Global

Divide
Angelie Genotiva
Visayas State Univerity
Objectives:

Discuss Discuss the dimensions of the global divide;

Explain Explain competing perspectives on the global divide; and

Evaluate Evaluate the impact of globalization on the global divide

Collect two lists:
• Why people are poor?
• 2. What do other people say about why people are
poor (what do you overhear people saying about
poor people?)

Compare lists.  What do we see?

The Experiences of Poverty: Voices of the Poor
This first fleeting glimpse at life in different parts of our planet is
sufficient to raise various questions:

Why does affluence coexist with dire poverty not only on different
continents but also within the same country or even the same city?
Can traditional, low-productivity, subsistence societies be transformed
into modern, high-productivity, high-income nations?
To what extent are the development aspirations of poor nations
helped or hindered by the economic activities of rich nations?
By what process and under what conditions do rural subsistence
farmers in the remote regions of Nigeria, Brazil, or the Philippines
evolve into successful commercial farmers?
 Global Divide
• The term connotes the disparities and living
conditions between the advanced industrialized
states and the developing countries.
• Often linked with the concept of development.
• Development: growth of the economy over a
certain period of time.
Traditional view of
Development
• In strictly economic terms, development has traditionally meant achieving
sustained rates of growth of income per capita to enable a nation to expand its
output at a rate faster than the growth rate of its population.
• Ex: When World Bank compares the level of development of different
countries, it typically ranks them by the average income per person, known
as Gross Domestic Product per capita.
• Assumption: Increase in GDP is caused by increase in national productivity.
When GDP per capita reaches the status of middle income developing
country, it means that a level of industrialization is reached. It was generally
assumed that the growth of national wealth would trickle down to the
poorest segments of society.
The New View of
Development
• The experience of the 1950s and 1960s, when many developing nations did reach
their economic growth targets but the levels of living of the masses of people
remained for the most part unchanged, signaled that something was very wrong with
this narrow definition of development.
• Income Inequality: a measure of how the wealth in the economy is distributed among
the population.
• It looks at the share of wealth owned by the rich and the poor. It is linked with GDP
per capita and the number of people living in poverty.
• Economic growth is a plus for poverty alleviation, but only when inequality is
constant. If growth is accompanied by the widening of income gap between the rich
and the poor, the net effect of growth is not clear.
 A Multi-dimensional
Character of Development

• To broaden the development debate beyond income poverty, the Human

Development Report introduced the Human Development Index (HDI). This index
measures the countries’ achievements in terms of:
• A long healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth
• Knowledge measured by adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary
and tertiary gross enrolment ratio; and
• A decent standard of living measured by GDP per capita in purchasing power
parity (PPP) (In US dollars).
• While income is needed for development, there must likewise be
enhancements in living standards, indicated in improvements in literacy and
mortality rates.
Development must therefore be
conceived of as a multidimensional
process involving major changes in
social structures, popular attitudes,
and national institutions, as well as the
acceleration of economic growth, the
reduction inequality, and the
eradication of poverty.
Development, in its essence, must
represent the whole gamut of change
by which an entire social system, tuned
to the diverse basic needs and evolving
aspirations of individuals and social
groups within that system, moves away
from a condition of life widely
perceived as unsatisfactory toward a
situation or condition of life regarded
as materially and spiritually better.
Competing perspectives on Global Divide

Modernization Theory

Dependency Theory

Neo-liberal Theory

World Systems Theory

Modernization Theory
Societies undergo stages of growth and move from being a traditional to a modern
one.

Poverty is the primordial condition of humanity.

All societies were once poor but to overcome it, societies must advance from
traditionalism to modernization.

Poor societies remain poor because they cling to traditional attitudes, technologies
and institutions.
In contrast, modern societies, the rise of industrial capitalism brings about modern
attitudes (such as the drive to experiment and achieve), technologies (machinery
and electronics) and institutions (markets and governments) to manage all this.
According to
Rostow (1999)
High Mass consumer society: bureaucratic society
driven by consumer durables, competitive
democracy, high technology and innovation.

Mature Society: Strong urbanized society, modern

political instis and growth of new industries

Take off: high level of social change, growth of

wealth social elite, increasing demands of
democracy, industrialization

Transitional society: aspirational society,

commercialization and surplus from agricultural
exports

Traditional society: stick to traditional values,

small governing elite, limited technology and
mainly agricultural industry.
 Dependency
Theory
• Root cause of poverty and underdevelopment is imperialism
• A critique to modernization theory that not all societies
started from being poor
• There is unequal exchange in capitalism
• Nations have been dominated by rich nations through neo-
colonial practices such as dependency debts with World
Bank and IMF, conditions of foreign aid, and influence of
MNCs on developing countries
Neoliberal Theory
• Comes from neoclassical economics
• Markets are perfectly competitive firms and
they move towards equilibrium.
• Little role of the state in managing the economy
• Review on Washington Consensus
 World Systems
Theory
• Modern world system as being composed of core
centers of power
• The fate of the developing countries can only be
understood in this bigger picture of a world system.
• Unless there will be radical change, the world system
will still remain the same.