DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Colonial Law and Postcolonial Development: A Comparative Study of the Effects of British Colonial Legacies on National Development

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

Because state governments can play an important role in national development, and most Third World states were created during colonialism, colonial state legacies likely shape post-colonial development in the modern Third World. Moreover, because colonial rule occurred in diverse forms throughout the world, its effects on post-colonial development likely vary from case to case. For example, among the British colonies, some were allowed direct rule and some only indirect rule. This project examines the effects in British colonies of the form of legal domination on later development of the economy, social welfare state, and democratic polity. The investigator collects and analyzes quantitative data on these relationships for all former British colonies still under British domination in 1955. The investigator also collects and analyzes colonial documents in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Mauritius, and Botswana to further explore the relationships with qualitative data.