Disjunctive States Concept - Essay Example

Income per head is raising in the countries of the North where only 15 percent of the world population lives. This has led huge numbers of migrants from the South to seek a better life in the North and this has created international political friction.

The goods produced by the South countries are less valuable for the developed countries. Moreover, the North reduces prices on the materials exported by the South, and imported by the North, and increases prices on the materials exported by the North, and imported by the South. The North has veto power and therefore it is a dominant decision-making authority. It reduces the ability of the poor countries to manage the global economy because their products are not needed and their opinion is not counted by the rich countries. That is why poor countries are usually unhappy with the management of the global economy because of the small role that they play in their organization.

Since Lenin’s time, many Marxists have attributed poverty in the South to the concentration of wealth in the North. Capitalists in the North exploit the South economically and use the wealth to buy off workers in the North. Widening the North-South gap could create space for counter-revolution. Revolution should change the system and put an end to transferring wealth from the periphery to the North.

Many people throughout the global South have turned to political revolution as a strategy for changing economic inequality and poverty. Today the most powerful third-world revolutions are the Islamic revolutions in the Middle East. Even more than the communist revolutions of the past, Islamic revolutions are directed against the North and reject the Western values on which the international system is based. Like communist ones, Islamic revolutions gained support and legitimacy from the plight of poor people. When revolutionaries succeed in taking power, they usually change their state’s foreign policy. However after several decades in power, revolutionaries come to support the norms and rules of the international system (which are favorable to them as state leaders).

The origin of today’s North-South gap returns to the colonization of the Southern world regions by Europe over the past several centuries. This colonization occurred at different times in different parts of the world.

Globalists mentioned the economic exploitation of the South by the North, which is an essential element of the capitalist system. They argue that free trade represents an unequal exchange between the North and the South in the economy controlled by the monopolies of the North.

To move from poverty to well-being this requires the accumulation of capital.  Capitalism emphasizes overall growth with a considerable concentration of wealth, whereas socialism emphasizes a fair distribution of wealth. Wealth accumulation depends on the meeting of basic human needs such as access to food, water, education, shelter, and health care.

To manage the problem we should encourage technology and innovation in third world economies. The industrialization of the South can be achieved through a reform of the international market through the evolution of the population (education of women and urbanization), diversification of the economy through import and export substitution, and regional integration.

 Liberals suggest, to reduce the North-South gap within the modern economic system, free trade is a way to promote mutual growth of all parties involved. The trouble with this theory is that its prescription of "more free trade" does not work in most Third World Countries. Moreover, free trade is an unequal exchange with most of its benefits going to the rich countries.

Globalist or Marxist views see the problem in the present free trade system. Structuralists fall between liberals and globalists because they believe that the system is not ideal but can be peacefully reformed and reorganized

The North-South gap can be reduced by the reforms of the economic growth of the developing countries and their social development by promoting cooperation rather than the conflict between the North and the South: New forms of foreign participation such as joint ventures, management contracts, and licensing agreements.

"Another way to achieve economic growth for developing countries was to ask the United Nations for help in terms of foreign aid and special trade preferences such as lower tariffs." N. Kolupaeva, Lipetsk

After discussing the motivations and solutions of the North-South gap, we should highlight that "the excessive concentration on the economic factors deprived the South of its social role by naming North -the elite and South –the subordinate/periphery." N. Kolupaeva, Lipetsk. The North-South gap can be reduced by the economic reforms and social development of developing countries as equal members of society.