Deck 9: Economic Development and Underdevelopment

Question 1

Sanderson and Alderson claims that Rostow's evolutionary interpretation of the causes of development and underdevelopment:

A) is more a description than an explanation
B) is one of our best theories
C) has been insufficiently appreciated by social scientists
D) will likely be the basis for even more powerful theories

Answer 1

is more a description than an explanation

Question 2

According to Sanderson and Alderson, economic dependency may produce underdevelopment through:

A) repatriation of profits
B) complicity between the elites of the developed and the underdeveloped countries
C) market conditions especially unfavorable to the underdeveloped countries
D) all of these

Answer 2

all of these

Question 3

Sanderson and Alderson argue that an important factor contributing to Japan being the first non-Western society to achieve the status of an industrial society was its:

A) religious values resembling Protestantism
B) large size and low level of population density
C) historical isolation from the capitalist world-economy for approximately two and a half centuries

Answer 3

historical isolation from the capitalist world-economy for approximately two and a half centuries

Question 4

According to Sanderson and Alderson, modernization theory's concept of "traditional society" is:

A) of questionable validity because it lumps highly diverse societies together
B) useful because it allows us to see just how such a society differs from a modern one
C) useful because it allows productive research into the problem of underdevelopment to begin
D) too new to be reliably assessed

Question 5

According to the modernization theorists, underdevelopment results from:

A) a society's internal deficiencies, such as outmoded methods of business organization or backward-looking attitudes
B) economic exploitation by more developed countries
C) repressive political regimes
D) geographical factors

Question 6

Underdeveloped countries are those that:

A) have backward-looking social values and attitudes
B) have low levels of income inequality
C) have the lowest levels of economic and technological development in the contemporary world
D) are currently evolving in the direction of the old state socialist societies

Question 7

Population in the underdeveloped countries:

A) is growing at a rate about four times that in the developed countries
B) has, in recent years, begun to grow at a rate similar to that found in the developed countries
C) is growing at a rate only slightly faster than that found in the developed world
D) is, contrary to popular belief, not really growing at all

Question 8

Sanderson and Alderson suggests that the diverse theories that make up the modernization approach to underdevelopment are guided by two general assumptions. These are:

A) that underdevelopment is an original state, and that it results from a society's internal flaws and deficiencies
B) that underdevelopment is an original state, and that it occurs primarily in countries that are poorly endowed with natural resources
C) that underdevelopment is an undesirable situation, and that it results from a society's internal flaws and deficiencies

Question 9

Perhaps the best single indicator of a society's level of economic development is its:

A) per capita Gross Domestic Product
B) level of educational development
C) type of government
D) religious system
E) family patterns

Question 10

Sanderson and Alderson use the word undevelopment to refer to societies:

A) outside the context of a capitalist world-economy
B) surviving by agrarian or pastoral methods
C) that are even worse off economically than the underdeveloped countries
D) that are trying to develop to the level of the world's most technologically advanced nations

Question 11

Compared to the developed nations, the underdeveloped countries have:

A) significantly greater social and economic inequality
B) less social inequality since most people have few material resources
C) greater social inequality but less economic inequality
D) approximately the same level of social and economic inequality

Question 12

Compared to the developed nations, the underdeveloped countries have:

A) slightly higher child mortality rates
B) markedly higher child mortality rates
C) child mortality rates that are approximately the same
D) child mortality rates that are impossible to measure

Question 13

Samir Amin argues that foreign economic domination creates and perpetuates underdevelopment because it:

A) leads to economic disarticulation
B) leads to economic articulation
C) helps to maintain backward-looking values and ideals
D) fails to produce modern methods of business organization

Question 14

Modernization theorists frequently identify which of the following as causes of underdevelopment?

