Third World

Third World

Third World is a name given to nations that are generally considered to be underdeveloped economically during the 20th century. The name Third World arose during the Cold War to refer to nations that did not belong to the First and Second Worlds. While there is debate over the appropriateness of the term, and no alternative is without detractors, the term is one embraced by many Third World nations themselves, particularly in the Non-Aligned Movement.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Definition 3 History 4 Criticism of the term 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 References

Etymology

The economist and demographer Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World in referring to countries currently called either "developing" or "under-developed", especially in Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia, that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War (1945–1989). Today, Third World is synonymous with all countries in the developing world, regardless of their geopolitical alliances.

Third World was a reference to the Tiers État, the (Third Estate), the commoners of France before and during the French Revolution, opposed to the priests and nobles who composed the First Estate and the Second Estate. Like the third estate, wrote Sauvy, the Third World has nothing, and "wants to be something", implying that the Third World is exploited (as was the third estate) and that its destiny is revolutionary. Moreover, it conveyed the second concept of political non-alignment with neither the industrialized Capitalist bloc nor the industrialized Communist bloc.

Definition

In academic circles, the countries of the Third World are known as the "Global South", the "developing countries", and the "under-developed countries". Economic development workers refer to these nations as the "Two-thirds World" and "The South". Some developers disapprove of the "developing countries" term because the term implies that industrialization is progressive.

History

The term "third world" was first intended to refer to the way those countries were discovered and because most of them were born as colonies of more powerful nations before they became independent nations. The term later on became popular as a way to denominate countries that are still in the process of developling.In the colonial era, Western imperialists embarked upon a systematic destruction of the Indian and Chinese economies, thereby gaining economic ascendance in the 19th and 20th centuries.

As European colonies in Africa, Asia, Americas, and Oceania gained their independence they commonly experienced widespread poverty, high birthrates, and economic dependence upon their former colonial masters. After World War II, the capitalist Western and the communist Eastern blocs fought to expand their spheres of influence to the Third World. The military and intelligence services of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. worked secretly and publicly to influence Third World governments, with relative success.

The term Third World became popular usage during the Cold War when many poor nations adopted it in describing themselves as aligned with neither N.A.T.O. nor the U.S.S.R., but instead composed an unaligned Third World. In that context, the First World denoted the U.S. and its anti-Communist allies, concomitantly, Second World denoted the "Eastern Bloc" — the U.S.S.R. and its communist and socialist allies.

For the most part, Third World did not include China - an extreme absurdity since China remained one of the world's poorest nations during much of the Cold War, beset by state-sponsored genocide, repressive Maoism, and harboring a billion desperately poor people. Politically, the Third World emerged at the Bandung Conference (1955), which established the Non-Aligned Movement. Numerically, the Third World dominates the United Nations, but is so culturally and economically diverse that its political cohesion is hypothetical. The petroleum-rich countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, etc.) and the new industrial countries (India, China,Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico etc.) have little in common with poor countries (Haiti, Chad, Afghanistan, etc.).

Criticism of the term

The term Third World remains in common usage despite criticism that it is racist, inaccurate, outdated (as the "Second" world no longer exists), and colonialist; more because it is an ideology rather than a reality.

In general, Third World countries are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as OECD countries (developed), and consequently developing nation is the current term in use in academia. Terms such as Global South, developing countries, less economically developed countries (LEDC), least developed countries, and the Majority World have become more popular in circles where the term third world is regarded to have derogatory or out-of-date connotations. Other synonymous terms include the two-thirds world (because two-thirds of the world is underdeveloped) and The South. Some theorists, such as Andre Gunder Frank and Walter Rodney have used the term underdevelopment or underdeveloped world, to indicate their belief that there has been an active process by which the global South has been locked out of development by imperialism and the post-colonial policies of the richer nations.

Further reading

• A. R. Kasdan, The Third World: A New Focus for Development (1973)
• E. Hermassi, The Third World Reassessed (1980)
• H. A. Reitsma and J. M. Kleinpenning, The Third World in Perspective (1985)
• J. Cole, Development and Underdevelopment (1987).

References

1. Michael Quinion (2005-02-26). FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD WORLDS (html). World Wide Words. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
2. Hannah Arendt quotes (html). ThinkExist.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-19. “The Third World is not a reality, but an ideology.”