Conference on Difference and Inequality in Developing Societies: Trajectories of Change and Social Consequences

Conference on Difference and Inequality in Developing Societies: Trajectories of Change and Social Consequences
APSA Task Force on Difference and Inequality in the Developing World

At a conference on "Difference and Inequality in Developing Societies: Trajectories of Change and Social Consequences" held at the University of Virginia from April 21-23, members of the APSA Task Force on Difference and Inequality in the Developing World highlighted how the emergence of new forms of inequality and the exacerbation of existing inequalities have diminished the capacity of people to achieve economic, social, and psychological security and to exercise their democratic rights.

The conference opened with a special public forum on "Inequality and Difference in Developing Societies: How do Recent Trends Affect Americans" on Thursday April 21, and addressed the following themes:

Difference and Inequality: The Construction and Deconstruction of Analytical Frames
Inequalities and Differences in the Development of International Governance
Trajectories of Inequality, Development and Violent Conflict
Growth and Inequality in the World's Most Rapidly Expanding Economies
Who's Rights? Defining Political Rights in an Era of Globalization
Promoting Democracy and Social Welfare
America's Interest in Equality and Difference in an Interdependent World

Changes in the Global Economy

Important changes taking place in the global economy exacerbate economic inequalities and promote new forms of inequality. Robert H. Wade documented that contrary to the expectations of proponents of globalization, economic growth has dramatically declined in developing countries during the era of globalization. Median per capita GDP growth rates dropped from 2.4% from 1965--1979 to 0% from 1980--1998. During the same period, inter-country disparities, excluding the exceptional case of China, have steadily increased. Leslie Elliott Armijo and John Echeverri-Gent pointed out that fi nancial liberalization had increased economic instability by increasing the frequency of economic crises in developing countries. They argued that the development of international markets for fi nancial transactions and services shifts risks from investors in developed countries to individuals and institutions in developing countries.

New forms of Inequalities

New forms of inequalities are emerging within developing countries, though their causes differ across regions. Evelyne Huber's analysis of Latin America highlights how curtailment of public sector employment and the expansion of the informal sector have made Latin America one of the most unequal regions of the world. Analyses of China and India by Marc Blecher and Aseema Sinha, respectively, show how reforms in these immense, rapidly growing countries have enhanced spatial inequalities because growth has been concentrated in dynamic, richer regions while other -- usually rural hinterland -- poorer regions are left behind. Simultaneously, economic disparities within cities have become worse. Kiren Chaudhry demonstrates how integration to the global economy, both by creating boom and bust cycles and through international migration, has not only increased levels of inequality and absolute poverty in the Middle East and North Africa, but also has dramatically aggravated economic insecurity.

Economic insecurity has been joined by political insecurity in the developing world, with the latter reflecting the cumulative stresses of unequal economic change, the declining capacity of states to provide public goods, and the costs of internal wars. Susan Woodward reports that violent conflict is increasingly a result of intrastate rather than interstate war. More and more it is concentrated in poor countries where it contributes to a vicious cycle of impoverishment that increases the divide between rich and poor countries. Peace-making after internal wars was the concern of Valerie Bunce and Bronwyn Leebaw, both of whom highlighted limitations on the ability of international interventions to promote democracy and transitional justice.

Susanne Rudolph and Kiren Chaudhry point out that in addition to economic change, other forces deprive marginalized populations of meaningful social and psychological location. Among these forces are the massive voluntary and forced transnational migration that is part of theglobalization of labor; the accompanying loss of civic membership and citizen rights for millions of uprooted migrants or minorities targeted in ethnic conflict and civil war; and the threat to meaningful group identity --religious, cultural-linguistic, gender -- that flows from ethnic conflict. John Harbeson's study of democratization in Africa points toward a widely shared conclusion: the liberal presumption that economic and political needs are the same for everyone ignores those peoples whose circumstances deny that presumed reality. More generally, the conference participants called for careful reconsideration of the conventional connections between politics and social disparities. Their work highlights the importance of examining new forms of inequality and insecurity and the subjective processes that construct their meaning and ultimately shape political outcomes.