What is/was the third world Does it still exist - Essay Example

Running Head: THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES Third World Countries of the of the Third World Countries Introduction Firstly, in order to address this title, the term Third World must first be defined in terms of its origin and meaning. The industrial revolution in the nineteenth century led to Western-Europe and the United States becoming increasingly technological, industrialised and urbanised. This brought rise to the concept of a divided world; those nations that were developed and those that were more primitive. The emergence of this concept of development led way for theories (which were generally accepted at the time) such as the development of nations happens in a linear process, and that to the benefit of more developed countries this process should be encouraged. Since then terminology has altered from descriptions such as backward to Underdeveloped to the present use of the phrase LEDC (Less Economically Developed Country). The group of LEDCs in question have been also referred to as the South, from the commonly referred to Brandt Report (1980)1, or the Report of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues. This report stated that the rich developed countries were located in the north, and that the poor undeveloped or developing countries were located in the south. However, in this report the North/South divide used in the Brandt Report will not be used, instead the use of the phrase Third World will be used in its place. The phrase originally derives from France (Tiers Monde) in the 1950s to describe the peasantry (the Third Estate) in pre-Revolutionary 1789 France. By the end of the 1960s however this concept was used to help describe the division of the worlds three main economic and political powers (Wagner, 1996). These generalisations were increasingly used during the peak of the cold war as a method of division between the capitalist countries, communist countries, and the non-aligned states (Lampman, 2002). First there was the First World, which were the industrialised, capitalist free market economies. In first world there are the United States of America, Australia and Western Europe. Then there was the Second World, which were the communist centrally planned economies such as the socialist Russian state and the Warsaw Pact. Then came the Third World, the countries which were still developing (in relation to the first and second worlds) and so were more deprived and disadvantaged. There are various possible determining categories in which to view Third World coherency such as the economics, geography, history, politics and psychology of the region. This essay will briefly deal with each separately, although they all interrelate with each other very closely. Different theories in the past have offered their views, favouring the coherency of one or a few categorisations over others, and some of these are now anachronistic. The categorisation is deeply political and important economically; as will be shown, it has been seen to be about power for subjugated people and it determines credit rating for financial support. Also, why do we ask this title question? It is really so that we can understand the assumptions and complexities that shape this concept in order approach the question of development in an open minded way The Political and Psychological Third World The term Third World was first coined in 1952, by the Frenchman Alfred Sauvy to give form to the desire of those countries that lacked access to economic opportunities, to find a third way. The first and second ways, being those of the capitalistic First World and the socialist/communist Second World. It was politically motivated since these countries had been subordinated by both sides, they wished to form their own identity, and gain strength in that. Sauvy ended his article with, "The Third World has, like the Third Estate, been ignored, exploited and despised and it too wants to be something." This formal non-aligned and neutralist movement began after The Bandung conference in 1955 organised by Indonesia, India, Burma, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka bringing together 29 countries in solidarity to gain political influence. However this was also underpinned with shared anti-imperialistic feelings, and fights for independence of colonial rule. After the end of the Cold War, the non-aligned motive for solidarity declined and as John Toye argues in his book Dilemmas of Development, decolonisation was the real driving force for any unity that existed. He said, "The psychology of Third Worldism is the psychology of decolonization." Peter Worsley also explains where original grouping lay; The coherence of such a group was necessarily dependent on the presence of a common enemy. It was a negative unity: politically, against colonialism; in economic terms, a solidarity between the proletarian nations in opposition to the developed ones (Singh, 2005). Theorists of the counter-revolutionary school of the 1980s such as Bauer, have viewed the Third World and therefore the instituting of development as having been created psychologically out of guilt for colonisation and out of the fact that all these regions receive foreign aid. They argued then that since in their view, the West was not responsible for the situation, and that the aid did not actually help, it was all a figment of the imagination and so the Third World could not really exist. Conversely, Toye perceptively believed that this is not true since, just because it is a creation of the mind, it does