Misplaced Pages

#404595

36-800: The Second World was one of the " Three Worlds " formed by the global political landscape of the Cold War , as it grouped together those countries that were aligned with the Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union . This grouping was directly opposed to the First World , which similarly grouped together those countries that were aligned with the Western Bloc of the United States . It included communist states that were originally under

72-551: A colonialist mindset); nevertheless, the three-world theory is still popular in contemporary literature and media. This might also cause semantic variation of the term between describing a region's political entities and its people. The Three Worlds Model was used to rank the development of countries and their economies during the Cold War. First World countries were capitalist and industrial; they shared similar political and economic institutions, and retained influence over parts of

108-499: A critique of the three-worlds model, considering it to be outdated. In his 1974 book The Fourth World: An Indian Reality , he describes the emergence of the Fourth World while coining the term. The fourth world refers to "nations," e.g., cultural entities and ethnic groups, of indigenous people who do not compose states in the traditional sense. Rather, they live within or across state boundaries (see First Nations ). One example

144-647: 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 World which he defined as consisting of exploited nations. Third Worldism is a political movement that argues for the unity of third-world nations against first-world influence and

180-680: Is more affluent and developed, whereas the Global South is less developed and often poorer. To counter this mode of thought, some scholars began proposing the idea of a change in world dynamics that began in the late 1980s, and termed it the Great Convergence . As Jack A. Goldstone and his colleagues put it, "in the twentieth century, the Great Divergence peaked before the First World War and continued until

216-574: Is quantified by looking at a country's human development such as life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators. The scale is 0–1 and they are put into one of four categories; 0-.55 is low, .55-.70 is medium, .70-.80 is high and very high tops out at .80–1.0. The Second World countries from the Cold War era currently range from medium human development to very high human development in terms of HDI. Some examples of Cold-War definition Second World countries were Bulgaria , Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Mongolia , North Korea , Poland , Romania ,

252-741: Is the Native Americans of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 , the Eastern Bloc ceased to exist; with it, so did all applicability of the Three-world model. Third World Since most Third World countries were economically poor and non-industrialized, it became a stereotype to refer to developing countries as "third-world countries". In political discourse,

288-535: The Eurasian Union . Most Third World countries are former colonies . Having gained independence, many of these countries, especially smaller ones, were faced with the challenges of nation- and 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. This term, used today, generally denotes countries that have not developed to

324-566: The Soviet Union , and the German Democratic Republic . The powerful economies of the West are still sometimes described as "First World", but the term "Second World" became largely obsolete following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Three-world model The terms First World , Second World , and Third World were originally used to divide the world's nations into three categories. The complete overthrow of

360-637: The Soviet sphere of influence , though some eventually broke away from the Soviet ideology (e.g., Yugoslavia's split and China's split ) to develop their own path as socialist states while retaining their communist governments. Most communist states remained under Soviet influence until the Revolutions of 1989 . In 1991, upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union , only five communist states remained: China , Cuba , Laos , North Korea , and Vietnam . Though

396-557: The Warsaw Pact were created by the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively. They were also referred to as the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc . The circumstances of these two blocs were so different that they were essentially two worlds, however, they were not numbered first and second. The onset of the Cold War is marked by Winston Churchill 's famous "Iron Curtain" speech. In this speech, Churchill describes

SECTION 10

#1732766088405

432-506: The communist world (i.e., Second World) to the clergy. The First World countries were characterized by economic prosperity, technological advancement, and political stability, whereas the Second World countries were characterized by state-controlled economies and centralized political structures. Just as the third estate comprised everybody else, Sauvy called the Third World all the countries that were not in this Cold War division, i.e.,

468-564: The 21st century. The differences among nations of the Third World are continually growing throughout time, and it will be hard to use the Third World to define and organize groups of nations based on their common political arrangements since most countries live under diverse creeds in this era, such as Mexico , El Salvador , and Singapore , which each have their distinct political systems. The Third World categorization becomes anachronistic since its political classification and economic system are distinct to be applied in today's society. Based on

504-433: The Cold War were considered as Third World Countries, and normally these countries are defined by high poverty rates, lack of resources, and unstable financial standing. However, based on the rapid development of modernization and globalization, some countries previously considered to be Third World countries, such as Brazil , India , and Indonesia , achieved large economic growth and are no longer considered poor nations in

540-682: The French magazine L'Observateur , August 14, 1952, coined the term third world ( tiers monde ), referring to countries that were playing a small role in international trade and business. His usage was a reference to the Third Estate ( tiers état ), the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution , opposed the clergy and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively (hence

576-471: 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. An argument could also be made for how parts of the U.S. are more like the Third World. The only characteristic that Bauer found common in all Third World countries was that their governments "demand and receive Western aid," which he strongly opposed. The aggregate term "Third World"

612-594: The United States in Vietnam or the Soviet Union in Cuba). 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 . By

648-443: The actual meaning of the terms "First World", "Second World," and "Third World" changed from being based on political ideology to an economic definition. The three-world theory has been criticized as crude and relatively outdated for its nominal ordering, and some sociologists have instead used the words "developed", "developing", and "underdeveloped" as replacement terms for global stratification (which have been criticized as displaying

684-405: The division of the West and East to be so solid that it could be called an iron curtain. In 1952, the French demographer Alfred Sauvy coined the term Third World in reference to the three estates in pre-revolutionary France. The first two estates being the nobility and clergy and everybody else comprising the third estate. He compared the capitalist world (i.e., First World) to the nobility and

