Week 7_Toan Tran

It is incredible to learn about how the country of Botswana in Africa brought its prospects up from the ground after it gained independence in 1966. Even from being a landlocked country in a developing nation, it managed to improve in many aspects and increase its national status. This was all possible with their discovery of valuable minerals such as diamonds present within their land. However typically, as mentioned in the reading, when developing nations uncover rare minerals just as how Botswana did, it would bring out the worst in them: corrupting the people in power and expending the resources until they are depleted. But Botswana did not fall into this category. Botswana was able to reduce its poverty, make education more widespread, increase in factors of human development such as life expectancy, develop more efficient infrastructure, and overall increase its GDP all thanks to its good governance and economic management of the valuable resource they discovered. With their government investing in public goods and infrastructure and unlinking public expenditure from revenue, this helped in maintaining a stable economy. But just how was the government operated exactly? To much surprise, Botswana has a democratic government. This is a surprise because democracies are not seen as a positive factor for economic growth and development. The reading even states that, “For some observers, democracy is actually a hindrance to economic development…democracies (such as India) have not fared well economically undoubtedly means that democracy is neither sufficient nor necessary for growth and development,” (Lewin, 85). However, despite this statement, it seems to work with Botswana and I am more curious now to know why that is, because other countries such as ones in East Asia and even Chile did not have a democratic government during its days of rapid rebuilding and development. But, the minerals will deplete some day soon projected to be completely wiped out by 2029 and I am curious to see how the country will fair and what they can do to keep its status consistent. 



References:

Botswana Diamonds - Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=botswana+diamonds&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS789US789&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXgP6K5cbgAhUFHqwKHV7pCzkQ_AUIDygC&biw=1440&bih=722#imgrc=LPm3pkYsHMfAtM: Accessed 19 Feb. 2019.

Lewin, Michael. Botswana’s Success: Good Governance, Good Policies, and Good Luck. Accessed 17 Feb. 2019.