not mean we can just let it go; you only have to look at all the conflicts that exist, the peoples need to be part of a strong and larger entity to see "(the Third World) is the result of... our inability in our present difficult circumstances yet to see ourselves as belonging to one world, and not three" (Newsom, 1996). The Third World can be seen to generally exist, then, in this psychological and so political sense. Geography Can we conceive of there being a rich North and a poor South? It is true that many poor countries can be found south of the equator, although a general statement. Still, this skates over important differences, there are severe inequalities within poor countries, the wealth of people in New Delhi or Buenos Aires literally sit next to poverty. There are also dissimilarities in disclosure to natural hazards and disasters such as those that are climate related. The regions close to either side of the equator will experience hurricanes, floods and tsunamis with those close to fault lines, earthquakes and volcanoes. In the tropics, diseases such as malaria, river blindness and bilharzia will reap havoc. Those regions with poor soils, pests and certain types of predators will have consequences for agricultural capabilities. Different regions have different capabilities for handling these, and destruction of infrastructure and health are very costly. Therefore these prototypes will have an effect on the financial models of growth in the Third World. The Economic Third World The original theory of there being a coherency here was Modernisation theory, which stated that after colonisation these countries were to emulate modern society in order to have a better quality of life. The conception of these countries was of a less developed economy; people farmed on subsistence, there were low rates of growth, trade with other countries was poor, and there was poor infrastructure. The Third World was sought as homogenous with typical under developed economies. A relationship was created, in which western values were imported uniformly (and foreign aid was given to that purpose.) Arturo Escobar points to this: The coherence of effects that the development discourse achieved is key to its success as a hegemonic form of representation: the construction of the poor and underdeveloped as universal, preconstituted subjects, based on the privilege of the representers; the exercise of power over the Third World made possible by this discursive homogenization (which entails the erasure of the complexity and diversity of Third World peoples, so that a squatter in Mexico City, a Nepalese peasant, and a Tuareg nomad become equivalent to each other as poor and under developed)... Escobar voices that due to the different histories and diverse cultures of these regions, this supposed homogeneity was inaccurate and therefore you can not have only one development formula. Toye further argues that nowadays, if there had previously been any economic similarity, a growing diversity among the Third World has made this claim void. The long-standing slow economic growth in Africa and the recent debt crisis of Latin America results in different rates of disintegration. These rates also compare with the prompt growth of the East Asian tigers. Consequently there is a growing divergence among poor and wealthy within the Third World. Toye argues that these economic discrepancies may also have political connotations, as for example conflicts between less developed, and least developed countries may arise over financial concessions made by the First World. Bearing in mind that Toye wrote his book in the mid-eighties, he makes a final point that although the Third World desires political unity, it has not yet achieved it. In summary, politically and psychologically, the Third World group has been brought together through common enemies and ideals, although possibly more because of the former. Although, their current economic situations may pull this political unity apart. Historically and culturally it is well understood that Africa, Asia and Latin America diverge widely, while there is a certain similarity in the period of independence. Economically, the idea of underdevelopment being a common feature of the Third World was biased and so inaccurate, with recent varying growths of the different regions further revealing contrasts. We can see that the incongruent history and geography of the Third World shape its economics and in turn shapes its politics and psychology, although these can be removed from reality to reflect hopes of what it could be. This political drive in turn goes someway to creating the Third World in the minds of people (and so the actions of people), which in the end, is where most of the worlds events could be seen to take place. The question of whether the Third World exists therefore could be answered not really in the objective sense, and sometimes in the subjective sense (peoples perceptions.) Third World Population Growth Our future size and growth depends mostly on our age structure, survivorship, and fertility rates. It has been observed that there is slow growth rate among the growing countries. It is the countries with fast population growth that are suffering from rapid environmental changes and problems. It becomes very difficult to control the population growth among Third World Countries. These countries go through rapid ecological changes by consuming their own natural resources and financial resources, faster than they can be produced. This can lead to rising death rates from hunger and the lowering of living standards (Sluzki, 2001). These