Answer to Question #167356 in Political Science for Gloria Gyimah

Question

Discus the implication of the Culturalist and Historicist explanations of the rise of the West to the development of Africa

Answer 1

implication of the Culturalist and Historicist explanations of the rise of the West to the development of Africa, Asia and Latin America once were under colonial control of Europe and the United States. After the third wave of democratization and independence, Asia and part of Latin America have been viewed as making big progress in economic and social development.

Meanwhile, in striking contrast, many African countries are still under the rule of authoritarian leaders or, even worse, functioning in anarchic chaos, which generates many social problems such as natural resource predation, the spread of HIV and other deadly diseases, famine, poverty, etc. Africa’s problems are unique, because no other continent that possesses so many valuable resources has ended up being so poor; no continent has been colonized for so long and divided up by so many different European settlers.

Recently there is a trend of political revolution around the Gulf area and North Africa fighting for democracy and freedom. Africa is clearly undergoing a major transformation, and it would be great if the growth and expansion of democratic governments paralleled by significant economic reforms and liberalization; however, Africa is the only region of the world where poverty is expected to increase during coming years. In history and reality, there are many factors that contribute to African poverty, such as environmental conditions or historical and institutional factors