Developing country

A developing country, also known as a less-developed country (LDC)[1], is a nation with a low living standard, undeveloped industrial base, and low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries.[2][3] Countries with more advanced economies than other developing nations, but which have not yet fully demonstrated the signs of a developed country, are categorized under the term newly industrialized countries.[4][5][6][7]

Definition
Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, defined a developed country as follows. "A developed country is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment."[8] But according to the United Nations Statistics Division, There is no established convention for the designation of "developed" and "developing" countries or areas in the United Nations system.[3] And it notes that The designations "developed" and "developing" are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgment about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process.[9] The UN also notes In common practice, Japan in Asia, Canada and the United States in northern America, Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, and Western Europe, are considered "developed" regions or areas. In international trade statistics, the Southern African Customs Union is also treated as a developed region and Israel as a developed country; countries emerging from the former Yugoslavia are treated as developing countries; and countries of eastern Europe and of the Commonwealth of Independent States (code 172) in Europe are not included under either developed or developing regions.[3] On the other hand, according to the classification from International Monetary Fund (IMF) before April 2004, all the countries of Eastern Europe (including Central European countries which still belongs to "Eastern Europe Group" in the UN institutions) as well as the former Soviet Union (USSR) countries in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) and Mongolia, were not included under either developed or developing regions, but rather were referred to as "countries in transition"; however they are now widely regarded (in the international reports) as "developing countries". The IMF uses a flexible classification system that considers "(1) per capita income level, (2) export diversificationso oil exporters that have high per capita GDP would not make the advanced classification because around 70% of its exports are oil, and (3) degree of integration into the global financial system."[10]

The World Bank classifies countries into four income groups. These are set each year on July 1. Economies were divided according to 2008 GNI per capita using the following ranges of income:[11]

Low income countries had GNI per capita of US$1,005 or less. Lower middle income countries had GNI per capita between US$1,006 and US$3,975. Upper middle income countries had GNI per capita between US$3,976 and US$12,275. High income countries had GNI above US$12,276.

The World Bank classifies all low- and middle-income countries as developing but notes, "The use of the term is convenient; it is not intended to imply that all economies in the group are experiencing similar development or that other economies have reached a preferred or final stage of development. Classification by income does not necessarily reflect development status."[11]

Measure and concept of development

The development of a country is measured with statistical indexes such as income per capita (per person) (gross domestic product), life expectancy, the rate of literacy, et cetera. The UN has developed the Human Development Index (HDI), a compound indicator of the above statistics, to gauge the level of human development for countries where data is available. Developing countries are in general countries which have not achieved a significant degree of industrialization relative to their populations, and which have, in most cases a medium to low standard of living. There is a strong correlation between low income and high population growth. The terms utilized when discussing developing countries refer to the intent and to the constructs of those who utilize these terms. Other terms sometimes used are less developed countries (LDCs), least economically developed countries (LEDCs), "underdeveloped nations" or Third World nations, and "non-industrialized nations". Conversely, developed countries, most economically developed countries (MEDCs), First World nations and "industrialized nations" are the opposite end of the spectrum. To moderate the euphemistic aspect of the word developing, international organizations have started to use the term Less economically developed country (LEDCs) for the poorest nations which can in no sense be regarded as developing. That is, LEDCs are the poorest subset of LDCs. This may moderate against a belief that the standard of living across the entire developing world is the same. The concept of the developing nation is found, under one term or another, in numerous theoretical systems having diverse orientations for example, theories of decolonization, liberation theology, Marxism, anti-imperialism, and political economy.

Criticism of the term 'developing country'

There is criticism of the use of the term developing country.[citation needed] The term implies inferiority of a 'developing country' or 'undeveloped country' compared to a 'developed

country', which many countries dislike.[citation needed] It assumes a desire to develop along the traditional 'Western' model of economic development which a few countries, such as Cuba and Bhutan, have chosen not to allow their citizens to follow.[citation needed] The term 'developing' implies mobility and does not acknowledge that development may be in decline or static in some countries, particularly in southern African states worst affected by HIV/AIDS. In such cases, the term developing country may be considered a euphemism. The term implies homogeneity between such countries, which vary widely. The term also implies homogeneity within such countries when wealth (and health) of the most and least affluent groups varies widely.[citation needed] Similarly, the term 'developed country' incorrectly implies a lack of continuing economic development/growth in more-developed countries. In general[citation needed], development entails a modern infrastructure (both physical and institutional), and a move away from low value added sectors such as agriculture and natural resource extraction. Developed countries, in comparison, usually have economic systems based on continuous, self-sustaining economic growth in the tertiary sector of the economy and quaternary sector of the economy and high material standards of living. However, there are notable exceptions, as some countries considered developed have a significant component of primary industries in their national economies, e.g., Norway, Canada, Australia. The USA and Western Europe have a very important agricultural sector, and are major players in international agricultural markets. Also, natural resource extraction can be a very profitable industry (high value added), e.g., oil extraction.

