10. Reversing Dispossession

After recapping the evolution of, and recent rejoinders to development theory, this paper presents the government-business-media (GBM) complex as an analytical framework for understanding the political economy of underdevelopment in the Global South. The GBM operates by means of infrastructural and affective labour and is particularly useful in highlighting how the structural (international) and descriptive (national) levels tessellate to facilitate accumulation. Having identified the nature of global accumulation, the framework is applied at the national level, while also considering the role of ‘fixed’ spatiotemporal factors (conflict, landlocked, resource richness, and ethnolinguistic plurality) in determining a country’s potential for development. Regression analysis was employed to explore how economic inputs (aid, trade, and foreign direct investment), the GBM complex, and spatiotemporal elements influence development. The findings suggest that landlocked countries in the Global South that have with weak GBMs, limited resources, and high levels of aid and foreign direct investment are most at risk of underdevelopment.