Comparative Politics: Global South — Transcript

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1. 0:01hello welcome to the learning playlist a
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4. 0:09mr ryan dave reilla
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14. 0:28now
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16. 0:32[Music]
17. 0:47hello and welcome to another lecture on
18. 0:50comparative politics
19. 0:52today we're going to talk about the
20. 0:53global south
21. 0:56now to begin this presentation
22. 0:58i would like to highlight three
23. 1:01talking points that we're going to cover
24. 1:03for this morning
25. 1:05first let's talk about what is the
26. 1:07global south and what are its
27. 1:09implications
28. 1:10then let us proceed
29. 1:12towards um talking about comparative
30. 1:15politics and why and what do we compare
31. 1:18in this subject
32. 1:20also
33. 1:21we are going to talk about your first
34. 1:22workshop for the
35. 1:24semester okay so what is the global
36. 1:27south
37. 1:28well in short the global south is often
38. 1:32associated with underdevelopment and as
39. 1:35such underdevelopment has
40. 1:38has many
41. 1:39has many implications as to
42. 1:42how we use this concept primarily the
43. 1:45global south may refer to parts of asia
44. 1:48latin america africa and the middle east
45. 1:51that were former colonies and have now
46. 1:53been labeled as developing countries
47. 1:56and as developing countries the global
48. 1:58south often has many undertones
49. 2:02not only associated but
50. 2:05often used synonymously with it for
51. 2:06example the the old concept of the third
52. 2:10world which stems from
53. 2:12um alfred sovie's 1952 essay no wherein
54. 2:16he
55. 2:17wherein he outlined that the world is
56. 2:18actually divided into three worlds now
57. 2:21the first world the democratic and
58. 2:24largely capitalistic
59. 2:26uh western countries of europe and then
60. 2:29the united states
61. 2:30and then there's also the second world
62. 2:32the communist states uh primarily the
63. 2:35ussr and its satellites satellites and
64. 2:39allies
65. 2:40and then you have the third world which
66. 2:42are
67. 2:43newly independent country at least from
68. 2:44the time of alfred sovie
69. 2:46that were largely unaligned to either
70. 2:49first or second world
71. 2:51in any case
72. 2:53the global south has been a concept that
73. 2:56has many meanings and primarily
74. 2:58contested but we can often
75. 3:01associate it primarily with
76. 3:03underdevelopment and it is
77. 3:05often also contrasted with europe so
78. 3:09when we look at the global south when we
79. 3:11think about its many con its many
80. 3:13connotations
81. 3:15largely it is um it is used
82. 3:20as a as a concept to
83. 3:23to highlight persisting differences
84. 3:25between the western states and
85. 3:27non-western states not european states
86. 3:30and non-european states primarily
87. 3:33well of course with exception of the
88. 3:35united states
89. 3:37now when we look at when we look at
90. 3:39the origins of the term global south we
91. 3:42often associate it with
92. 3:44with colonialism and imperialism and
93. 3:48it's a concept primarily used today to
94. 3:50denote geopolitical relationships
95. 3:53however it is a concept that has its
96. 3:55origin stemming from the geopolitics of
97. 3:58the old colonial empires of europe
98. 4:02okay
99. 4:03so when we talk about the global south i
100. 4:05highly recommend that you read
101. 4:07why nations fail which is
102. 4:10a book by dharan asimoglu and james a
103. 4:13robinson now in this book professor
104. 4:16james a robinson and um davon asimoglu
105. 4:20professor asimoglu
106. 4:22actually talk about
107. 4:24the many the many factors
108. 4:26as to
109. 4:27why a country is successful and why some
110. 4:30countries have devolved into failed
111. 4:33states
112. 4:34now to um to introduce you to the bulk
113. 4:38or rather to the core of their thesis i
114. 4:40highly recommend that you click on the
115. 4:42link provided here
116. 4:44okay so this will lead you to a ted talk
117. 4:46from 2014 uh held in athens
118. 4:49and
119. 4:51one of the authors professor robinson
120. 4:53actually summarizes it in about 10 to 14
121. 4:56minutes
122. 4:57he actually summarizes the book so i
123. 5:00want you to check out the arguments of
124. 5:01professor robinson as this is also
125. 5:03crucial to
126. 5:05to our discussions in the coming in the
127. 5:08coming lectures
128. 5:10okay
129. 5:12now why and what do we compare now we
130. 5:15understand where the the concept of of
131. 5:18the global south is coming from and of
132. 5:20course i presume that by this time
133. 5:22already you have also
134. 5:25watched now you have also watched
135. 5:27the documentary or rather not the
136. 5:29documentary but the ted talk of
137. 5:31professor robinson on why nations fail
138. 5:34now as comparative is as those who
139. 5:37engage in comparative politics are known
140. 5:39as comparative is
141. 5:42why do we look for comparisons and most
142. 5:44importantly
143. 5:45what do we look for what do we compare
144. 5:47in the first place
145. 5:49well
146. 5:51when we use the comparative method which
147. 5:54is the prime method that we that we are
148. 5:56utilizing in this course
149. 5:58we look at comparisons
150. 6:01in terms of the processes the processes
151. 6:04and the outputs
152. 6:06of political systems now by no means is
153. 6:09this something new rather this is um
154. 6:12this has been
155. 6:13a part of the
156. 6:15of the arsenal of many philosophers who