A) the inability of underdeveloped countries to generate enough capital to reach a "takeoff" point
B) the importation of culturally inappropriate business techniques from the developed nations
C) the excessively future-oriented value systems that predominate in the underdeveloped countries
D) all of these

Question 15

In general, the modernization theorists have seen the solutions to problems of underdevelopment to lie in:

A) the withdrawal of the underdeveloped countries from the capitalist world- economy
B) the development of socialism
C) greater fiscal austerity on the part of Third World governments
D) greater contact between the underdeveloped countries and the developed world, especially in the form of greater capital investment and more diffusion of technology

Question 16

Sanderson and Alderson discuss three historic forms of dependency since the beginnings of capitalism. These are:

A) economic, political, and social
B) colonial, financial-industrial, and new
C) colonial, neocolonial, and postcolonial
D) financial-industrial, multinational, and global

Question 17

According to Samir Amin:

A) disarticulated economies are those whose sectors do not closely interrelate
B) development in any one sector of a disarticulated economy will stimulate the development of other sectors
C) the sectors that are most developed in a disarticulated economy are the manufacturing and service sectors
D) all of these

Question 18

Andre Gunder Frank's classic concept of the "development of underdevelopment" suggests that:

A) development and underdevelopment are related as two sides of the same coin
B) the development of the advanced industrial countries has been greatly facilitated by the exploitation of the rest of the world
C) Wallerstein's concepts of core and periphery are essential for understanding the problem of underdevelopment
D) all of these

Question 19

Dependency theory roots the causes of underdevelopment in:

A) the dogmatism and antidemocratic attitudes of Third World political leaders
B) unfavorable geographical conditions
C) the flirtation of Third World countries with socialism
D) foreign economic domination of Third World countries by the advanced captalist societies of Europe and North America

Question 20

The underdeveloped countries have been historically specialized in terms of:

A) silk, bananas, and diamonds
B) the production of raw agricultural and mineral products
C) gold, silver, and aluminum
D) microchips and electronics

Question 21

In colonial times, Brazil's major product was:

A) rubber
B) tobacco
C) gold
D) sugar

Question 22

Latin American countries have been characterized by the type of state that Guillermo O'Donnell has called:

A) restricted democratic
B) bureaucratic-authoritarian
C) formally democratic
D) autocratic

Question 23

Hard dependency theory has been criticized on the grounds that it:

A) concentrates too little attention on the external relations between an underdeveloped country and developed countries
B) concentrates too much attention on the precapitalist histories of contemporary underdeveloped nations
C) seems too rigid in holding that dependency always renders development impossible
D) has never put forth any social policy recommendations

Question 24

Sanderson and Alderson claim that the economic development experienced by Taiwan and South Korea in recent decades:

A) suggests that there is a fundamental flaw in radical theories of underdevelopment
B) can be explained in terms of soft dependency theory or world-system theory
C) can be explained only by modernization theory

Question 25

African countries were fully incorporated into the world-economy beginning:

A) in the late nineteenth century
B) in the late eighteenth century
C) just before World War II
D) in the seventeenth century

Question 26

The experience of contemporary Brazil with what the soft dependency theorists have called "dependent development" indicates that:

A) a certain amount of economic development can occur even in the presence of economic dependency
B) dependent development actually benefits no one
C) the possibilities of dependent development may be limitless
D) none of these

Question 27

The ISI strategy tends to be limited in which of the following ways?

A) there is only so much consumer demand for domestic products
B) it has a limited ability to create jobs
C) it maintains a dependence on imported capital goods
D) all of these

Question 28

The development strategy known as "import substitution industrialization" ISI) involves:

A) limiting the importation of foreign goods and concentrating on development for the domestic market
B) rejecting some foreign imports and substituting other imports for them
C) producing consumer goods for sale in the world market

Question 29

Of the strategies that Wallerstein has proposed for the ascent of a nation in the capitalist world-economy, is seen as a possibility during periods of contraction, whereas is a possibility during periods of economic expansion:

A) self-reliance; seizing the chance
B) seizing the chance; development by invitation
C) self-reliance; development by invitation
D) development by invitation; seizing the chance

Question 30

Which of the following have been important factors in the rapid economic development of the East Asian NICs since the 1950s?

