Politics in the Developing World

by Peter Burnell (Editor), Vicky Randall (Editor), Lise Rakner (Editor)

An impressive line-up of international contributors provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to politics in the developing world. The first four parts explore the theoretical approaches, the changing nature and role of the state, and the major policy issues that confront all developing countries. The final parts set out a diverse range of country case studies, representing all the main geographical regions. These country case studies illustrate the themes introduced in the thematic chapters and highlight the developing world as a place of diversity and rapid transformations. Readers are provided with the tools to appreciate the perspectives of developing countries.

The fifth edition has been thoroughly updated to address topical issues and themes, including refugee movements; the rise of the so-called Islamic State; organised crime; gender; the role of new forms of communication in political mobilization; and the replacement of Millennium Development Goals by Sustainable Development Goals. Two new country case studies have been Syria and the Sudan.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 2005

About the author

Peter Burnell is a Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick. He was educated at the University of Bristol and University of Warwick. His long established research interests are in democratization, the political economy of foreign aid, and politics and policy in Zambia, in total comprising eleven books including three single-authored monographs, over thirty articles in refereed journals and many chapters in edited collections. He is a founding editor of the international journal Democratization. A present research focus is a critical examination of how standard conceptions of democracy are being diffused globally through networks of democracy promotion actors based mainly in the West. Another examines the political drivers of international assistance to developing regions against a backdrop of competing, sometimes contradictory policy objectives and theories of economic, social and political change.

Reviews

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

i mean, issa textbook. but it wasn't painful to read and not super problematic or anything.

[Inside a Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good text, informative and thought provoking. The layout is very neat which will be a blessing for students who dread messy-longwinded textbooks. Happy to recommend.

[marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic textbook. read cover to cover

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the text assigned for an upper division poli sci class about developing countries. Not that I normally give rave reviews for required textbooks, but I felt like this one was comparatively below average. Individually the chapters were informative about their respective topic, but all together it was a big confusing mess. the problem was that each chap was written by different contributors, simply thrown together, and ta-da! instant book! so there were contradictions, redundancy, explanations of a certain concept with totally different explanations from a different author (specifically I'm talking about the cluster-fuck they made of globalization). And then some of it was just overly loquacious. I think my gripes can all be summed up to bad organization.
That's what I noticed. But it wasn't so bad in actual practice since the Prof jumped around to only the things she thought were relevent and the book served more as a supplement to her lectures.

[Pernille · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read the fifth edition on this books, so it might be quite different than the older ones. However I quite enjoy this reading, even though it was a part of my syllabus. Easy to understand, but though enough to leave me new knowledge.