countries closely coexist with pre-industrial and industrial types of production, as well as production based on the latest achievements of the scientific and technological revolution. But basically the first two types predominate. The economy of all Third World countries is characterized by inharmonious development of sectors of the national economy, which is also explained by the fact that they have not fully gone through successive phases of economic development, like leading countries.

Most developing countries have policies statism, those. direct government intervention in the economy in order to accelerate its growth rate. The lack of sufficient private capital and foreign investment forces the state to take on the functions of an investor. True, in recent years, many developing countries have begun to implement a policy of denationalization of enterprises - privatization, supported by measures to stimulate the private sector: preferential taxation, import liberalization and protectionism for the most important privately owned enterprises.

Despite the important common characteristics that unite developing countries, they can be divided into several similar groups. In this case, it is necessary to be guided by such criteria as: the structure of the country’s economy, exports and imports, the degree of openness of the country and its involvement in the world economy, some features of the state’s economic policy.

Least developed countries

To the number least developed countries include a number of states in Tropical Africa (Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Chad,

Togo, Tanzania, Somalia, Western Sahara), Asia (Kampuchea, Laos), Latin America (Tahiti, Guatemala, Guiana, Honduras, etc.). These countries are characterized by low or even negative growth rates. The agricultural sector predominates in the economic structure of these countries (up to 80-90%), although it is not able to meet domestic needs for food and raw materials. The low profitability of the main sector of the economy does not allow relying on internal sources of accumulation for much-needed investments in the development of production, training of qualified labor, improvement of technology, etc.

The least developed countries are characterized by weak development of the market mechanism. This is due to the routine state of agriculture (an average of 80% of the self-employed population is employed, which creates only 42% of the gross domestic product, the underdevelopment of industry, and the low purchasing level of the population). The national capital, however, is largely concentrated in the commercial sphere. However, he prefers to occupy a niche of trading in imported goods and not invest in national production due to the high degree of risk.

The economy of this group of countries is characterized by the underdevelopment of production and auxiliary infrastructure, transport networks, electricity, communications systems, and banking, which does not at all contribute to attracting foreign investment and hinders the development of the economy based on meager domestic savings. Moreover, the 80-90s. there has been a tendency towards a decrease in the influx of foreign investment into their economy, which is thereby becoming less open.

The structure of foreign trade is also not conducive to economic openness. All countries in this group are both exporters of agricultural products, the prices of which are most susceptible to fluctuations on the foreign market, and the largest importers of industrial products.

The demographic situation has a negative impact on the economic development of these countries. High population growth rates contribute to maintaining low income levels and restrain the growth of purchasing power. And low agricultural productivity combined with population growth leads to nutritional deficiencies and hunger.

In the world economy, the least developed countries occupy the place of the periphery, serving as suppliers of raw materials and cheap labor.

The term “Third World countries” appeared in the second half of the twentieth century to designate states that did not take part in the so-called World War that began twenty years after the end of the Second World War. We owe the modern understanding of this phrase to the Frenchman Alfred Sauvy, who published his article in 1952 in one of the popular publications at that time. In his work, Sauvy compared the concept of third world (developing) countries with the concept of the third estate of people in Therefore, the main feature of third world countries since the 80s of the 20th century began to be considered a low level of income per capita, backwardness in the field of economics, politics and industry from others world states.

In order to understand what third world countries are, you must first understand which countries are commonly called developed. A developed country is a country whose government is able to provide its citizens with a comfortable and healthy life in a safe environment. The list of modern developed countries includes: France, Australia, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Germany, USA, Japan, Vatican, Portugal, etc. The main features of developing states today are: absence or weak manifestation of democracy, unstable market economy, lack of social human rights and guarantees.

So, developing countries are countries with a low level of socio-economic development. All countries in South America, Africa and most Asian countries are considered developing countries. They are characterized by an outdated economic model, low income levels, and a weak education system. According to some estimates, 20% of all adults currently remain illiterate. Key ones, also called industrial ones, surpass the previous ones in terms of economic development. These include: South Korea, Turkey, India, Philippines, Singapore, Mexico, etc.

According to research by sociologists, third world countries differ:

Agricultural and raw material orientation of the economy;

Low quality of labor;

Existence in the past in the form of colonies;

Heterogeneity of social structure.

The development of agriculture and folk crafts still plays a decisive role in the economy of many of these states. Almost all third world countries existed as colonies until the 20th century, which could not but affect the development of their economy and industry. The world's most underdeveloped countries include: Ethiopia, Tanzania, Laos, Somalia, Honduras, Guatemala. It must be said that most of the developing countries in South Africa are currently in dire straits. These states cannot provide their residents with the opportunity to eat normally, have a roof over their heads, receive timely medical care, and attend educational institutions. The mortality rate in such countries from hunger, epidemics and murders is extremely high. Residents of economically favorable regions and countries enjoy all the benefits of civilization and strive for financial independence, while some representatives of the human race continue to live in extremely unfavorable conditions or in the far north.

