importance. This is to say while the objective of economic policy is improving the welfare of citizens, it will primarily be dependent on resource investment and productivity, no matter how that improvement may be defined. Whether looking at GDP or quality of life, different levels of attainment have been achieved from nation to nation.…

    • 2109 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays