The Resource Curse: Democracy and the Developing World

An American philosopher by the name of Martha Nussbaum argued in regards to how the world’s economic development cannot produce democracy. Being an author of over twenty books in topics relating to educational reform as well as social policy, one of work she had produced, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities explains her theories in why this is not possible. Nussbaum believes today’s educational system focuses too much on professional training rather than the current political issues. [She states, “nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticize tradition, and understand

Expansion of education is closely related to idealistic views of democracy. In developing and wealthy nations, education is valued because it helps the individual mind to develop capabilities. In contrast, education has also been seen as a way to promote equality. Having access to public education, in theory, has the potential to reduce poverty and promote equality. If all are entitled to the same public education, not to mention they are required by law, why do school systems seem segregate their students? Researchers have searched for the answer and have theorized that economic background, tracking, and hidden curriculum are a few things that help contribute to the imaginary lines drawn between students in society.

The strongest claim the author made was that the economy and education are highly intertwined. It is stated that without a public access to a higher level of education, the income equality will grow larger and our country of democracy and prosperity will be in jeopardy. The

In “Income Inequality: The Public and the Partisan Divide,” Blendon and Benson explain the issue of income inequality and the need to address it. The importance of explaining this problem provides insight for the people who are not educated about the topic, hopefully triggering more public awareness. Blendon and Benson support their opinion by discussing that the two major political parties in the U.S. agree that income inequality is a problem that must be recognized, but cannot come up with a synopsis on how to take care of it. Also, they describe how different perspectives cause different ideas for fixing the issue. Blendon and Benson explain how partisan views towards the role of government are one of the perspectives towards how the income

The specifics of policy choices are an important issue, and these choices can be analyzed thoroughly and theoretically. Economic inequality is the difference in numerous measures of economic security between individuals of a group, groups in a population, or countries. Economic inequality can also be referred to as income inequality. Bartels describes issues about economic inequality including how poorly some groups are represented. The poor are barely represented, if at all, because their lack of funds and resources usually only influence the majority of politicians to ignore the poor. When considering the poorer population, representatives do not even bother to consider the poor because some members of congress or senators might not believe that those certain low income groups do not have enough money to be acknowledged. There is a definite political unfairness because of how unevenly certain income groups are

Whether it is in Canada as a whole or within a city, the top 1 percent enjoy a sought of immunity to economic slumps.According to CCPA ,over the course of 30 years from 1982 -2010 the richest 1 percent enjoyed an income increase of 71 percent.The richest 1 percent of Canadians made 15 times more than the average Canadian income(CCPA) . Income inequality as earlier stated bring about health inequalities within the spectrum of a country’s populations. However, such income inequalities and wealth inequalities are all signs of an existing class inequality. Chrystia Freeland speaks of the class that makes up one percent of the top one percent i.e. 0.01 percent, the super-rich or ultra-elites as plutocrats. The amount of wealth concentrated in hands of such a small percentage is a worrying situation. It is common human nature to try and keep what one has achieved. But with this much at stake, is it petty to think of the lengths this minority will go to maintain their status (Freeland). It is to no doubt that that members of this group also influence government policy.Most political parties need huge financial support in order to sustain their campaigns.With large sums of wealth that corporations possess,they invest in political party campaigns.The irony lies in the fact that they are called donations.With financial

The distribution of income in the United States, is a growing controversy. Far left and far right groups have distinctly differing opinions on income inequality and whether it is beneficial or detrimental to the economic growth of the nation. Mainstream politics, however, tend to be relatively devoid of discussion about the extreme wealth gap. The rising levels, factors, and opinions of income inequality as well as methods of income redistribution will be discussed.

