Prof Elliott Green

This course is available on the MSc in Anthropology and Development, MSc in Development Management (Applied Development Economics), MSc in Development Management (Applied Development Economics) (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy) (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Economic Policy for International Development, MSc in Health and International Development, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

How to apply: Places will be allocated with priority to ID and joint-degree students. If there are more ID and joint-degree students than can be accommodated, these places will be allocated randomly. Non-ID/Joint Degree students will be allocated to spare places by random selection with the preference given first to those degrees where the regulations permit this option.

Deadline for application: You should make your request to take ID courses by 12 noon Friday 25 September 2026.

You will be informed of the outcome by 12 noon Monday 28 September 2026.

Students do not need to write a statement to apply for this course.

This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is also available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. 

Students will be allocated places to courses with priority to Development Management students first (who will be taking this course as a semi-core option), and then ID and joint-degree students. If there are more ID and joint-degree students than the course can accommodate, these spots will be allocated randomly.

One could argue that the ‘holy grail’ in the study of political economy is the relationship between democracy and development. Does economic development lead to democracy? Are democracies better at promoting development than non-democracies? This course examines this topic in a broad perspective, in both historical and contemporary contexts, and in theoretical and empirical debates. 

The course is roughly divided into two, with the first half tackling theories of democracy and development while the second examines related topics. In the first half we will examine historical theories explaining why development can promote democratization from authors such as Seymour Lipset and Barrington Moore, before focussing on contemporary debates from Acemoglu/Robinson, Przeworski and Rodrik. We then focus on the effect of democratization on both economic development and public goods provision, before examining the topic of inequality, redistribution and democracy with attention to Thomas Piketty’s recent work.  

The second half of the course starts by examining countries which have developed without becoming democracies, with a focus on examples from East Asia (especially China) and the Middle East (the Gulf states).  We then discuss the indirect effects of development on democracy via changes in religion, ethnicity and nationalism, with attention to how development can promote secularism, ethnic homogenization and national identity formation. Next we discuss constitutions and various forms of institutional design, including presidential and parliamentary systems and unicameral vs bicameral legislatures, among other topics.  The penultimate lecture is on the case study of India, the world’s most populous democracy. Finally, we conclude by speculating on the future of development and democracy in the developing world. 

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Essay (1500 words).

All students will create a class presentation, along with one partner, which will be marked along criteria set out at the beginning of the course and count for 15% of the final mark.

Green, Elliott. 2022. Industrialization and Assimilation: Explaining Ethnic Change in the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Guriev, Sergei and Daniel Treisman. 2022. Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Haggard, Stephan, and Robert Kaufman. 2021. Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Min, Brian. 2015. Power and the Vote: Elections and Electricity in the Developing World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Paglayan, Agustina. 2024. Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Przeworski, Adam. 2019. Crises of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Tang, Shiping. 2022. The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Tudor, Maya. 2013. The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Wimmer, Andreas. 2018. Nation-Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Presentation (15%, 1500 words).

Essay (85%, 4000 words).

Students will revise their formative essay according to the comments they receive and resubmit it as a 4000-word essay in Spring Term, which will constitute 85% of their final mark for the course.