SOCIAL SCIENCE 1430/39 9.0

INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

Fall 2010

Due Date:              October 19, 2010 (in lecture)

Weight:               10%

Length:               1,000-1,250 words (4-5 typewritten double-spaced pages; Font: Times New Roman 12). Word count must be included in title page.

TOPIC

Early this year a powerful earthquake hit Haiti--the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere--killing tens of thousands of people and destroying most of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital city. The tragedy led to a heated public debate about the connection between the impact of natural disasters and poverty and about the causes of underdevelopment.

Most experts agreed on one point: much of the destruction of lives and property could have been prevented since Haiti’s underdevelopment (a manmade condition) had made Haitians more vulnerable to the effects of the earthquake. However, serious disagreements emerged when they offered explanations of why Haiti was so chronically poor and underdeveloped, as the following two quotes illustrate.

“This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services….it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? As Lawrence E. Harrison explained…Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10. We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.” (David Brooks, New York Times, January 14, 2010)

“Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest and most calamitous disaster to befall Haiti is best understood as another thoroughly manmade outcome of a long and ugly historical sequence…. [It is] the result of a…longer-term history of deliberate impoverishment and disempowerment. Haiti is routinely described as the “poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.” This poverty is the direct legacy of perhaps the most brutal system of colonial exploitation in world history, compounded by decades of systematic postcolonial oppression. It is this poverty and powerlessness that account for the full scale of the horror in Port-au-Prince today. Since the late 1970s...hundreds of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents now live in desperately sub-standard informal housing, often perched precariously on the side of deforested ravines. The selection of the people living in such places and conditions is itself no more "natural" or accidental than the extent of the injuries they have suffered. The noble "international community" which is currently scrambling to send its "humanitarian aid" to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it now aims to reduce.” (Peter Hallward, Guardian, January 13, 2010).

QUESTION:

Use your knowledge of the modernization and dependency perspectives to compare and contrast the views expressed in the above two quotes in order to explain whose ideas (Brooks or Hallward?) offer a better explanation of underdevelopment.

INSTRUCTIONS:

• The essay must be organized around a clear argument (expressed in a thesis statement) addressing the essay question.

• The essays must assess the general explanations of underdevelopment offered by Brooks and Hallward, drawing on the student’s knowledge of the modernization and dependency perspectives introduced in class. Students are not expected to discuss the specific situation in Haiti and therefore, no additional research on Haiti is required to answer this question.

• In assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each explanation, students are expected to outline the main propositions and assumptions of the modernization and dependency each perspective, as discussed by Galeano, Harrison, and Lipset. Thus, the essay must be informed by relevant course readings, lectures, and tutorial discussions. Students must provide examples from these readings to illustrate their ideas or those of the authors under discussion. The use of direct quotes, however, must be kept to a minimum.

• The essay must be clearly organized and should contain an introduction, a thesis statement (in bold), a main body, and a concluding paragraph. Each paragraph must be clearly structured around a topic sentence (in bold). Failure to bold the thesis statement and topic sentences may result in loss of 5 points.

• The essay must use proper academic references and include a bibliography of all course sources cited in the assignment. Failure to include references/bibliography may result in loss of 5 points. 

• Students must complete the online "Academic Integrity Quiz" and submit with their assignment a printed copy of the results page indicating that they completed the quiz with 100%. Essays without the results page will not be graded. For information about the quiz go to http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrity/

PENALTIES FOR LATE ASSIGNMENTS:

Assignments submitted late will receive a penalty deduction of 2 points per day. No essays will be accepted after one week (no exceptions). Late assignments can be left at the assignment drop off box located in the Department of Social Science (South Ross 7th floor). Late essays will not necessarily be returned on the same day as essays submitted by the due date. Assignments are due in lecture and must be given to the TA in person. Assignments submitted after the conclusion of the lecture (10:20 am) on the due date will automatically receive a penalty deduction of two points, even if submitted on the same day. Students who submit late assignments must notify their Teaching Assistant when and where they submitted their assignment and must attach an electronic version of their paper with the notification message. Students facing problems submitting their assignments on time must contact their TAs, not the course director. Faxed, emailed, or essays left under the office door or in the professor’s office will not be accepted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?_r=1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/our-role-in-haitis-plight