Matthew Lange

Colonialism and Development: a Comparative Analysis of Spanish and British Colonies

Recent research shows that colonialism reversed levels of development in much of the non‐European world. To explain this reversal, analysts focus on conditions within the colonized areas. By contrast, drawing on evidence from Spanish and British colonialism, the authors show that the economic models of the colonizing nations also affected the reversals of fortune. Mercantilist Spain tended to colonize most extensively precolonial regions that were populous and highly developed; in turn, extensive Spanish colonization had negative consequences for postcolonial development. In comparison, liberal Britain tended to colonize most extensively precolonial regions that were sparsely populated and underdeveloped; in turn, extensive British colonialism had comparatively positive effects. Thus, both Spain and Britain reversed the fortunes of precolonial regions, but in largely opposite ways.

Structural Holes and Structural Synergies: A Comparative-Historical Analysis of State-Society Relations and Development in Colonial Sierra Leone and Mauritius

Drawing on network theory from economic sociology, this article argues that development through state-society synergy requires the spread of information and resources between state and society. After describing key concepts and a nested methodological approach, the article analyzes how the different network structures affected the success of state decentralizing reforms in two former British colonies after World War II: Sierra Leone and Mauritius. It finds that the use of gatekeeping intermediaries in indirectly ruled Sierra Leone caused structural holes between state and society and that the reforms therefore increased the extent of decentralized despotism. Alternatively, direct colonial rule in Mauritius promoted dense ties between state and societal actors, and the colonial state reforms therefore made decentralized development possible.

Dividing and Ruling the World? A Statistical Test of the Effects of Colonialism on Postcolonial Civil Violence

To test claims that postcolonial civil violence is a common legacy of colonialism, we create a dataset on the colonial heritage of 160 countries and explore whether a history of colonialism is related to indicators of inter-communal conflict, political rebellion and civil war in the years 1960-1999. The analysis provides evidence against sweeping claims that colonialism is a universal cause of civil violence but finds that some forms of colonialism increase the risk of some forms of civil violence. Specifically, the findings support claims that inter-communal violence is a common legacy of colonialism – especially of British colonialism and colonialism by minor colonial powers – but suggest that a history of colonialism has only a limited impact on political rebellion and civil war.

States and Development

Why are states important for economic growth and for the social transformations that go with it? Adam Smith (1776) and the Scottish enlightenment gave a first answer: the state can guarantee the institutions enabling individuals and firms to engage in economic activities that bring economic growth.The institutional infrastructure around contract, property, tort law, and incorporation allows the exchange of goods and services as well as the accumulation, lending, and investing of capital to proceed with a reasonable degree of ease, security, and predictability.This idea is also at the core of Max Weber’s (1968) analysis of the role of law in the rise of capitalism, and it is similarly central to the theoretical framework of the economic historian and Nobel Laureate Douglass North (e.g., 1981).

British Colonial State Legacies and Development Trajectories:A Statistical Analysis of Direct and Indirect Rule

In his work on colonial legacies in sub-Saharan Africa, Crawford Young (1994) calls the colonial powers Bula Matari, a KiKongo phrase meaning “he who crushes rocks.” The term not only refers to the extreme power of the European imperialists in Africa but also to the revolutionary changes that colonization began.Indeed,beginning with Ceuta,the Azores,and the Canary Islands during the mid-fifteenth century and continuing to this day with a few outposts, colonization of foreign lands has been a cataclysmic series of events that dramatically transformed the lives and lifestyles of peoples throughout the world. Whole populations were annihilated while others went to live in far-of f places as part of the colonial machine, either as settlers, administrators, or laborers.As a consequence of this contact, local religions, markets, and states were either extensively transformed or completely destroyed and replaced by new ones.

Education and Ethnic Violence: A Cross-National Time-Series Analysis

Recognizing the limited body of empirical work analyzing the impact of education on ethnic violence, this article reviews different perspectives and provides an initial test of competing views. Through a cross-national time-series analysis, the article finds that three indicators of education are positively and significantly related to ethnic violence but that ethnically diverse and nonwealthy countries drive the results. The findings oppose popular beliefs that education promotes tolerance but—in showing that high levels of education increase the risk of ethnic violence—support claims that educa-tion can promote ethnic violence.

The Rule of Law and Development: A Weberian Framework of States and State-Society Relations

This chapter provides a general theoretical framework on states and development that is based on Max Weber’s sociology of law, which is arguably the “core” of Weber’s substantive sociology and “an essential key to the understanding of his analysis of political and economic phenomena”(Parsons 1971, pp. 40, 41).1 To do so, it is divided into two sections. The first section claims that negative-sum social relations characterized by one-sided domination have negative effects on development and that positive-sum social relations characterized by multilateral collaboration have positive effects on it. Next, the section describes how associations, bureaucracy,and markets make possible positive-sum relations on a large scale but recognizes that each coordination structure has a tendency to personalize power and thereby limit the extent of positive-sum relations. As such, large-scale coordination problems must be seen as major developmental obstacles.

Female political representation and child health: Evidence from a multilevel analysis

This article explores the impact of female political representation in national parliaments on child health through a multilevel analysis. Using available Demographic and Health Surveys, we employ both cross-sectional data for 51 low- and middle-income countries and longitudinal data for 20 countries with multiple surveys. For both the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, female representation is negatively related to infant mortality and positively related to measles vaccination status. To explore potential mechanisms, we control for state spending on health and analyze whether the impact of female representation depends on a critical mass of female representatives. The analysis offers evidence that state spending accounts for some of the mediation effect and that the impact of female representation on infant death depends on a critical mass.

States and Development:What Insights Did We Gain?

There are those to whom the idea that states have a major role to play in advancing social and economic development is anathema.To them, state intervention of any kind equals distortion of economic allocation and the proliferation of unproductive rents for a few. They have their counterpart in others who morally reject the market as nothing more than institutionalized greed and selfishness.Yet both of these positions have lost support and become marginal.

Developmental Crises: A Comparative-Historical Analysis of State-Building in Colonial Botswana and Malaysia

The construction of states with the capacity to provide collective goods is a common developmental goal, yet state-building is a very difficult process that cannot be accomplished at will. This article investigates factors that make possible punctuated state institutional change through a comparative-historical analysis of two former British colonies: Botswana and Malaysia. It provides evidence that crises have the potential to break institutional inertia and thereby create openings for relatively rapid and extensive state-building. In particular, crises can promote reforms by transforming incentives, readjusting power relations, and forging a political consensus. Both cases also show that these changes occurred during the late colonial period and therefore provide evidence that colonial transitions had the potential to adjust the institutional legacies of colonialism.