- characteristics
- Little technological advance
- Low level of industrialization
- Economy dependent on the export of agricultural products and raw materials
- Increasing foreign debt
- Considerable population growth
- Political instability
- Deficiency in health and education systems
- Low quality of life standards
- High poverty rate
- Examples
- -UN listing
- Africa
- America
- Asia and Oceania
- -Other countries considered third world
- Africa
- America
- Asia and Oceania
- References
Among the main Third World or Third World countries, Madagascar, Togo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Yemen, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Paraguay, Colombia and Algeria stand out, among others.
Currently, it is less frequent to use the terms third world or third world countries, which for many years were used to refer to underdeveloped or developing countries and which, later, came to have a derogatory connotation.
In third world countries, poverty rates are high. Source: pixabay.com
The term "third world" arose to denote nations that economically had not developed the capitalist system (first world) nor were they part of the countries under the communist system that made up the Soviet Union (second world).
When the latter disappeared, the term began to be inappropriate, but the recent history of each country made it necessary to rethink which nations were considered to be within or outside of said group, based on the characteristics that the countries in each category are supposed to have.
It is said that the first to use this name was the French sociologist Alfred Sauvy in a publication in the magazine L'Observateur in 1952, entitled "Three worlds, one planet." There he located in the third world countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, alluding to the third state in the French Revolution.
It then coincided that the countries located to the south of the planet had very similar economic and political conditions, so the term could refer to both geographic location and geopolitics or levels of economic development.
For this reason, it is increasingly difficult to locate a country as a third world since the conditions of each one have changed, which makes it difficult to group them all into a single category; however, attempts are still being made to list and delimit the characteristics they should have.
characteristics
The importance of the term is its ultimate purpose: countries within this category receive support of all kinds from the rest of the countries. Current international policy seeks to create strategies to reduce inequality, focusing on countries considered to be third world.
Below we detail the most outstanding characteristics of the countries that belong to this category:
Little technological advance
In third world countries, the few technological advances that exist are usually introduced by foreign companies or other countries that have economic activities in them.
Only people related to these activities have access to technology, while the majority of the population is completely unaware of it.
This does not refer only to communication technology, but also to technology in all areas of life, such as transport, infrastructure, health, basic services and education, among others, that directly affect the quality of life of its inhabitants.
Low level of industrialization
As a consequence of little technological progress and low educational levels, it can be said that the so-called Industrial Revolution hardly passed through these countries.
Their production systems continue to be precarious and not very efficient, both in the technological field and in terms of processes or techniques. This many times causes a waste, misuse or low productivity of the natural resources that these countries have.
Economy dependent on the export of agricultural products and raw materials
As its production processes are quite obsolete and the little technology in these is usually from external agents (foreign companies and other countries), its economy is based mainly on primary products because it does not have the necessary knowledge or methods to process them.
The value of these primary products is decided by the market of the large companies that buy them and the countries that produce them can say little about it. This makes them economically dependent on these agents who, in turn, are the ones who usually invest in this production.
Increasing foreign debt
One of the determining characteristics of these countries is usually their foreign debt, which is considered a vicious circle from which very few can escape.
By depending on other countries or foreign companies both for investment and for the negotiation or exchange of their products, they are disadvantaged in almost all their agreements.
They need to borrow to obtain the technology and knowledge they require for their productive activities, but after implementing them they do not receive enough for their products to cover the investment made; For this reason, its debt increases every day, and its gross domestic product decreases proportionally.
Considerable population growth
Generally, in these countries there is an outrageous population growth, which in turn leads to a high infant mortality rate.
To control this, policies have been created that seek to curb the birth rate, ranging from the distribution of free contraceptive methods to the imposition of sanctions for those who have more children than legally permitted.
The reason for stopping the increase in birth rates in these countries is that, as there is more population, the already scarce resources must be distributed among more people, so less corresponds to each one. When there are more people than available resources, we speak of overpopulation, a common characteristic in the third world.
Political instability
Historically, until relatively recently Third World countries used to be colonies of other countries. The nations that colonized them established borders and political differences between them, causing conflicts that still exist today.
In these types of countries, dictatorship is normal and democracy is scarce, so coups d'état, corruption, armed conflicts, violence and rebellions or civil wars are very common for reasons ranging from religious to economic. This increases the bad situation of these countries and hinders their economic improvement.
Deficiency in health and education systems
Low economic levels and overcrowding make it difficult to have an optimal health and education system for all inhabitants.
