Includes references and glossary.

Contents: Analytical approaches to the study of politics in the developing world -- Colonialism and post-colonial development -- Institutional perspective -- The Developing world in the global economy -- The Developing world in international politics -- Inequality -- Ethnopolitics and nationalism -- Religion -- Women and gender -- Civil society -- People, power and alternative politics -- Theorizing the state -- From conflict to peacebuilding -- Democratization -- Governance and aid conditionality in a globalizing world -- Development -- Environment -- Human rights -- Security -- Reconfiguring the political order: (a) Indonesia: redistributing power (b) South Africa: from divided society to new nation (c) Iraq's triple challenge: state, nation and democracy -- Military in politics versus democratic advance: (a) Pakistan: the military as a political fixture (b) Nigeria: building political stability with democracy (c) Mexico: democratic transition and beyond --- Underdevelopment and development: (a) Guatamala: enduring underdevelopment (b) South Korea: from development to new challenges -- South-south relations and the changing landscape of international development cooperation: (a) India as a 'post-colonial donor' (b) China and the developing world.