FortyFive › Revision notes › IB Global Politics › IB Global Politics: Thematic study: Development and sustainability

IB Global Politics: Thematic study: Development and sustainability

Development, poverty, globalisation, sustainability. 3 subtopics, 15 key terms.

Learn this topic properly. Interactive diagrams, worked examples, check questions and exam-style practice with mark schemes. Open “Thematic study: Development and sustainability” in FortyFive →

In this topic: 3.1 · 3.2 · 3.3

3.1Contested meanings of development

Development: Improvement in well-being, which can be economic, social, political and environmental.
GDP / GNI per capita: Income-based measures of development.
Human Development Index (HDI): Combines life expectancy, education and income (UNDP, 1990).
Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Measures overlapping deprivations in health, education and living standards.
Capability approach: Development as expanding people's freedoms (Amartya Sen).

Development is contested: growth, human well-being, freedom, sustainability or self-determination?

The full notes, worked example, interactive diagram and check questions for this subtopic are in the app.

Exam tip: Define development in your introduction: your definition shapes your argument.

Modernisation theory: Countries develop in stages towards mass consumption (Rostow, 1960).
Dependency theory: The core exploits the periphery, keeping it poor.
Washington Consensus: Market reforms (liberalisation, privatisation, fiscal discipline) promoted in the 1980s–90s.
Structural adjustment: Loan conditions from the IMF/World Bank requiring market reforms.
Developmental state: The state actively guides industrial growth (e.g. South Korea, Taiwan).

Rostow's stages: traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, high mass consumption.

The full notes, worked example and check questions for this subtopic are in the app.

Exam tip: Compare two contrasting pathways with real countries: e.g. Botswana (resource management) vs DR Congo (resource curse).

Sustainable development: Meeting present needs without compromising future generations (Brundtland Report, 1987).
Triple bottom line: Economic, social and environmental sustainability.
SDGs: 17 UN goals for 2030 (adopted 2015).
Globalisation: Growing interconnection of economies, societies and cultures.
Inequality: Unequal distribution of income, wealth or opportunity.

Tensions: growth vs environment; who bears costs (global North vs South).

The full notes, worked example and check questions for this subtopic are in the app.

Exam tip: Use data (poverty rates, Gini, HDI) to anchor development essays.