Development Policy and Politics MSc

This course aims to provide theoretical and empirical training to students to enable them to understand the role that politics plays in both facilitating and undermining development, in both the North and the South. The programme is taught by some of the leading thinkers on the relationship between politics and development, each of whom work closely with policy-makers in the UK and internationally. Students will also benefit from engagement with major research programmes focused on the politics of development based in IDD, including the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre.

This is an exciting and unique programme in its title, content and approach. Study with us to benefit from: a programme which focuses squarely on how power and politics affects development and developmental change; modules taught by world-leading scholars of politics and development; engagement with scholars who work closely with a wide range of development policy-makers and practitioners, in the UK and internationally.

By the end of your study you will gain: an in-depth understanding of competing development theories and approaches and the ability to critically evaluate their strengths and weaknesses; the different political systems operating in developing countries and how and why such systems have come about; the complex relationship between politics and development; the impact of political systems and political actors on developmental success and failure; the impact of the political economy in developing countries and globally on aid and donor policies; the ability to critically analyse and understand complex political and economic relationships and events; the ability to understand in-depth and critically evaluate approaches to political analysis in developing countries.