Patterns of Development
and Change
Key words
• Circular and
cumulative causation
• Core-periphery
model
• Cultural convergence
• Development
• Gross domestic
product (GDP)
• Gross national
product (GNP)
• Purchasing power parity
(PPP)
• Spread effect
• Technology
• Technology gap
• Technology transfer
• Third World
• Trickle down effect
• underdevelopment
Development
The process of growth,
expansion, or
realization of potential;
bringing regional
resources into full
productive use.
Underdevelopment
A level of economic and
social achievement
below what could be
reached – given the
natural and human
resources of an area –
were necessary capital
and technology
available
Figure 10.3 Comparative development levels.
The “North – South” line of the 1980 Brandt Report suggested a simplified
world contrast of development and underdevelopment based largely on
degree of industrialization and per capita wealth. More recently, the United
Nations General Assembly recognized 45 “least developed countries.” That
recognition reflects low ratings in three indicators: gross domestic product,
share of manufacturing in the GDP, and literacy rate. The “industrial
countries” are those identified in 1995 as most developed by the United
Nations Development Program.
Gross National Product (GNP)
• The total value of
goods and services
(with some
adjustments)
including income
received from abroad,
produced by the
residents of a country
during a specified
period (usually a
year).
Figure 10.7 Gross national product per capita.
GNP is a frequently employed summary of economic advancement, though
high incomes in sparsely populated, oil-rich countries may not have the
same meaning in developmental terms as do comparable per capita values
in industriallly advanced states. The map implies an unrealistic precision.
For namy states, when uncertain GNP is divided by unrepliable population
totals, the resulting per capita is at best a rough approximation that varies
between reporting agencies. A comparison of this map and Figure
10.11presents an interesting study in regional contrasts
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The total value of goods
and services produced
within the borders of a
country during a
specified time period,
usually a calendar year.
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
A monetary
measurement which
takes account of what
money actually buys in
each country.
Figure 10.8 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
When local
currency gross
domestic product
is converted into
purchasing power
parities, there is a
towfold revision of
the usual view of
world economic
status.
The first result is a sharp increase in the developing coutries’ share of total world
output. By varying calculations, China now falls somewhere between the world’s
second and ninth largest economy, and India, Brazil, Mexico all emerge as bigger
than Canada. Second, the abject poverty suggested by per capita gross national or
gross domestic product is seen to be much reduced in many developing countries.
India, for example, shows a 1992 GDP per capita at market exchange rates of
$310; in purchasing power parity, the figure rises to over $1200, and Parkistan’s
people jump from $420 to nearly $3000. Compare this map with Figure 10.7 to see
how PPP changes our impressions of some countries’ economic status
Relative Characteristics of Development
Developed
Less Developed
Per capita
incomes
Wealth
low, and capital is scare
high, and capital is available
Uneven within individual
Even within individual
Economies
Primary industries dominated
Rural
proportion
Farming
Over 50%
Manufacturing and service
industries dominated
Under 10%
small mechanization and low
yields
Mostly in rural
High mechanization and high
yields
Mostly in urban (>70%)
Birth and
death rates
Diet
high, and low life- expectancy
low, and high life- expectancy
Inadequate or unbalanced
Adequate or balanced
Medical
services
Housing &
infrastructure
poor
available
Overcrowding and poor , bad
sanitation yield poor social
conditions
Poor facilities and high illiteracy
May be in inferior position in
society
Good social conditions,
adequate housing and good
sanitation
High facilities and low illiteracy
Equal terms with men
Population
Education
Gender
Third World
Originally (1950S ), designating countries
uncommitted to either the “First World”. Western
capitalist bloc or the Eastern “Second World
communist bloc, subsequently a term applied to
countries considered not yet developed or in a
state of underdevelopment in economic and social
terms
Core-Periphery Model
A model of spatial
structure of an
economic system in
which
underdevelopment or
declining peripheral
areas are defined with
respect to their
dependence on a
dominating developed
core region
Circular and Cumulative Causation
A process through which tendencies for
economic growth are self-reinforcing; an
expression of the multiplier effect, it tends to
favor major cities and core regions over less
advantaged peripheral regions.
Spread Effect
• (syn: trickle – down
effect) The diffusion
outward of the
benefits of economic
growth and prosperity
from the power center
or core area to poorer
districts and people.
Technology Gap
• The contrast between the technology
available in developed core regions and
that present in peripheral areas of
underdevelopment.
Cultural Convergence
The tendency for cultures
to become more alike as
they increasingly share
technology and
organizational structures
in a modern world united
by improved
transportation and
communication
Technology Transfer
The diffusion to or
acquisition by one
culture or region of the
technology possessed
by another, usually
more developed,
society.