This has the consequence that in many of these countries there are diseases that have been practically extinct in others, that illiteracy rates are so high and that access to education is very low.
Epidemics are quite frequent in third world countries, both due to the lack of medical supplies (such as vaccines and antibiotics, among others) and because of the lack of systems that make the few supplies available to the entire country.
Low quality of life standards
In addition to political, technological, economic, health and education problems, the quality of life of people living in a third world country is seriously affected by the almost non-existence of labor rights.
As an effect of globalization, large transnational companies transfer part of their production process to these countries because of how cheap labor (mostly unskilled) can be, which includes child labor and labor exploitation that is often considered slavery.
Also included in this characteristic is the null or little access to necessary resources such as drinking water, food, electricity and information, among others, either due to the lack of adequate distribution systems or due to pollution or climate change that has affected them.
All this increases every day the mortality rate and decreases the life expectancy of its population.
High poverty rate
Another of the main characteristics of third world countries is their high levels of poverty, the causes of which are considered both external and internal.
Different international and non-governmental organizations try to implement actions to reduce these levels, but inequality in these countries continues to be abysmal.
A small part of the population concentrates almost all the economic and political power, constituting the elite or upper class, while the rest live in precarious living conditions that are considered to be poverty or extreme poverty (that is, low social class). For this reason, the non-existence of a middle social class is common.
The gross domestic product (GDP) or income per capita of these countries is usually the lowest in the world and is often in decline.
Examples
-UN listing
The terms "third world countries" or "third world countries" have been replaced by developing, developing or underdeveloped countries, which comply to a greater or lesser extent with the aforementioned characteristics without being due to an inevitable natural disaster, but rather to historical reasons (social, political or economic) of these.
With the measurement of the Human Development Index (HDI), the United Nations (UN) takes into account as underdeveloped countries those with the lowest indices.
For this measurement, it considers life expectancy at birth, the adult literacy rate, enrollment rates at three levels of education, and the GDP per capita of each country. The UN has designated as Least Developed Countries the following:
Africa
- Angola.
- Burkina Faso.
- Benin.
- Burundi.
- Comoros.
- Chad.
- Ethiopia.
- Eritrea.
- Guinea.
- Gambia.
- Guinea-Bissau.
- Liberia.
- Lesotho
- Madagascar.
- Mali.
- Malawi.
- Mauritania.
- Nigeria.
- Mozambique.
- United Republic of Tanzania.
- Democratic Republic of Congo, - Sao Tome and Principe.
- Rwanda.
- Central African Republic.
- Senegal.
- Somalia.
- Sierra Leone.
- Sudan.
- South Sudan.
- Uganda.
- Zambia.
- Togo.
- Djibouti.
America
- Haiti
Asia and Oceania
- Bangladesh.
- Afghanistan.
- Bhutan.
- Burma.
- Kiribati.
- Cambodia.
- Yemen.
- Solomon Islands.
- Lao People's Democratic Republic.
- Nepal.
- East Timor.
- Vanuatu.
- Tuvalu.
-Other countries considered third world
Africa
- Gabon.
- Algeria.
America
- Belize.
- Costa Rica.
- Colombia.
- Cuba.
- The Savior.
- Ecuador.
- Nicaragua.
- Venezuela.
- Paraguay.
- Panama.
- Peru.
- Uruguay.
- Dominican Republic.
Asia and Oceania
- Mongolia.
- Saudi Arabia.
- Iraq.
- Syria.
- Iran.
References
- "Third World" (nd) in 20th Century History. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from 20th Century History: Historiesiglo20.org
- «Tercer Mundo» (nd) in EcuRed. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from EcuRed: ecured.cu
- Viller Pintado, A. «The Third World: characteristics and causes» (November 2013) in iHistoriArte. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from iHistoriArte: ihistoriarte.com
- "The old concept of 'Third World' is outdated, says Zoellick" (April 2010) in World Bank. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from the World Bank: bancomundial.org
- Montoya, J. "Underdeveloped countries: concept, characteristics and list of examples" (nd) in Economic Activities. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from Economic Activities: actividadeseconomicas.org
- "List of Least Developed Countries" (December 2018) in United Nations. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from United Nations: un.org
- "Underdeveloped countries. Complete list ”(February 2018) in Finance. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from De Finanzas: definanzas.com
- "What is the Human Development Index - HDI and what does it measure?" (sf) at the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Peru. Retrieved on May 19, 2019 from the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Peru: mef.gob.pe