Dependency and Underdevelopment in Third World Countries PDF

Dependency and Underdevelopment in Third World Countries THE THIRD WORLD French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World, referring to countr...

Dependency and Underdevelopment in Third World Countries THE THIRD WORLD French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World, referring to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War (a state of political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and other measures short of open warfare). His usage was a reference to the Third Estate, the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution, opposed the clergy and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively. Sauvy wrote, "This third world ignored, exploited, despised like the third estate also wants to be something. Since about the 2000s the term Third World has been used less and less. It is being replaced with terms such as developing countries, least developed countries or the Global South. Most Third World countries are former colonies. The term is used loosely to refer to the economically underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America. Third World Countries refers to the nations of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is important to note that of all the third world countries, Africa looks to be the least developed and have the worst problems. The term “Third World” is not universally accepted. Some prefer other terms such as “the South”, “non-industrialized countries” less developed nations or emerging nations. Nevertheless, the Third World is sharply differentiated, for it includes countries at various levels of economic development. Despite poverty of the countryside and the urban shanty-towns, the ruling elites of most Third World countries are very wealthy. The First World is the developed world – US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan and newly industrializing countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia etc The Second World used to be the Soviet Union and the countries in Eastern Europe. But with the demise of the Cold War, it no longer exists. The Fourth World applies to some of the very poorest countries, especially in Africa, that have no industrialization, are almost entirely agrarian (based on subsistence farming), they have little or no hope of industrializing and competing in the world market. The Fourth World refers to countries and populations that are often excluded from world statistics. They are the poorest of the poor countries and peoples on the planet. Currently, there are 49 countries classified by the United Nations as "Fourth World" countries. Most reside in Sub-Saharan Africa (see map below): 1 These countries are labeled as "Least Developed Countries", or LDC's. According, again, to the United Nations, these nations exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development and the lowest human development index ratings of all the countries of the world. LDC's suffer conditions of extreme poverty, ongoing (and widespread) conflict, political corruption and lack of social, economic and political stability. Their governments are often brutal, dictatorial and authoritarian in nature. AIDS, of course, is also a major issue affecting the populations of these countries- particualrily in Africa. Here is a list of current Fourth World Nations: AFRICA (33 countries) Angola Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gambia Guinea Guinea-Bissau Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mozambique Niger Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal 2 Sierra Leone Somalia Sudan Tanzania Togo Uganda Zambia ASIA (10 countries) Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Cambodia East Timor Lao People’s Democratic Republic Maldives Burma Nepal Yemen OCEANIA (5 countries) Kiribati Samoa Solomon Islands Tuvalu Vanuatu AMERICAS (1 country) Haiti Characteristics of Third World Countries Among the characteristics are: abject poverty, High birth rates, and economic dependence on the advanced countries. Third world countries are highly dependent economies devoted to producing primary products for the developed world and to providing markets for their finished goods. The Third World is the underdeveloped World – agrarian, rural, and poor. The prices of Third World products are usually determined by large buyers in the economically dominant countries of the West and trade with the West provides almost all the Third World’s income. High population growth and widespread poverty also characterize these countries. In the year 2000, the earth’s population was more than 6 billion, 80 percent of whom lived in the Third World. Most of these countries are characterized by explosive population growth. Another principal characteristic defining Third World Countries (TWCs) is their peripheral (marginal) economic and cultural status relative to the major advanced countries of the world. As such, even wealthy nations such as Saudi Arabia or stable economies such as Costa Rica are still 3 considered part of the TWCs, because their economic and political systems are largely shaped and dependent on the developed world. Economic indicators include: A high proportion of the population depends on agriculture. There is overpopulation in agriculture where it is possible to reduce the number of workers in agriculture and still obtain the same total output; considerable disguised unemployment; very little capital per head; low income; low savings; a major proportion of expenditure is on food; export of raw materials; a low volume of trade; poor credit facilities and poor housing. Demographic indicators: include high fertility rates, high mortality rates; poor nutrition; and poor hygiene. Cultural and political indicators: include a high degree of illiteracy, child labour, a wide gap between the rich and the poor, women occupying inferior status, a predominance of traditional values; and, political instability. Technological indicators include: low technology in agriculture, low technology in industry; and crude technology. According to Griffith (1989:127), The critical problem facing certain third world countries, therefore is the hundreds of millions of our fellow human beings who like us have been created in the image of God but who live in condition of appalling deprivations. Criticism of the Third World Classification In the 1980s, economist Peter Bauer offered a competing definition for the term “Third World”. He claimed that the attachment of Third World status to a particular country was not based on any stable economic or political criteria, and was mostly arbitrary (random) process. The large diversity of countries considered part of the Third World — from Indonesia to Afghanistan — ranged widely from economically primitive to economically advanced and from politically non- aligned to Soviet- or Western-leaning. An argument could also be made for how parts of the U.S. are more like the Third World. The only characteristic that Bauer found common in all Third World countries was that their governments "demand and receive Western aid," the giving of which he strongly opposed. Thus, the aggregate term "Third World" was challenged as misleading even during the Cold War period, because it had no consistent or collective identity among the countries it supposedly encompassed. 4