720-503: The early 1970s, then, after two decades of indeterminate fluctuations, in the late 1980s, it was replaced by the Great Convergence as the majority of Third World countries reached economic growth rates significantly higher than those in most First World countries". Others have observed a return to Cold War-era alignments ( MacKinnon , 2007; Lucas , 2008), this time with substantial changes between 1990–2015 in geography,

756-813: 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 several characteristics: low economic development, low life expectancy , high rates of poverty and disease, and others. These countries became the targets for aid and support from governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and individuals from wealthier nations. One popular model, known as Rostow's stages of growth , argued that development took place in five stages: traditional society, pre-conditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and age of high mass consumption. W. W. Rostow argued that "take-off"

SECTION 20

#1732766088405

792-414: The former colonial world. Second World countries advocated socialism and shared certain characteristics such as centrally planned economic systems, single-party states, and mainly medium income levels. The First World and the Second World were competing for political and economic influence over developing nations known as the Third World. The Human Development Index is an index used to rank countries and

828-473: The pre–World War II status quo left two superpowers (the United States and the Soviet Union ) vying for ultimate global supremacy, a struggle known as the Cold War . They created two camps, known as blocs. These blocs formed the basis of the concepts of the First and Second Worlds. The Third World consisted of those countries that were not closely aligned with either bloc. Early in the Cold War era, NATO and

864-697: The principle of non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs . Groups most notable for expressing and exercising this idea are the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Group of 77 which provide a base for relations and diplomacy between not just the third-world countries, but between the third-world and the first and second worlds . The notion has been criticized as providing a fig leaf for human rights violations and political repression by dictatorships . Since 1990, this term has been redefined to make it more correct politically. Initially,

900-405: The same levels as OECD countries, and 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 considered part of

936-536: The sense of not joining NATO, but were prosperous, never joined the Non-Aligned Movement , and seldom self-identified as part of the Third World. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War , the term Third World has decreased in use. It is being replaced with terms such as developing countries , least developed countries or the Global South . The demographer, anthropologist, and historian Alfred Sauvy , in an article published in

972-433: The term "underdeveloped countries" was frequently used to refer to roughly the same group of countries. This term was in turn replaced by 'developing' and 'less-developed' countries, as politicians found that the earlier term contributed to stereotypes or disrespect of this group of countries. The general definition of the Third World can be traced back to the history that nations positioned as neutral and independent during

1008-487: The term Third World was often associated with being underdeveloped. China was labeled 'Third World' for several decades in the 20th century before its robust and phenomenal development of the 21st century. Some countries in the Eastern Bloc , such as Cuba , were often regarded as Third World. The Third World was normally seen to include many countries with colonial pasts in Africa , Latin America , Oceania , and Asia . It

1044-520: The term “third world” meant that a nation is “under-developed”. However, today it is replaced by the term “developing". Many times there is a clear distinction between First and Third Worlds. When talking about the Global North and Global South , the majority of the time the two go hand in hand. People refer to the two as "Third World/South" and " First World /North" because the Global North

1080-469: The terms "First World" and " Third World " continue to see present-day relevance in colloquial speech, albeit with a repurposed definition, the term "Second World" is obsolete outside of a Cold War context. The concept of "Second World" was a construct of the Cold War and the term is still largely used to describe former communist countries that are between poverty and prosperity, many of which are now capitalist states , such as Eastern Europe. Subsequently,

1116-427: The unaligned and uninvolved states in the "East–West Conflict." The Third World countries are often described as developing nations with diverse economic, social, and political conditions. With the coining of the term Third World directly, the first two groups came to be known as the "First World" and "Second World," respectively. Here the three-world system emerged. However, Shuswap Chief George Manuel presented

Second World - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-484: The use of the older form tiers rather than the modern troisième for "third"). Sauvy wrote, "This third world ignored, exploited, despised like the third estate also wants to be something ." In the context of the Cold War , he conveyed the concept of political non-alignment with either the capitalist or communist bloc. Simplistic interpretations quickly led to the term merely designating these unaligned countries. The "Three Worlds Theory" developed by Mao Zedong

1188-578: The world economy and relationship dynamics between current and emerging world powers; not necessarily redefining the classic meaning of First , Second , and Third World terms, but rather which countries belong to them by way of association to which world power or coalition of countries, such as the G7 , the European Union , OECD ; G20 , OPEC , N-11 , BRICS , ASEAN ; the African Union , and

1224-493: Was also sometimes taken as synonymous with countries in the Non-Aligned Movement . In the dependency theory of thinkers like Raúl Prebisch , Walter Rodney , Theotônio dos Santos , and others, the Third World has also been connected to the world-systemic economic division as "periphery" countries dominated by the countries comprising the economic "core" . In the Cold War, some European democracies ( Austria , Finland , Ireland , Sweden , and Switzerland ) were neutral in

1260-494: Was challenged as misleading even during the Cold War period, because it had no consistent or collective identity among the countries it supposedly encompassed. 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 to gain strategically located alliances (e.g.,

1296-415: Was the critical stage with which the Third World was struggling, which some argued could be facilitated through foreign aid. Since 1990 the term "Third World" evolved to denote countries with less economic development. The term "Third World" is increasingly perceived to be politically incorrect or outdated, as it is a historical term that isn't as relevant in modern day geopolitics . Around the early 1960s,

#404595