Connectivity: A Key Factor in International Development
Author(s)
Gerring, John
Abstract
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the quality of life enjoyed by persons around the world varies enormously. While there may be a slow convergence in human development, it remains the case that one’s chances of surviving past infancy, maintaining good health, getting educated, finding a job, and escaping poverty are largely contingent upon what part of the planet one happens to be born in. The markedly spatial pattern of development, both within and across countries, suggests three broad lines of explanation. It could be that areas with high and low levels of development are intrinsically different – ecologically, economically, culturally, sociologically, politically, or historically – in ways that have enhanced/diminished their development potential. A second possibility is that development is an essentially zero-sum distributional game in which regions of the world compete. Developed regions are therefore those possessing superior military and geo-political capacities, allowing them to monopolize technology, physical capital, human capital, and other factors that contribute to development. A final possibility is that development is the product of a region’s “connectivity.” For example, London is more developed than Bangui because London has greater access to the world. This, in turn, is a product of its favorable location, transport infrastructure, and the location of adjacent populations. Connectivity is thus understood as a structural feature of the landscape – a product of geographic, infrastructural, and demographic features that make it easy or difficult for individuals living in a region to reach those outside the boundaries of that region. The author provides support for the argument that relative ease of movement facilitates contact, with that contact, in turn, hastening development.