A) American geopolitical concerns
B) the legacy of Japanese colonialism
C) land reforms
D) all of these

Question 31

The "new dependency" that Dos Santos speaks of involves the:

A) colonization of precapitalist regions by the most advanced Western countries
B) heavy investment of big capitalists in the world's most backward regions for the purpose of extracting raw materials
C) extensive transnational investment in underdeveloped nations
D) increasing indebtedness of the underdeveloped nations to core banks and other Western financial institutions

Question 32

Latin American countries had gained their political independence by:

A) 1900
B) 1830
C) 1780
D) 1940

Question 33

In Latin America, ISI was the major development strategy in the period between , whereas EOI was the major strategy in the period between :

A) 1880-1910; 1930-1960
B) 1930-1960; 1880-1910
C) 1960s-1980s; 1930-1960
D) 1930-1960; 1960s-1980s

Question 34

The region of the world that is currently experiencing the greatest amount of economic development and expansion is:

A) Latin America
B) Asia
C) Eastern Europe
D) Africa

Question 35

The development strategy known as "export-oriented industrialization" EOI) involves:

A) a country producing for the world market rather than its domestic market
B) holding down wages so as to make a country's goods cheaper and thus more competitive on the world market
C) both of these
D) neither of these

Question 36

Sanderson and Alderson claim that the economic development experienced by Taiwan and South Korea in recent decades:

A) suggests that there is a fundamental flaw in radical theories of underdevelopment
B) is consistent with weak dependency theory or world-system theory
C) can be explained only by modernization theory
D) is radically inconsistent with dependency theory

Question 37

Latin America is, compared to Asia and Africa:

A) at a higher stage of economic development
B) at a lower stage of economic development
C) at about the same stage of economic development

Question 38

Between 1960 and 1980, income inequality in Brazil:

A) declined slightly
B) declined markedly
C) stayed about the same
D) increased

Question 39

Brazil is often thought of as a particularly good example of what the soft dependency theorists call:

A) restricted democracy
B) periphery-to-core development
C) periphery-to-semiperiphery development
D) dependent development

Question 40

The 2000 per capita GNPs of Hong Kong and Singapore were approximately:

A) $9,000
B) $20,000-23,000
C) $5,000
D) $2,000

Question 41

Research by James Mahoney shows that those areas of Spanish America that were most heavily and extensively colonized centuries ago are currently:

A) the most developed parts of Spanish America
B) the least developed parts of Spanish America
C) at about the same level of development as those areas that were least heavily colonized centuries ago

Question 42

Sanderson and Alderson are strong advocates of modernization theory.

Question 43

Sanderson and Alderson predict that:

A) the "three Chinas" will eventually unify into a Chinese superstate that will become the world's major economic power within 50 years
B) China's capitalist development will eventually be reversed by the actions of the Communist party
C) China will break apart into about ten sovereign nation-states within the next 50 years

Question 44

According to dependency theory, the first historical stage of economic dependency was:

A) neocolonialism
B) multinationalism
C) colonialism

Question 45

Underdeveloped countries have considerably higher rates of population growth than those of the developed countries.

Question 46

Which of the following has been characteristic of sub-Saharan African societies in recent decades?

A) declining food production
B) declining foreign investment
C) decaying infrastructure
D) civil war and genocide
E) all of these

Question 47

In his recent version of modernization theory, David Landes emphasizes as a critical cause of economic development:

A) innovative ideas, such as personal liberty and private property
B) responsive government
C) knowledge and know-how
D) all of these

Question 48

The problem of underdevelopment first came under intense scrutiny by social scientists in the years following World War II.

Question 49

Which of the following quotes exemplifies the character of modernization theory?

A) "the US is a rich old uncle trying to teach his nephews the secret of success"
B) "a woman is just a woman, but a cigar is a good smoke"
C) "the US is a neocolonialist monster trying to bend the Third World to its will"

Question 50

George Ayittey blames the current problems of sub-Saharan African societies primarily on their internal characteristics. Which of these does he emphasize most strongly?

A) tribal conflicts
B) primitive religious traditions
C) dictatorial "vampire states" whose corrupt leaders enrich themselves at the expense of the mass of the population
D) outmoded technology

Question 51

World-system and dependency theorists blame Africa's low level of economic development on:

A) colonialism and neocolonialism
B) political corruption
C) tribal conflicts
D) none of these

Question 52

Amin argues that disarticulation:periphery::articulation:core.