The government in the United States supposedly revolves around American ideals such as equality and diversity; however, this is simply not the case as perpetuated by class inequalities. The meaning of democracy has been skewed in the United States to represent something entirely different than it did in 1776. Today, American democracy behaves more like an aristocracy, where the upper class exercises power within the government and state, influencing discourse and therefore the laws and resources in our country, which are purportedly “for the people”. Democracy is presumed to provide everyone with equal political power, but the government in today’s America, although seemingly following this ideal model, does not. Instead, the elite upper class has a monopoly over the political influence and are the sole benefactors from public policies due to their influence over the policy making process. The upper class has an overall benefit from class inequality, as it greatly impacts American ‘democracy’ through the significant power gained through money and status, leadership roles that impact government, and the influence in the policymaking process that creates upper class advantages.

Education comes with social benefits as well which can improve the situation of the poor, such as lower fertility and improved health care of children ("Poverty and Education"). "Poor people are often unable to obtain access to an adequate education, and without an adequate education people are often constrained to a life of poverty." - Servaas Van Der Berg. The absolutely poor in developing countries have low education levels. Some may not even have access to primary education or may not have completed their primary education, not realizing that it is important to reduce poverty. Education is often poorly measured, and the impacts do not always show up as statistically significant in cross- country growth regressions (Levine & Renelt, 1992). Africa’s education crisis makes media headlines and analysis by the Brookings Center for Universal Education (CUE) explains why this needs to change. Progress towards universal primary education has come to a halt and learning levels of children who are in school are poor as well. Using a Learning Barometer, CUE estimates that 61 million African children will reach adolescence lacking even the most basic literacy and numeracy skills, this will deprive a whole generation of opportunities to develop and escape poverty ("Poverty, Education, & Opportunity").

Income inequality is a phenomenon that is undeniably real in our current world, and more specifically, the present United States. Canon describes how the gap between the elite and the poor has been consistently growing for many years and continues to widen (189). Whether the differences between the top and the bottom are a threat to current society is another story. Does income inequality undermine a democracy? Ray Williams argues that societies are strongest when they have a higher rate of equality while George Will challenges that inequality is the very basis of what make democratic processes. A. Barton Hinkle takes a Libertarian approach to the idea that inequality is threatening to democracy and how it can be fixed. Some threats that each article addressed were economic impacts, civility, and fairness. Overall, there is a definite need to evaluate whether the United States democracy is being threatened due to the continuous rise of the elites and the fall of the working class.

The concept of equality is multi-faceted and widely debated among scholars. While there is no singular definition for equality, equality deals with the distribution of some “thing” in a specific domain. For this paper, equality will be narrowed down to the domains of economic and political. It is essential to note that distinct types of equality can become conditions for equality in a different domain. In this case, economic equality will be analyzed as a condition for political equality. How is it exactly that economic equality can undermine political equality? By answering this question, this paper will prove that economic equality is a necessary pre-condition for political equality. I will do this by analyzing the political writings of

The most important information in the article is that capitalism causes extremes in social economics. There are those that are very rich and those that are very poor. The poor then are left with unrest and desire for that which they do not have. Education will equip then with the tools they need to escape poverty and be able to coexist with those in other social extremes. "The founders of the modern US school system understood that the capitalist economy only produces great extreme of wealth and poverty of social elevation and degradation" (p.362). "Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great

Political corruption has existed throughout the ages. It believed to be most prominent in positions of power, because of the role money plays in getting people power. However, over the centuries, corruption has changed so much so as to not match a particular definition of corruption, perpetually growing deceptively harder to find (Ebbe).

Prevalent flaws within most modern democracies are evident in their social and economic systems. One such problem, in a system that advocates freedom to do whatever you please, is the consequential wealth disparity (Wong, Oct. 24 lecture, tutorial). Aristotle once said that, “democracy is the form of government in which… the free are the many and the rich are the few”. This highlights a paradox of democracy in that it attempts to be equal to all, yet often the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer, and an increasing wealth divide will influence governance. Constant writes (pg. 12), “wealth is a power more readily available at any moment… more

Corruption is a complex political, social, and economic anomaly that negatively affects developing and developed countries. It weakens democratic institutions, holds economic development, widening the rich-poor gap and certainly leads to governmental instability. The World Bank definition of corruption states that “…the abuse of public office for private gain”.