BP GEOGRAPHIC

Dividing the world into simple categories serves no useful purpose

By just having a look on maps which sort countries into terms like First, Second, and Third World it becomes obvious that this can only lead to confusion. On some older maps countries like Ireland, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland are marked as belonging to the “Third World”, while the Philippines, Thailand, Angola, and West Sahara are “First World” countries. But these countries are quite similar to their neighbours, there is not a big difference between Switzerland and Germany, also not between Thailand and Cambodia. These differences are often too minor to classify countries into different categories. Even “Second World” countries cannot be classified easily, because while some of them are still mainly communistic, countries like China introduced some forms of capitalism.

Achieve Development Goals in an Interconnected World

Everything in a country is connected with each other. Raising the quality of life cannot be done by just giving someone a place to stay and food. The people have to be able to support themselves, and to solve their problems the sources have to be identified. To achieve the other Millennium Development Goals it is important to educate the children of the country, so that they can think about ways to solve the problems of the country. That generation might be able to eradicate poverty and hunger, promote equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat diseases, and ensure environmental sustainability.

Advantages and disadvantages of one measure of development

A useful tool for measuring development can be GNI, either the general one or per capita. If using GNI per capita it says more about the individuals in the country. Advantages of GNI are that it’s a simple tool, it relates well to other measurements of development like life expectancy, it’s easy to compare countries with each other, it was measured for a long time already, and it shows clearly a widening gap between the Global North and South. Disadvantages are that it concentrates only on economics, it ignores the differences between countries, it downgrades aspects of an economy like peasant farming, and it’s based on one currency, the US dollar.

Basic Ideas of Development Thinkers

Adam Smith thought every individual pursues own interests, but in that way contributes more to the society than people who actively try to do so. He regarded money and goods as most important for development. His work lead to the academic discipline of economics.

Margaret Thatcher carried the book of Adam Smith with her. Her line of politics includes moral absolutism, nationalism, interest by the individual, and an uncompromising approach to achieve political goals, so people called her “Iron Lady”. She privatised companies.

W. W. Rostow proposed the Rostovian take-off model of economic growth with the stages of traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and high mass consumption. He defended free enterprise economics.