国際金融・開発研究：政治学系（Governance and Development）

In order to fulfill the above objectives, the course broadly consists of three parts. First, we will examine three questions as a basis for discussion throughout the course: what is international development cooperation?; what is the point of tracing the history of development theories in aid policies instead of directly tackling current ‘hot’ issues?; and why should we focus upon the 'governance' of recipient states rather than other important agendas in international development? We then proceed to the second part of the course. Serving as a background to the issues dealt with in the third part, this part will trace a historical process of theory-policy selection in development aid. Starting from colonial experiences, we will go through the past 80 years or so of international development cooperation up to the current situation under which many agendas are in fusion. This process will help us understand why they are now on the list of international development cooperation organisations and how they relate to each other. At the end of the second part, which would also serve as a bridge between the second part and the third part, we will marshal the meanings of ‘governance’ and its relationships with other agendas. It will become clear that several important agendas converge at the concept of ‘governance’. The third part will look at the practice of ‘doing international development’ which has affected the governance of developing countries. By referring to case studies, students will be able to visualise many aspects of international development cooperation in action. In so doing, they will analyse from the cases the interactions between state and society in recipient countries and influences of donors on those interactions. All this will lead students to understand limitations of the conventional governance model on which current development aid is based. In search of a new way of looking at governance, therefore, we will also deal with cases which do not fit well with the model. Based on the insights thus obtained through various case studies, students will have a better understanding of the ways in which ‘development’ of recipient countries is governed, which will be the final topic to consider.

The course will be taught using a mixture of lectures and seminars. In a session, the lecturer will first give students a brief overview of the past sessions to contextualise the topics for the day. Then selected students will do presentations on assigned readings and lead discussions on particular topics, using prepared notes and other presentational aids. The lecturer will sum up the discussion and give students an introduction to the topics to be studied in the next session with handouts which clarify the arguments developed in the assigned readings when necessary. Students are welcome to access the lecturer if they have questions or need supervision in writing an academic essay.

The overall assessment mark for the course will be based on students’ performance in the following three main categories: general attitude in sessions; presentation on assigned readings; an academic essay of 3,500 words in English. The percentages allocated to each category will be announced in the first class. Students should feel free to select any topic for their essay as long as they tackle issues relevant to BOTH ‘governance’ AND ‘development’. Writing an academic essay will provide students with the opportunity to focus on a particular aspect of these two areas of investigation, whilst drawing on a range of literature and approaches studied throughout the course. Please note that the length of the essay is subject to change depending on the frequency of seminar presentations allocated to each student.

English is the mode of communication in the course. Therefore students wishing to take the course must have a good command of the language. To make the most of the training offered through the course, students are expected to read all the assigned reading materials before the designated classes.