Download Political Systems and Economic Development

By: Hassan Memari
POLITICAL SYSTEMS AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH QUESTION AND VARIABLES
“What is the effect of a country’s political
system on its economic development?”
 Dependent variable: economic development of
a country.
 Independent variable: political system of a
country.

SELECTION OF CASE STUDIES
Compare democracy, communism, and
(absolute) monarchy.
 Definition/traits
 “Spectrum of economic development”

 “poorly
economically developed” nation
 “moderately economically developed” nation
 “highly economically developed” country.
SELECTION CASE STUDIES


Democracy:
 United States (.956)
 Costa Rica (.854)
 India (.612)
Communism:
 Cuba (.863)
 China (.772)
 Laos (.619)
Monarchy:
 Qatar (.91)
 Saudi Arabia (.843)
 Swaziland(.572)
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
HDI Value

0.6
Poorly Economically Developed
0.5
Moderately Economically
Developed
0.4
Highly Economically Developed
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Democracy
Communism
Political System
Monarchy
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
How can we determine a nation’s level of
economic development?
 Definition of “Economic development”
 HDI (Human Development Index)

 Standard
of living
 Adult Literacy Rate
 Life Expectancy

Insufficient standard of living data
ANALYSIS: STATISTICS
Mean Life Expectancy at Birth (1955-2009)
Swaziland
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Laos
China
Mean Life Expectancy at Birth (1955-2009)
Cuba
India
Costa Rica
United States of America
30
40
50
60
70
80
ANALYSIS: STATISTICS
Mean Adult Literacy Rate (1980 - 2009)
84
82
Percent of Literate Adults
80
78
76
74
72
70
68
Mean Adult Literacy Rate (1980 - 2009)
Democracy
81.4333
Communism
78.02333
Monarchy
73.038
ANALYSIS: STATISTICS
10
8.8
8
6
4
4
3.9
3.7
2.8
2.1
2
0.1
0
United States of
America
Costa Rica
India
Cuba
China
Laos
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
-1.1
-2
GDP per Capita Annual Growth Rate (percent) (1990-2001)
Swaziland
ANALYSIS: POLICIES
U.S.A.: policies gained more socialist
tendencies due to more government control.
 China: certain policies became more
democratic and capitalistic/ market oriented
mindset
 Swaziland: country became more democratic
with the increase in political parties

CONCLUSIONS
Statistics/Charts
 Policies- affects on pol. system
 Other people’s thoughts
 Each political system has positives and
negatives/issue of time of implementation of
policies
 Further research – areas most effective

THANK YOU!
WE ARE GLOBAL GEORGETOWN!