A special feature of many developing countries is the development of tourism as a main activity. The endless flow of travelers ensures the material well-being of many of their residents. Today there is no place in the world that a curious traveler would not visit. Therefore, we can safely say that many countries that lag behind world powers in terms of economics surpass them in the annual influx of tourists.

Traditionally, the world has been divided into groups of countries for quite some time now. There are countries of the first world - or the "golden billion", countries of the second world - many of them used to be socialist, and countries of the third world - or developing ones. In recent years, scientific circles have also begun to single out countries of the fourth world - these are the poorest countries that cannot be called developing, because they are not developing anywhere at all, but are slowly rotting.

In addition to dividing countries into groups based on economics, it would be more correct to divide countries into 4 groups based on civilization. The most intelligent, civilized, cultural countries, in which in all populated areas everything is ordered, written and tested, technologies are debugged to the point of automaticity - this is the first world.

The second world is where cities have a centralized layout, but there is often no novelty and luxury, the population is not always well educated, but nevertheless quite smart and savvy, access to the basic benefits of civilization such as water, light, communications is present.


The Third World is a huge number of countries, in principle very different. They are united by the primitiveness and downtroddenness of the local population (a distinctive feature of many such countries is to shout “Uh-uh” or “Hello” when they see a foreigner and point their fingers at him, which is not customary in the first and second worlds), people are native, wild and are often primitive, villages are often characterized by medieval poverty and primitivism, and cities are chaotic and absurd - with sidewalks clogged with vendors, dirty courtyards, streets crowded with cars. There are often problems with education and money in such countries.

Fourth world countries - where there are no basic things like light, water, telephone, food and shops, people often do not have clothes.

Now, after classification, I will try to sort many countries into these groups. What is the first world, and where is the third?

So, let's start with Europe.
1. First world. France is classic first world. Belgium, Holland, and Germany can easily be included in this category. Also First World are Eastern European Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as Hungary. World 1 includes Scandinavia and other Western countries. Europe. Of course, only Southern Italy is in question...

2. Second world. The classic second world is Russia, Ukraine. From Europe, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Montenegro, Serbia, Lithuania, Belarus, Estonia fall into this group (the last four countries are slightly similar in some elements to the first world, but they still have a very long way to go). Despite low salaries and a weak economy, Moldova can rightfully be considered the second world. Recently, China has also been climbing from the third to the second world, but this process is lengthy.

2+. Slovakia stands apart here, which is in a transitional stage between the second and first worlds - it is stuck somewhere in the middle between them.

3. Third world. The classic third world is Egypt, India, Pakistan, Mongolia and most countries to the south of them. Many Arab countries, such as Syria, can also be included in this group. The countries of Central Asia are interesting, such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Being essentially the third world, they retained in their appearance some features of the second world (in which, at least in large localities, they were located under the USSR). Nevertheless, these remnants of the second world in them are diminishing, and the third is becoming more and more obvious. The only country in the region in which elements of the second world remain in quantity and will remain in the future, although the country itself is rather in the third, is Kazakhstan.

3+. Some countries are on the path between the third world and the second and are completely stuck on this road with no chance of moving forward - typical countries for such a “Twine” are Turkey and Kosovo. On the same road, but somewhat closer to the third world, are Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

It is also interesting that on the European continent there is one country from the third world - Albania. Iran is also curious - being for now an almost perfect third world, it has a chance in a few decades to become halfway between the third and second world - that is, to get closer to Turkey, there is some tendency towards this.

I can only talk theoretically about the fourth world; I have not been to these countries yet, but it traditionally includes Zimbabwe, the Democratic Party. rep. Congo, Chad, Afghanistan. This is what they call - it can’t get any worse.

This is the division, this is the classification. Every time you visit a new country, it is very interesting in the first couple of days to classify it and place it on one of these four shelves. Or even, in a difficult situation, hang it between two shelves. :)

People often use the term "third world" to refer to poor or developing countries. In contrast, wealthier countries such as the United States or Western Europe are commonly described as part of the “first world.” Where do these differences come from and why do we so rarely hear about the “second world”?

The origins of this model of geopolitics

Geopolitics is familiar with the "three worlds" model, which first emerged in the mid-20th century as a way of mapping the different sides in the Cold War. The origins of the concept are complex, but historians generally attribute it to French demographer Alfred Sauvy, who coined the term "Third World" in 1952 in an article entitled "Three Worlds, One Planet."
In this original context, the "First World" included the United States and its capitalist allies in places such as Western Europe, Japan, and Australia. The "Second World" consisted of the communist Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe. The “Third World,” meanwhile, encompassed all other countries that did not actively express their preference for any side in the Cold War. Basically, this term united former European colonies, and it included almost all the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.