Question 53

Peripheral and semiperipheral societies are to exhibit democratization and political rights than core societies:

A) much more likely
B) somewhat more likely
C) somewhat less likely
D) much less likely

Question 54

The hard dependency theorists believe that economic dependency makes economic development:

A) difficult but not impossible
B) essentially impossible
C) easier than if no dependency existed

Question 55

Underdeveloped countries generally have low levels of urbanization and a high percentage of the work force employed in agriculture.

Question 56

The soft dependency theorists:

A) have lost their battle against the hard dependency theorists
B) argue that under some conditions substantial economic development can occur even in economically dependent countries
C) have abandoned dependency theory and gone back to modernization theory

Question 57

Most of the economic development occurring in China today is found:

A) along China's southern and eastern coastlines: Shanghai, Guangdong, Hainan Island, and Fujian
B) in Beijing
C) in far western China
D) in the far north, toward Mongolia

Question 58

Compared to other parts of the Third World, Africa:

A) is more economically developed
B) is less economically developed
C) is more politically unified
D) is more culturally unified

Question 59

The relatively low levels of democratization in most Third World societies can be explained in terms of the in many of these societies:

A) important role of landlords
B) relatively small working classes
C) low levels of literacy
D) all of these

Question 60

Africa is currently in a state of , and its future looks :

A) slow economic growth; fairly bright
B) rapid economic growth; very bright
C) near catastrophe; very grim
D) democratization; uncertain

Question 61

In many underdeveloped nations half or more of the population is engaged in agriculture, compared to less than ten percent of the population in the developed nations.

Question 62

Sanderson and Alderson claim that the economic development experienced by Taiwan and South Korea in recent decades is consistent with soft dependency theory or world- system theory, but it is also somewhat consistent with modernization theory.

Question 63

Between 1980 and 1995, China was the fastest growing economy in the world, averaging 10% growth per year.

Question 64

Sanderson and Alderson prefer the "soft" version of dependency theory to the "hard" version, arguing that it is largely free from the criticisms made of the latter.

Question 65

According to Sanderson and Alderson, the legacy of Japanese colonialism in Taiwan and South Korea has had a very negative influence on their trajectories of economic development.

Question 66

Sanderson and Alderson are highly critical of Rostow's version of modernization theory, butthey endorse David Landes's version.

Question 67

According to Sanderson and Alderson, the legacy of Japanese colonialism in Taiwan and South Korea has in some respects had a positive influence on their trajectories of
economic development.

Question 68

Semiperipheral societies tend to have higher levels of democratization than peripheral societies, and both tend to be more democratic than core societies.

Question 69

China has succeeded in attracting an enormous amount of foreign investment since 1980.

Question 70

According to Sanderson and Alderson, dependency and world-system theories do a fairly good job of explaining global patterns of unequal economic development over the past few centuries, but they are less effective in accounting for the development prospects of less-developed countries since the 1960s.

Question 71

According to Glenn Firebaugh, empirical tests of dependency theory actually indicate that the long-term effect of foreign investment in the Third World is to promote rather than inhibit development.

Question 72

In the past two decades there has been a wave of democratization that has swept through many peripheral and semiperipheral societies.

Question 73

Sanderson and Alderson argue that we still lack the unified theory of underdevelopment that we need.

Question 74

Discuss the fundamental social and economic differences between the developed and the underdeveloped countries.

Question 75

An EOI development strategy tends to follow an ISI strategy because of the inherent limitations of ISI.

Question 76

World-system theory posits a growing gap between the developed and the underdeveloped countries as capitalism evolves.

Question 77

Since 1978, China has not been very successful in privatizating its state-owned firms.

Question 78

According to Rostow, all underdeveloped societies are at the stage of development that he terms "traditional society."

Question 79

It has been suggested that "greater China" - Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China - is now able to act as a core economy that is able to draw on the resources of its three parts.

Question 80

In the last two decades China has been following a capitalist path of economic development despite having a Communist party in control of the government.