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GLOBAL POVERTY AND CONFLICT THEORY

By

Name

University
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Global poverty and conflict theory

The definition of global poverty exist in numerous distinct ways as social scientist strive

to figure out different issues and complexities held into account when ascertaining the forms and

causes of poverty. However, poverty is mostly argued as a communal state that is distinguished

by the unavailability of basic resources required for survival or imperative to match a certain

base level of lifestyle expected in the society where an individual lives1. The levels of income

that characterizes poverty is distinct from society to society but social scientist have narrowed to

several homogeneous conditions that describes the existence of poverty, like limited access or

inadequate clothing, shelter, quality health care, education and proper nutrition, and are

normally detached from convectional society2. Various philosophers have put forward numerous

theories that try to explain the causes of different forms of poverty, and materialistic orientation

and exploitative capitalism approach in distribution of the available resources was found to be

the major cause of global poverty. This essay will strive to incorporate the theory of conflict to

analyze forms of global poverty which result from unfair competition and distribution of factors

of production and economic machineries.

This unfair distribution of scarce resources available in a certain ecosystem hugely

portray the failures of human civilization and the principal of socialism. . This scenario is an

enormous approach larger applied by German theorist and demographer Karl Marx, who

described the society as an entity comprised of individuals of contrasting social stratum who are

1
Ravallion, M., & Chen, S. (2017). Welfare-consistent global poverty measures (No. w23739). National
Bureau of Economic Research.

2
Ravallion, M., & Chen, S. (2017). Welfare-consistent global poverty measures (No. w23739). National
Bureau of Economic Research.
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in constant competition of the available scarce resources 3. Communal institutions such as

governmental, religion non-governmental mirror this contention in their widespread inequalities

which assist in sustaining unequal and biased societal structure (Moshiri, 2019). Few individuals

and corporations effectively capture and keep vast resources at the expense of others, and use

their influence to nourish and maintain this status quo. These groups strive to fabricate

intramural solidarity, consolidate power, and decrease wrangles from opposing groups so as

approve the legitimacy of their influence, faculty and powers.

Absolute or solid poverty is most widespread in the developing and third world countries

but is rare in developed countries such as United States. Decerf (2020), assert that absolute

poverty involves a severe lack of immediate basic needs such as food, clean water and shelter.

The characteristics of absolute poverty are homogeneous across the globe, families experiencing

this condition basically live from hand to mouth, depending on donors and well-wishers whereas

individuals from their region and local governance systems accumulate excess wealth at their

expense.

Many sociologist currently apply the analogy of relative poverty that demarcate poverty

from society to society depending on the cultural and social-economic factors of ones area of

residence. Relative poverty subsist when an individual or a family is deprived access to the

available resources which are essential in meeting the base level standards that are perceived

average by the affluent members of the society ( Decerf, 2020). The principal behind the adoption

of this analogy is that, as communities evolve and progress, members adjust their perception on

what is considered as a requisite ( Decerf, 2020). For instance in the third world countries flush

3
Moshiri, F. (2019). Revolutionary conflict theory in an evolutionary perspective. In Revolutions of
the Late Twentieth Century (pp. 4-36). Routledge.
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toilets and access to internet may be regarded as a luxury and not a necessity, but in the

developed nations the use of internet is almost a basic need since technology is essential in all

aspect of service delivery. Additionally measurement of relative poverty initiate a useful

framework to highlight and ascertain the extent of discrimination and injustice suffered by the

marginalized members of the society.

Migration of people to the urban in search of employment and career development

avenues have been related with human progress and economic prosperity. However, urbanization

has raised numerous concerns due to it adverse aftermath cross the globe, such as increased

poverty and public health systems decay. Urban centers are run by cartels and selfish political

leaders who utilize the social amenities to benefit their families and friends at the expense of the

poor (Bernard et al., 2019). The heterogeneity of social backdrop inaugurated in urban centers

contribute immensely to moral degradation and urban poverty as a result of meager resources

available for utilization by the majority of the population.

In addition, rural economic development have been neglected for a long time in many

jurisdictions, faulty political systems and poor governance have resulted to acute poverty in those

areas. The demographic composition of rural areas is comprised majorly of single parent and

guardians, widespread unemployment and high levels of illiteracy (Bernard et al., 2019). Programs

initiated to boost the living standards in those localities are usually hijacked by few wealthy

individual, who inflate the cost of such initiatives and as a result, service delivery is crippled.

Since the onset of covid-19 pandemic, numerous households lost their livelihood due to

unfavorable policies adopted by several nations across the world. Thousands of families were

subjected to situation poverty due to rampart job losses and suppression of the factors of

production (Bernard et al., 2019). Interestingly, many governments took advantage of the situation
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to embezzle public funds meant to caution there citizens from the impact of the pandemic,

especially in developing countries.

In conclusion, poverty is a compound hurdle which is constituted of several aspects, and

it has numerous causative agent. However, unhealthy competition of the scarce resources and

unwarranted accumulation of wealth by a smaller segment of the population at the expense of the

majority is the root cause of the menace. Existence of exploitative capitalism, poor governance

systems and widespread corruption benefit a few, while others are subjected to acute poverty and

suffering. Due to high poverty levels, a majority of the society members are forced to endure

injustice subjected to them by the cartels and corrupt leaders which result to a vicious cycle of

poverty, the affluent members continue accumulating wealth while the poor become poorer.
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Bibliography
Bernard, Josef, Sandra Contzen, Anja Decker, and Mark Shucksmith. "Rural Poverty: do we need a
sociological perspective?." Sociology Lens (2019).

Decerf, B. (2020). Conciliating absolute and relative poverty: Income poverty measurement with two
poverty lines.

Moshiri, F. (2019). Revolutionary conflict theory in an evolutionary perspective. In Revolutions of the Late
Twentieth Century (pp. 4-36). Routledge.

Ravallion, M., & Chen, S. (2017). Welfare-consistent global poverty measures (No. w23739). National
Bureau of Economic Research.

Endwin and Anrtony, 2018