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‘The great empires’ considers the role of globalization and de-industrialization in the destruction of manufacturing industries in the Ottoman, Chinese, Indian, and Russian empires. Three factors drove economic success and failure between Waterloo and the Second World War — technology, globalization, and state policy. These are illustrated using the history of cotton textile production in India and Britain. The impact of Britain's cotton manufacturing resulted in India shifting from being a major exporter to a major importer and a destroyed spinning industry. This story was repeated through the 19th century Third World. Biased technical change with globalization promoted the industrialization of Western countries while de-industrializing the ancient manufacturing economies of Asia. ...Less

African poverty is not new. Sub-Saharan Africa was the poorest region of the world in 1500, and it remains so despite the increase in income per head that has occurred. ‘Africa’ aims to identify the structures and the contingent events that have kept Africa poor for so long. To understand why Africa is poor today, we must understand why it was poor in 1500. The answer turns on geography, demography, and the origin of agriculture. The social and economic structure of 1500 then determined how the continent responded to globalization and imperialism, and those responses have kept it poor since. ...Less

‘Why are some countries rich and others poor?’ considers various theories of economic growth, including Robert Solow’s widely used 1956 model, and charts the uneven development of countries around the world from the late nineteenth century, through the twentieth century, and into the twenty-first century. Some countries, such as Japan and South Korea, have seen miraculous economic growth, whereas countries such as Argentina and Uruguay have not experienced expected levels of growth. The factors that affect development trajectories include natural resource endowments, geography, history, institutions, politics, and power. While overall levels of poverty have declined, levels of inequality are rising in almost all countries. ...Less

‘The burden of governance’ reflects on the nature of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO has lurched from one crisis to another, and reform is needed for it to remain legitimate. A consultative board has been proposed to aid WTO members in reaching a consensus on controversial issues, but smaller countries fear further marginalization. Debate also exists about the WTO's mandate — should it cut back to aid small nations or expand to address humanitarian aims? The democratic nature of the WTO is also under review, with calls for more accountability to the world's populations being tempered against the desire of NGOs to be more involved in the institution. ...Less

‘Who needs an international trade organization?’ explores why international trade organizations came into being. Economic theory suggests that trade liberalization is mutually beneficial, but in real life countries are not keen to lower trade barriers. If one country raises trade barriers, then others will retaliate and all will suffer. The rationale behind international trade organizations is to bind countries to reciprocal trade liberalization, making international trade fairer and more reliable. Two international trade organizations were proposed after World War II: the International Trade Organization was never actually formed, but the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade lasted for forty-seven years, before being replaced by the World Trade Organization. ...Less

‘The expanding mandate’ examines how the World Trade Organization (WTO) has gone beyond the scope of the system it replaced. The GATT 1994 agreement built on the existing GATT 1947 agreement. It forced countries to adhere to more rigorous disciplines on tariffs, including agriculture and textiles, and introduced stricter rules on non-tariff barriers. As the economies of the developed world shifted from production to services, the WTO introduced the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The WTO also required countries to change national legislation on trade-related intellectual properties (TRIPs). Generally this expanded mandate has hampered developing countries, but some have adapted to the changes. ...Less

‘How does development happen?’ looks at how our understanding of how development happens has evolved. It first considers the evolution of post-war development theory that was strongly influenced by classical writings on political economy. It then outlines Modernization Theory of the 1950s and 1960s, followed by planning for economic development and Dependency Theory. By the late 1970s and early 1980s a range of factors led to the pendulum swinging sharply to the right, away from a statist approach to development, with neo-classical market-led development. In the 1990s, the growing recognition that markets alone cannot deliver development engendered a rich debate on the role of the state and market. ...Less