fast growing countries that have high populations may eventually permanently reduce the carrying capacity of their home land. There are many factors behind the slow growth rate in past and rises in it at times. For example, in countries where most of the women are uneducated, there is limited access to health services and very few people are financially secure, populations tend to be higher. Many of these countries have poor standards of living, which leads to the spread of disease, starvation, poor sanitation and horrible ecological and environmental conditions. Others factors include lack of family planning, illiteracy and lack of information about birth control. Current questions and comments about human rights and reverence for people have come up to. Problems arise when inaccurate information is given about sterilization and it’s consequences to people in third world countries that are not educated enough to know the difference. Today, despite its controversy, abortion is being suggested more and more as a method of population control. When looking at those countries that have limited access to birth control and/or no knowledge of modern forms of birth control, and those countries that do practice population control, we see more cases of infanticide. Although this is still practiced in some third world countries, infanticide is more commonly practiced when a female baby is born. It is extremely difficult to define and identify Third World countries depending upon which criteria is being used as the basis of the development measurement, because not all countries are identical in their aspirations towards political and cultural goals which leads to a great diversity and range even within this one specified group. The different forms of development measurement for countries can be GNP2 (Gross National Produce) per capita per annum, population size, infant mortality rates per 1000 born, life expectancy, illiteracy rates, access to safe water, urban population and Debt to First World countries and international banks such as the World Bank. The disparities can be observed by comparing China and Peru, both of them are Third World country. The GNP per capita for China is $860 (US), while for Peru it is $2610. Both countries have a life expectancy of around 70 years old, yet while the population of Peru is around 24 million, China has one of 1227 million people. These marked disparities show the wide range of diversity between two countries which are generalised under the same category. This can make it difficult to define a Third World country because using these different measurement techniques, while a broad group of countries can be characterised by their low income and disadvantage in provision, not all countries are always included by these measures which makes it difficult to state the boundaries of the Third World. Conclusion It is because of several reasons that the validity of the phrase The Third World has been placed into question over the past decade. The previously mentioned growing differentiation and diversification within the Third World has lead to the use of the generalisation of the concept to be questioned. Also, the rejection of a linear path to development means that different countries will strive towards development through different courses at different speeds, and should not be measured against how the West First World developed, presuming that all countries are in fact aspiring to be like Western countries such as the United States and Western-Europe, which they are certainly all not. Not only is there wide disparities between countries, but there can even be a larger variety within a single country. In these countries a very small minority can hold a large amount of capital and live extremely affluent lifestyles very similar to those of people in the First World, while the large majority of the population live in extreme or absolute poverty (Teresa, 1998). Another one of the strongest criticisms of the concept of the Third World is that since the creation of this theory, the Second World (communist) countries have fallen (with the exception of the socialist Chinese state), which places the use of both the concepts of the Second World and subsequently the Third world into question as to whether they are any longer worthwhile generalisations. However despite these arguments, although definitive boundaries cannot be made around the Third World due to the wide regional and national disparities, It is to be believed that the generalisation of these countries into the single body of the Third World is still a worthwhile concept. While the Second World may no longer be a relevant factor, there is still the large rift present between the two groups of the First and Third Worlds, and so reinforces the continuing relevance of this concept. Reference Lampman, Jane. (2002). Third-world debt relief gets boost. Christian Science Monitor, 5/4/2000, Issue 114, p12 Newsom, David D. (1996). Third-world armies in business for themselves.. Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 88 Issue 84, p19 Sluzki, Carlos E. (2001). Clinical Research and the Third World; American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 71 (3), pp. 276-277 Singh, Rob. (2005). Third World Charity Comes To the East End. Evening Standard, p8 Teresa McUsic. (1998). Third World economies rocket growth to boost First World, author says. Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX). Wagner, Daniel A. (1996). Child development research and the Third World: A future of mutual interest?.; American Psychologist, Vol 41(3), pp. 298-301 Read More