Noneconomic Measures of
Development
• Education
• Public Services
• Health
Education
Adult literacy rates by country (over 15 years of age) able to read and write short
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, June 2007.
Public Services
• The quality of Public Services and the
creation of facilities to assure the health of
the labor force are equally significant
evidences of national advancement.
Health
• Access to medical facilities and personnel
is another spatial variable with profound
implications for the health and well-being
of populations.
Aggregate Measures of Development
and Well-Being
• Seeking a value-free measure of the extent to
which minimum human needs are being
satisfied among the world’s countries, the
Overseas Development Council devised a
Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI).
• Three indicators: infant mortality, life expectancy,
and literacy
• Human Development Index (HDI)
• The HDI reflects the Programme’s
conviction that the important human
aspirations are leading a long and healthy
life, receiving adequate education and
having access to assets and income
sufficient for a decent quality of life.
The Role of Women
• Gender in the cultural sense refers to socially
created - not biologically based - distinctions
between femininity and masculinity.
• Much of sub-Saharan Africa and in South and
Southeast Asia, women became responsible for
most of the actual field work, while still retaining
their traditional duties in child rearing, food
preparation, and the like.
Table. Economic Indicators and Agriculture’s of Labor
COUNTRY GROUP
PER
CAPITA
GNP¹
PER CAPITA
PERCENT OF
ENERGY
LABOR FORCE
CONSUMPTION² IN
AGRICULTURE
Least Developed
Countries
All Developing
Countries
Industrial
Countries
213
48
74
982
527
58
16,065
4834
10
1. U.S dollars, 1992
2. Kilograms of oil equivalent, 1992; commercial energy only
Source: United Nations Development Program. Human Development Report
1995.
Does Foreign Aid help?
• Since the 1970s, the industrial countries have annually spent
about one-third of one percent of their gross domestic
product on aid to developing countries. In addition, large
sums have flowed from “North” to “South” in the form of
direct loans from individual countries and such international
institutions as the WWB, the IMF, and regional development
banks. Poor countries owed nearly $2 trillion in development
ralated debts to outside lenders in 1995.
• The official goal of foreign aid is, usually, to help the poor
and to develop the infrastructure essential to encourage
economic and social development. In reality, much aid
seems driven by the political interests of donor countries
rather than by the developmental needs of the recipients.
Whatever the motive, the results have been less substantial
than the amounts donated or loaned.
• Analysis of aid flows to nearly 100 countries
since the 1970s reveals that in almost all cases
aid is spent entirely on comsumption of goods
and services – for the most part by governments
and the already well-to-do elites – with rarely a
big increase in investment.
• Even countries that receive aid equal to 15% of
their GDP have no greater improvement in basic
measures of human development or economic
growth than countries receiving no aid.
• Increasingly, aid recipients are also debtor
countries, saddled with repayment obligations
that overwhelm their national budgets and
prevent expenditures from domestic funds on
health care, education, infrastructure
development, and the like.
• Aid and loans have proved more detrimental
than asvantageous as the burden of economic
reform programs falls heavily on the poorest of
their populations.
• Much of that money goes to a relatively few
countries with which the U.S has speciak
relationships, Egypt and Israel, for example,
together received 40% of the total in 1996. On a
worldwide scale, critics contend, little of the aid
from the rich “North” has been invested in places
that need it most.
• Those who support continuation fits rather than
weahens the national economy. Almost 75% of
foreign assistance flows back in the form of tied
purchases of Amercican services and agricultural
and manufactured goods.
Question
1. Do you feel that the amount the U.S spends on
foreign aid is too much, too little, or about right? If
too much, do you advocate cutting foreign aid? If
too little, qould you support an increase in the
federal budget aid allocation? What are your
reasons for your opinions?
Question
2. One widely-held opinion is that money now spent on
direct and indirect foreign aid more properly should be
spent on domestic programs dealing with poverty
unempoyment, homelessness, inner-city decay,
inequality, and the like. An equally strongly-held
contrary view is that foregin aid should take priority, for
it is needed to address world and regional problems of
overpopulation, hunger, disease, destruction of the
environment, and civil and ethnic strife those conditions
foster. Assuming you had to choose one of the two
polar positions, which view would you support and
why?
Summary
• Developed, developing, underdeveloped, least (or
less, developed, Third World, anf the like).
• Gross national product and purchasing power parity
per capita document the basic core
• A high percentage of a country’s workforce in
agriculture is associated with less developed
subsistence economies with low labor productivity
and low levels of national wealth.
• Although the correlation is not axact, countries
registering average caloric intake below daily
requirements are also countries registering poorly on
all purely economic measures of development.