157. 6:18came before the formal the formal um the
158. 6:21formal establishment of political
159. 6:23science as an academic discipline in the
160. 6:25late 1800s
161. 6:26so in this regard
162. 6:29um this has ancient underpinnings and
163. 6:31many have already compared political
164. 6:34systems especially on how these
165. 6:36political systems operate
166. 6:38how they create laws for example how
167. 6:42they deal with many aspects of politics
168. 6:45on that is usually happening within the
169. 6:48main arena of politics which is
170. 6:50the state
171. 6:52so they compare many parts of the state
172. 6:55and or not simply many parts of the
173. 6:57state but many
174. 6:59but men
175. 7:00they compare many aspects of the state
176. 7:03that talks about or rather that that
177. 7:05highlights um the processes of of
178. 7:08politics no so when we look at or when
179. 7:11we when we use the comparative methods
180. 7:13as comparative is in political science
181. 7:17we tend to compare the different
182. 7:19processes and outputs okay
183. 7:22so
184. 7:24there's an excellent quote here from
185. 7:26alexis de tocqueville he is also a
186. 7:29prolific writer and as well as someone
187. 7:31who is considered as
188. 7:33um a great forebearer of of those who
189. 7:36study in politics no so alexis dick
190. 7:39takabel actually made a comment in one
191. 7:42of his books i believe he made this in
192. 7:45in um in one of his famous works
193. 7:48on on democracy you know when he was
194. 7:50observing america in its infancy the
195. 7:53united states that is
196. 7:55alexis de tocqueville mentions that
197. 7:58without comparisons to make the mind
198. 8:00does not know how to proceed and this is
199. 8:02very telling of why we compare in the
200. 8:05first place
201. 8:06we compare
202. 8:07simply because we need to draw compar we
203. 8:10need to to draw parallels
204. 8:12and to understand that these parallels
205. 8:15also give us insights as to
206. 8:19how political systems work and mind you
207. 8:22many political systems or rather all
208. 8:24political systems do not work alone
209. 8:27they are also affected by other
210. 8:29political systems
211. 8:31as as highlighted by
212. 8:34by thinkers such as
213. 8:39almond gabriel
214. 8:41and then by many other things thinkers
215. 8:43as well as dalton etc those who have
216. 8:46delved into the field of comparative
217. 8:49politics that is
218. 8:51the idea of comparison is simply that we
219. 8:54need to draw parallels we need to
220. 8:56understand that states do not stand
221. 8:58alone and that states are not monolithic
222. 9:01but they are
223. 9:03very complex
224. 9:05very complex entities
225. 9:07that have
226. 9:08that have very
227. 9:10that have various functions
228. 9:12that uh
229. 9:14that actually provides it with
230. 9:16with um with life per se
231. 9:19you can think of states as
232. 9:23a being with anatomy no with anatomy
233. 9:26this something that has
234. 9:28parts
235. 9:29can we dissect states we can look at it
236. 9:31piecemeal
237. 9:33so we can we can use that so comparisons
238. 9:37help us
239. 9:38understand how states operate and what
240. 9:40is going on inside states
241. 9:42so the study of comparative politics is
242. 9:45basically the study of politics in
243. 9:47foreign countries
244. 9:49forgive me for the error in
245. 9:51in the powerpoint so the study of
246. 9:53politics in foreign countries and
247. 9:55primarily we look at domestic or
248. 9:57internal politics in contrast to
249. 10:00international relations that is
250. 10:02concerned with external politics or the
251. 10:05politics among states
252. 10:07we are looking at the politics within
253. 10:10states primarily
254. 10:12so the benefit of all of this
255. 10:15the benefit of this method of comparison
256. 10:17is that we understand politics within a
257. 10:20political system but of course we are
258. 10:23helped with the tools and concepts of
259. 10:25this subfield of political science which
260. 10:29we will be introducing along the way as
261. 10:31we go through the semester
262. 10:35okay
263. 10:37so for the workshop of this class
264. 10:40the workshop is
265. 10:42actually available now on your
266. 10:44brightspace lms and it will be available
267. 10:47until the 10th of september
268. 10:49and the template is actually embedded in
269. 10:51the lms already so you can call this
270. 10:54slash workshop slash
271. 10:57quiz for example
272. 10:59now the general topic is on the global
273. 11:01south and of course i need you to watch
274. 11:04why nations fail
275. 11:06okay so there are links as well to the
276. 11:07resources that you can use to complete
277. 11:10the workshop and i
278. 11:13i've already given you the resources so
279. 11:15kindly please browse through them read
280. 11:18the material absorb the material
281. 11:20internalize it and then i i would expect
282. 11:24that you would submit your workshop
283. 11:26promptly before the deadline on
284. 11:28september 10th
285. 11:30okay
286. 11:32so with that i leave you with food with
287. 11:34food for thought with something to for
288. 11:36your mind to work on
289. 11:38as as a as a parting message and this
290. 11:41one is from lee kuan yew the fabled
291. 11:44father of singapore
292. 11:46a nation is great not only
293. 11:50a nation is great not by its size alone
294. 11:54it is the will the cohesion the stamina
295. 11:57the discipline of its people and the
296. 11:59quality of their leaders which ensure it
297. 12:02an honorable place in history
298. 12:04and with that thank you and i'll see you
299. 12:06next time
300. 12:10you