Influence of Political Institutions on Developing Countries

The reason many developing countries began with “bad” early institutions has to do with political institutions. Fukuyama states that there is a strong connection between the richest countries and the countries that have strong institutions. Strong political institutions generally have an effective institution that is mostly uncorrupt, enforces its laws, has transparent laws and open entries to legal and political institutions. Fukuyama gives an example that if a country is ruled by the elites who want the resources for their own use and if property rights are not given and if a country does not have consistent policies or does not educate its citizens, then if rich natural resources like oil would be available to the country, the country

However, where there was disease, it was more costly to settle and the colonial powers set up extracted economic institutions that were enforced by absolutist political institutions.
2) How did class structure and income inequality in Latin America affect institutions after independence?(Chapter 16).
Latin America was of the first to be colonized in the non-Western world by Europeans. In
Latin America, the foundation of authoritarian, unequal regimes, had much to do with the extractive economic production there, which was also based on climate and geography factors and what colonials had to endure in Latin America. After Latin American countries became independent, they had difficult problems in maintaining democracy and in preserving constant rates of economic development. Inequality was actually a huge factor in why Latin America faced these problems. The existing class structure and unequal distribution of resources created political polarizations between political parties and

Not facing interstate wars can be good in some ways for a region, but overall, it can be problematic for the region’s future and its institutions.
4) How did Costa Rica avoid becoming a “banana republic”? (Chapter 18).

Costs Rica is a small country in Latin America that contains less than five million people and currently, it is wealthier than other Latin American countries. Dissimilar to El Salvador,
Nicaragua and Guatemala, Costa Rica has not experienced military coups, dictatorships, violent civil wars, death squads or foreign interventions from the United States, Cuba or outside parties in the last sixty years. Costa Rica has been a stable democracy since 1948, with competitive elections and normal turnovers of power between political parties. Costa Rica’s development has been based on tropical agricultural products, such as coffee and bananas and its climate and resources are very similar to their neighboring countries. Costa Rica from its inception was seen as an isolated, unattractive country, since it lacked precious metals or exploited indigenous population. The Europeans also viewed Costa Rica