ANSWER ANY TWO (2) OF THE FOLLOWING SIX (6) QUESTIONS. EACH QUESTION IS WORTH TWENTY-FIVE (25) POINTS, FOR A TOTAL OF FIFTY (50) POINTS.
THE ANSWER TO EACH QUESTION MUST BE BETWEEN 900 AND 1,100 WORDS. PLEASE SHARE YOUR WORD COUNT AFTER EACH QUESTION. THE WORD COUNT DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY REFERENCES, TABLES, OR CHARTS YOU MAY CHOOSE TO INCLUDE. ANY SOURCES YOU CITE MUST BE CORRECTLY REFERENCED. I AM AGNOSTIC ABOUT REFERENCE STYLE, SO LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT THE EXAM.
EXAM WRITING TIPS ARE INCLUDED BELOW THE EXAM.
IMPORTANT NOTE: There is no “right” or “wrong” answer to a question. Your answers will be judged based on the quality of your analysis and reasoning, not whether you “agree” or “disagree” with the propositions in the questions. A high quality answer will focus on concepts, arguments, and evidence (whether qualitative, quantitative, or both), and not on merely stating opinions that fail to be backed up by analysis.
(1) “While imperfect, economic benefit-cost analysis (BCA) should be the basic test of the viability of a development project and thus should be a principal criterion for project evaluation.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss critically.
(2) “It has been argued that technocratic, top-down approaches to development planning, such as embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are prone to failure, whereas a market-driven, laissez-faire approach to development policy is more likely to succeed, when looking at criteria such as economic growth or poverty reduction.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss critically.
(3) “It has been argued that Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’, which purportedly ensures that the decentralized behaviour of individuals in the market system leads to the maximal level of social good, is indeed invisible, because it doesn’t actually exist.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss critically.
(4) “A growth-oriented economic policy, born out of the 1991 crisis, is what jumpstarted the stagnant Indian economy under governments of various ideological persuasions. The economic reforms of 1991 and afterward were based on the growth-oriented economic philosophy of Jagdish Bhagwati and succeeded in reducing poverty as it increased growth. By contrast, the entitlements-based economic philosophy of Amartya Sen, which animated the Congress-led government from 2004 – 2014, led to economic stagnation and made it more difficult to continue the fight against poverty and deprivation.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss critically.
(5) “Globalization has always threatened localism. Localism is, in effect, the antithesis of globalization. And democracy — meaning rule by the people – tends to vote for local interests, or at most national interests. So we should not be surprised that localism – or at least nationalism – seems to be breaking out all over the planet.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss critically.
(6) “Many observers in the global South believe that, when policymakers in countries of the North talk about a ‘rules-based international order’, their claim that they are defending this order in the interests of the world, not just themselves, is self-serving, hypocritical, selectively applied, and fundamentally detrimental to the interests of the global South.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss critically.
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Writing tips for Final Exam
A good exam will be:
Well written – no grammar/punctuation/spelling mistakes, well structured, writing flows well.
Well argued – good grasp of content, understanding of how concepts interrelate, strong arguments, and ability to outline how examples / arguments support the thesis.
Well researched/ well referenced – incorporation of both class content/ideas and outside examples, sufficient research to adequately support your essay (essays of this length should have at least a few outside sources each). In-text references for quotes, facts, ideas, or other material taken from external sources. It is important that references contain only works that are cited in your text — they are not intended as a general bibliography on the topic. Including references that are not explicitly cited will result in losing marks.
You are graded on the degree of proficiency that you show in achieving the above goals — failure to provide strong arguments, and/or failure to adequately edit out grammatical mistakes, and/or failure to adequately incorporate and cite outside research, will result in a poor final grade.
Be concise and to the point — the challenge of this exam is to maximize the effectiveness and persuasiveness of your arguments within the allotted space.
Ensure that your thesis statement is clear and that your arguments/examples are actively and clearly supporting it. Be sure to make it crystal clear at the outset whether you are agreeing or disagreeing with the proposition in the question. If that is unclear in your essay, you will lose marks.
Address every aspect of the question – many students get stuck on 1 aspect of a two-part question and lose marks because they never truly address the prompt in its entirety, e.g., if the question asks about authoritarianism vs. democracy in the early stages of development, don’t only talk about authoritarianism vs. democracy, ensure that you are relating that discussion back to how it informs your understanding of the effects of government structure on the early stages of development. Both parts of the question are important, so make sure you are addressing both.
Follow the assignment guidelines — failure to follow guidelines is one of the easily avoidable ways that students lose grades.
Exams that are above and below the word count will be docked grades. Stay within the word count, and be sure to share your exact word count for each question. If you choose to add one ore more graphs, be sure to label them and explain their relevance to the argument. Graphs placed without explanation or context don’t contribute to your argument, but distract from it, and will be docked grades.
