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Economic, Environmental, Political, Social and Institutional Factors in Development and Sustainability
IB DP Global Politics — Thematic study: Development and sustainability | SL | Nature, practice and study of development and sustainability
📋 What You Will Learn
- Define development and sustainability and explain why both concepts are contested
- Identify and describe the key economic, environmental, political, social and institutional factors that shape development outcomes
- Explain how these factors interact and reinforce or undermine one another
- Analyse how different theoretical perspectives interpret the causes of underdevelopment and unsustainability
- Compare how these factors manifest at different levels of analysis — from global trade rules to community livelihoods
- Evaluate the claim that development and sustainability are in tension with each other
🔍 Guiding Question Are economic growth and environmental sustainability fundamentally in conflict, or can the right combination of political, social and institutional factors make them mutually reinforcing?
🌍 Why This Matters In 2023, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals progress report found that only 15% of the 169 SDG targets were on track — with climate shocks, rising debt, and political instability pushing millions back into poverty. The report made clear that development is not simply about GDP growth: it depends on a web of economic, environmental, political, social and institutional conditions that either enable or block human flourishing.
🔑 Key Concept Link This topic engages all four key concepts. Power determines who controls resources and sets the rules of global trade. Sovereignty shapes a state's ability to pursue its own development path without external interference. Legitimacy underpins whether institutions and governments can mobilise the cooperation needed for sustainable change. Interdependence explains why development outcomes in one country are shaped by decisions made in others — from interest rates set in Washington to carbon emissions produced in Beijing. Keep returning to these connections throughout.
What Is Development? What Is Sustainability?
Before examining the factors that shape development, it is essential to understand what development actually means — and why the answer is contested. For much of the twentieth century, development was equated with economic growth, measured by GDP per capita. That narrow view has been challenged by broader, more human-centred approaches.
📖 Definition — Development Development refers to processes of change that improve human well-being, expand freedoms and capabilities, and reduce poverty and inequality. It is multidimensional, encompassing economic, social, political and environmental dimensions, and is understood differently across theoretical traditions and political contexts.
📖 Definition — Sustainability Sustainability refers to the capacity to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission, 1987). It integrates environmental protection, social equity and economic viability — often called the "three pillars" of sustainable development.
- GDP-centred view: development = economic growth, industrialisation, modernisation; associated with early post-war development economics and modernisation theory.
- Human Development Index (HDI): UNDP's composite measure combining income, education (mean and expected years of schooling) and life expectancy — a broader but still contested metric.
- Capability approach (Amartya Sen): development as expanding the real freedoms people have to live lives they value; poverty is the deprivation of capabilities, not just income.
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2015–2030): 17 goals, 169 targets integrating economic, social and environmental dimensions; the current global framework for measuring development progress.
- Contested nature: who defines development, and for whom? Postcolonial critics argue that dominant development frameworks reflect Western priorities and can undermine indigenous ways of life and local sovereignty.
💡 Note — "Sustainable Development" as a political concept The phrase "sustainable development" was popularised by the Brundtland Report (1987) and institutionalised through the Rio Earth Summit (1992), Agenda 21, the Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) and the SDGs (2015–2030). Each iteration reflects shifting political negotiations about whose interests count and what trade-offs are acceptable. The