List of developing economies

The following are considered developing economies according to the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook Report, April 2012.[12]

Typology and names of countries

Countries are often loosely placed into four categories of development. Each category includes the countries listed in their respective article. The term "developing nation" is not a label to assign a specific, similar type of problem. 1. Newly industrialized countries (NICs) are nations with economies more advanced and developed than those in the developing world, but not yet with the full signs of a developed country.[4][5][6][7] NIC is a category between developed and developing countries. It includes Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey. 2. The Advanced Emerging Markets are[20]: Brazil, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey. 3. Countries with long-term civil war or large-scale breakdown of rule of law ("failed states") (e.g. Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Somalia) or nondevelopment-oriented dictatorship (North Korea, Myanmar and Zimbabwe). 4. Some developing countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf have been classified as "Developed countries" by the World Bank.

Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained nonaligned with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World), or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Due to many of the Third World countries being extremely poor, it became a stereotype such that people commonly refer to undeveloped countries as "third world countries," often used in a pejorative way.[1][2] Over the last few decades, the term 'Third World' has been used interchangeably with the Global South and Developing Countries to describe poorer countries that have struggled to attain steady economic development.[3] Third World countries includes most of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. However some exceptions exist to this rule. Some European countries were part of the non-aligned movement and a few were and are very prosperous, including Switzerland and Austria. The Third World has also been connected to the world economic division as "periphery" countries in the world system that is dominated by the "core" countries.[3] Due to the complex history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed upon definition of the Third World and the term is now less popular than it was during the 1970s and 1980s.[3]

Etymology
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 [4] His usage was a reference to the Third Estate, the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution, opposed priests and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively. Sauvy wrote, "Like the third estate, the Third World is nothing, and wants to be something." He conveyed the concept of political non-alignment with either the capitalist or communist bloc.[5]

Third World vs. Three Worlds

The "Three Worlds Theory" developed by Mao Zedong is different from the Western theory of the Three Worlds or Third World. For example, in the Western theory, China and India belong respectively to the second and third worlds, but in Mao's theory both China and India are part of the Third Non-Aligned World.

Third Worldism
Third Worldism has been defined as "the idea, popular among Third World autocrats and many American and French leftists in the late 60s and 70s, that contrary to orthodox Marxism's view that the Western working class would deliver the world from the tyranny of capital that ... Third World elites were the privileged historical actor."[6]

History

An abandoned Mogadishu street in 1993 A number of Third World countries were former colonies, and with the end of imperialism, many of these countries, especially the smaller ones, were faced with the challenges of nationand institution-building on their own for the first time. Due to this common background, many of these nations were "developing" in economic terms for most of the 20th century, and many still are today. This term, when used today, generally denotes countries that have not "developed" to the same levels as OECD countries, and which are thus in the process of "developing". 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 a mostly arbitrary process. The large diversity of countries that were considered to be 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.[7] An argument could also be made for how parts of the U.S. are more like the Third World.[8] 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. Recently the term Majority World has started to be used since most people of the world live in poorer and less developed countries.[9]

Foreign Aid and Development

During the Cold War, unaligned countries of the Third World were seen as potential allies by both the First and Second World. Therefore, the United States and the Soviet Union went to great lengths to establish connections in these countries by offering economic and military support in order to gain strategically located alliances (e.g. United States in Vietnam or Soviet Union in Cuba).[3] By the end of the Cold War, many Third World countries had adopted capitalist or communist economic models and continued to receive support from the side they had chosen. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the countries of the Third World have been the priority recipients of Western foreign aid and the focus of economic development through mainstream theories such as Modernization Theory and Dependency Theory.[3] By the end of the 1960s, the idea of the Third World came to represent countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that were considered underdeveloped by the West based on a variety of characteristics (low economic development, low life expectancy, high rates of poverty and disease, etc.).[4] These countries became the targets for aid and support from governments, NGOs and individuals from wealthier nations. One popular model, known as Rostow's stages of growth, argued that development took place in 5 stages (Traditional Society; Pre-conditions for Take-off; Take-off; Drive to Maturity; Age of High Mass Consumption).[10] W. W. Rostow argued that Take-off was the critical stage that the Third World was missing or struggling with. Thus, foreign aid was needed to help kick start industrialization and economic growth in these countries.[10] However, despite decades of receiving aid and experiencing different development models (which have had very little success), many Third World country's economies are still be dependent on developed countries and are deep in debt.[11] There is now a growing debate about why Third World countries remain impoverished and underdeveloped after all this time.

Many argue that current methods of aid are not working and are calling for reducing foreign aid (and therefore dependency) and utilizing different economic theories than the traditional mainstream theories from the West.[12] Historically, development and aid have not accomplished the goals they were meant to and currently the global gap between the rich and poor is greater than ever.[13] Over the last few decades, global population growth has largely been focused in Third World countries (which often have higher birth rates than Developed countries). As populations expand in poorer countries, rural people are flocking to cities in a extensive urban migration that is resulting in the creation of massive shanty towns and slums[13] A lot of times there is a clear distinction between First and Third Worlds. When talking about the Global North and the Global South, the majority of the time the two goes hand in hand. People refer to the two as 'Third World/South' and 'First World/ North'; because in theory the Global North is supposedly more affluent and developed, whereas the Global South is less developed and oftentimes more poor.