This book examines development theory from a political persepctive. It considers modernisation theory and public policy, as well as Marxism, the state, and the third world.

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the theoretical understanding of African military coups d'etat. We begin by replicating a well-known model (Jackman, 1978) that purports to identify the structural determinants of coups d'etat within the states of Sub-Saharan Black Africa. When the research problem is changed slightly to focus exclusively on military coups, we find major weaknesses in the original Jackman model. We then extend and refine this model and thereby account in a theoretically meaningful fashion for 91% of the variation in military coups within 35 Black African states from 1960 through 1982. Our major substantive findings indicate that Black African states with relatively dynamic economies whose societies were not very socially mobilized before independence and which have maintained or restored some degree of political participation and political pluralism have experienced fewer military coups, attempted coups, and coup plots than have states with the opposite set of characteristics.

http://www.jonathanmpowell.com/uploads/2/9/9/2/2992308/johson_slater__mcgowan_1984apsr-_explaining_african_military_coups_1960-1982.pdf

Political Development Theory: The Contemporary Debate

Explaining African Military Coups d'Etat, 1960-1982

The conventional wisdom of the sixties and early seventies held that, except in the very long run, rapid development and human rights are competing concerns. Needs satisfaction, income equality, and civil and political rights were regularly held to be luxury goods. An examination of the development experiences of Brazil and South Korea, however, shows much of this conventional wisdom to have been mistaken. Rapid growth and development can be achieved without sacrificing social and economic equity. Furthermore, theoretical considerations suggest that even civil and political rights are more compatible with sustained rapid development than is frequently recognized.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0043887100008765

Human Rights and Development: Complementary or Competing Concerns?

Understanding Third World politics

It is difficult for political theory to understand the issue of language policy
in contemporary societies; likewise, theoriesof language planning and policy
struggle to come to grips with political issues.
Many political theories are limited by two perspectives. For theories
concerned with ethnicity, language is often reduced to ethnicity, which is
often seen as synonymous with ethnic conflict, while theories concerned
with modernization appear to have such a strong attachment to its imperatives that aspects of language that appear to be retarding modernization
present insuperable problems.
A critique ofthese theories is advanced, based on the issue oflanguages
in the former Soviet Union; the conflict between local and former colonial
languages in third-world countries; and the searchfor appropriate language
models in an increasingly integrated Europe.
Three perspectives from contemporary social theory are suggested as
providing a better way of relating languages to politics: a sociological
perspective that looks at actual language use and attitudes rather than
officialpronouncements; a culturalperspective that analyzes the significance
of language in cultural terms, particularly in relation to changing concepts
of ethnicity; and a discourse perspective that takes seriously language and
discourse on it, identifying the relative autonomy of language issues, rather
than attempting to reduce language attitudes to supposedly more basic
ethnic or structural factors.

Language policy and political reality

List of tables, figures and maps List of plates Preface to the third edition List of abbreviations PART 1 THE DEVELOPING WORLD 1 Third World or developing world? 2 The infrastructure of the developing world 3 The crisis of the developing world PART II ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS 4 The economic context 5 The social context 6 The international context PART III POLITICS OF THE DEVELOPING WORLD 7 State-building 8 Dictatorship and democratisation PART IV POLICY ISSUES 9 Policy Issues 10 Conclusion References Index

Political Development Theory: The Contemporary Debate

Citations

Explaining African Military Coups d'Etat, 1960-1982

Human Rights and Development: Complementary or Competing Concerns?

Understanding Third World politics

Language policy and political reality

Politics and society in the developing world

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