What do these terms mean now?

Today, powerful economies in the West are sometimes referred to as the “First World,” but the term “Second World” has largely become obsolete since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The term "Third World" remains the most common of the original designations, but its meaning has changed.
It is now a general term for developing countries. Because the term is partly a relic of the Cold War, many modern scholars consider it outdated. Instead, terms such as “developing countries” or “low- and middle-income countries” are now often used.

Story

In its modern meaning, the term was first used in an article by the French scientist Alfred Sauvy in the magazine L'Observateur on August 14, 1952, in which he compared third world countries with the third estate in a traditional society. Initially, the term referred to countries that, during the Cold War, belonged neither to the Western world (NATO) nor to the socialist countries (OVD). The Third World was an arena for rivalry between developed powers. Since 1974, Maoists have identified themselves with the “third world,” denouncing the so-called “social-imperialism” and “revisionism” of the USSR. The Non-Aligned Movement was an attempt to transform the Third World into an independent international political force. Developing countries are also called “third world” countries. [ ] Developing countries, in turn, are divided into three main groups according to the degree of economic development. The most underdeveloped are the countries of Africa, the moderately developed are the countries of Asia, and the most advanced are the countries of Latin America. [ ]

Dynamics of the gap between the first and third world

According to Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor, Vice-Rector of the Russian State Social University M.I. Kodin, “the income gap between the poor and the rich is increasing. The rapid development of science and technology and advanced economics has reached only a small number of states where the so-called “golden billion” live.” Nikolai Rozov, head of the Center for Macrosociology at NSU, believes that globalization as the tightening of all connections leads to a huge increase in opportunities for strong players. One of the inevitable consequences of the development of globalization is a sharp increase in relative inequality, which increases social tension. Increasing competition in the market leads to the emergence of a mass of global lumpen and an objective strengthening of social Darwinian processes - a market analogue of natural selection.

The most powerful powers in the context of globalization are gaining even greater strength. At the same time, the gap between the VIP zone (“golden billion”) and the lower layer of the poor and overpopulated periphery is significantly increasing. The director of the Institute of History of the SB RAS, Vladimir Lamin, at a conference dedicated to the problems of demography, suggested that if the “golden billion” does not begin to truly be shared with the poor countries of the south of the planet, then in the near future there will be fierce wars for resources.

There are other assessments of globalization. Proponents of cliodynamics believe that in recent years there has been a tendency towards an equalization of the level of economic development between the first and third worlds. This, in their opinion, is a consequence of globalization, as well as the result of the growing level of education of the population of third world countries. Closely related to this are demographic and sociocultural processes, as a result of which by the 1990s, most third world countries had achieved a sharp increase in literacy, which, on the one hand, stimulated economic growth, and on the other hand, contributed to a reduction in the birth rate and a very significant slowdown in growth rates population. As a result of all these processes, in recent years most large third world countries have experienced per capita GDP growth rates significantly higher than most first world countries. As a result, according to supporters of cliodynamics, there is a fairly rapid reduction in the gap in living standards between the first and third worlds.

Particular attention is drawn to the fact that the reversal of the two-century trend of growing gap in living standards into a tendency to reduce this gap with amazing accuracy, almost up to a year (we are talking about 1973), coincided with the reversal of a number of other centuries-old trends to the exact opposite. We are talking about a transition from trends towards increasing relative growth rates of population and GDP (as well as GDP per capita) to trends towards a decrease in these rates, about a transition from a trend towards a decrease in the efficiency of energy use to a trend towards an increase in this efficiency. It has been suggested that we are dealing here with different aspects of a single process of development of the world-system, from a regime with aggravation and the beginning of movement towards a trajectory of sustainable development [ ] .

Notes

  1. Lowercase writing without quotes third World given according to the dictionary: Lopatin V.V., Nechaeva I.V., Cheltsova L.K. Uppercase or lowercase? Orthographic dictionary. - M.: Eksmo, 2009. - P. 441. - 512 p.
  2. Guy Arnold. The A to Z of the Non-Aligned Movement and Third World. - Scarecrow Press, 2010. - P. 296. - ISBN 978-1-4616-7231-9.(English)
  3. First, Second and Third Worlds
  4. scientific report at Moscow State University by prof. Kodina M. I. (unavailable link)
  5. Maria Rogovaya. Autarky or integration (undefined) . Expert magazine (February 27, 2006). Retrieved August 13, 2010. Archived February 8, 2012.
  6. Demographic alternatives of the future (undefined) . Expert magazine (September 24, 2007). Retrieved August 13, 2010. Archived February 8, 2012.