Developing country
A developing country is a country with a relatively low standard of living, undeveloped industrial base, and moderate to low
Human Development Index . The term has tended to edge out earlier ones, including the
Cold War-defined "
Third World", which has come to have negative connotations associated with it.
Development entails a modern infrastructure , and a move away from low value added sectors such as
agriculture and
natural resource extraction.
Developed countries usually have economic systems based on continuous, self-sustaining
economic growth and high standards of living.
Encyclopedia
A
developing country is a country with a relatively low standard of living, undeveloped industrial base, and moderate to low
Human Development Index . The term has tended to edge out earlier ones, including the
Cold War-defined "
Third World", which has come to have negative connotations associated with it.
Development entails a modern infrastructure , and a move away from low value added sectors such as
agriculture and
natural resource extraction.
Developed countries usually have economic systems based on continuous, self-sustaining
economic growth and high standards of living.
The application of the term 'developing country' to all of the world's least developed countries could be considered inappropriate: a number of poor countries are not improving their economic situation , but have experienced prolonged periods of economic decline.
Measure of development
The term "developing country" often refers mainly to countries with low levels of economic development, but this is usually closely associated with social development, in terms of
education, healthcare,
life expectancy, etc.
The development of a country is measured with statistical indexes such as income per capita ,
life expectancy, the rate of
literacy, et cetera. The UN has developed the
HDI, a compound indicator of the above statistics, to gauge the level of human development for countries where data is available.
Developing countries are in general countries which have not achieved a significant degree of industrialization relative to their populations, and which have a low standard of living. There is a strong
correlation between low income and high
population growth, both within and between countries.
Nature of development
Even though a lot of the world seems to aspire to development, the term itself is criticized by those who think it is too centered on Western countries. The term implies a direction and a movement that the countries must follow; it implies an inferiority of the developing countries.
The terms utilized when discussing developing countries refer to the intent and to the constructs of those who utilize these terms. Other terms sometimes used are less developed countries , least economically developed countries , "underdeveloped nations" or "undeveloped nations",
Third World nations, the South and "non-industrialized nations". Conversely, the opposite end of the spectrum is termed
developed countries,
most economically developed countries ,
First World nations and "industrialized nations".
The
United Nations allows each nation to decide for itself whether it will be designated as "undeveloped" or "developing" .
To moderate the euphemistic aspect of the word
developing,
international organisations have started to use the term
least developed countries for the poorest nations which can in no sense be regarded as developing. That is, LLDCs are the poorest
subset of LDCs. This also moderates the naïve tendency to believe that the standard of living in
Somalia or
Ethiopia is comparable to that in
Chile or
Mexico.
The concept of the developing nation is found, under one term or another, in numerous theoretical systems having diverse orientations — for example, theories of decolonization, liberation theology, marxism, anti-imperialism, and political economy.
Sources of development
According to different theories, sources of underdevelopment include:
- Low saving which may lead to low investment according to Harrod-Domar model but large amount of saving and investment still does not imply strong development
- Intrinsic attitudes and aptitudes, real or used as justification
- attitudes and culture of the people;
- aptitudes and behavior of the elites and leaders;
- High rates of fertility
- Hystorical setting of colony being hugely explored by the great navigation period and the dawn of globalization, mostly financing and supplying the industrial development of imperalist nations with capital and commodities. Condition opposite that of the thirteen colonies in the USA which were destined for population, not exploration.
- Current globalization situation and hystorical protecionism behavior by most of developed nations often taking advantage of world's trading exchanges, such as international labor division
- Non-bilateral situation of cashflow in the world
- Income concentration inherent of capitalist societies
- Legal structures and institutions
- a breakdown in the rule of law
- high corruption
- Extrinsic factors, real or used as justification
- geopolitical or commercial interest that it creates compared to other countries;
- place of the country in a historical and cultural system;
- inadequate reforms imposed in counterpart with financing of last resort, by multilateral organizations to get out of situations of deficit and indebtedness in which the country is placed .
- lack of interest in and comprehension for the specific dynamics of a nation, by multinational companies.
Typology and names of countries
Countries are often loosely placed into four categories of development:
- Developed countries, and their dependencies
- Countries with an economy consistently and fairly strongly developing over a longer period . See Emerging markets.
- Countries with a patchy record of development ; also much of Southeast Asia, falls under this category excepting Singapore , Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand . 76% of the world's countries fall under this category.
- Countries with long-term civil war or large-scale breakdown of rule of law or non-development-oriented dictatorship
The term "developing nation" is not a label to assign a specific, similar type of problem. Designation of these nations depends on the angle at which one approaches them, and according to the solutions envisioned to solve their problems. Each one of these terms has meanings beyond its first appearance:
- The term was used for the first time by demographer Alfred Sauvy and refers to the Third Estate. The Third World does not include the nations of the liberal West nor of the Soviet bloc , and to some extent were disdained because they could not throw strong support behind either. Many "Third World" countries became independent from colonial rule amid fears that, if they were not independent, the Soviet Union would subvert them against their colonizers; both Cold War antagonists tried to control many of these countries by backing leaders and factions therein. A Cold War era term which is increasingly deprecated.
- Countries of The South and The North
- These terms originate from the fact that most developing countries are to the south of most of the developed countries. However, the geographic distinction is not perfect — for example, Australia and New Zealand, both developed, are south of most less developed countries, but not included in "the South". "North" and "South" are essentially euphemisms for "developed country" and "developing country", but are alternatives which are often preferred by people from the South because they avoid the loaded reference to "development". This is shown in the Brandt report.
- These terms suggest a greater focus on income per capita. It should be noted that this statistic only reflects the statistical average wealth of a country's citizens; when income is distributed very unequally this figure may be misleading .
- Industrialized and non-industrialized countries
- Most countries that are currently being industrialized or are in advanced phases of industrialization, also have characteristics of a post-industrial economy.
See also
External links
