The North-South Gap
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dr. Clayton Thyne
PS 235-001: World Politics
Spring 2009
Goldstein & Pevehouse,
International Relations, 8/e
Student notes version
State of the South
• World’s poor region states called:
– Third world countries, less developed countries (LDCs),
underdeveloped countries (UDCs), or developing countries
• Scholars do not agree on
• About a billion people live in abject poverty – no access
to basic nutrition and health care
– Concentrated in ____________________
– Two decades ago, similar situation in _______________, but average
income per person there has increased
– Every 6 seconds…
– 5 million children…
State of the South
• Millennium Development Goals
– Sets targets for basic needs measures
to be achieved by ________
• The 5 regions of the global South
differ on poverty reduction, income
level, and growth.
Figure 12.1
Basic Human Needs
• Food, shelter, and other necessities
–
–
• Education allows a new generation to meet over basic
needs and more through the demographic transition.
–
–
Basic Human Needs
•
Children suffer from hunger in the global South.
–
•
Health care
–
–
• Safe water
–
–
Importance of NGOs: www.sunflowersolar.com/articles/HP110_pg44_Yewdall.pdf
• Shelter
–
•
War is a leading obstacle to the…
•
Disasters
Figure 12.2
Figure 12.4
World Hunger
• Of all the basic needs of people in the global South, the
most central is food.
– Malnutrition:
– Hunger:
– 820 million people (1 in 8 worldwide) are …
• Rural communities and farming
– Colonialism disrupted…
– Shift to commercial farming (cash crops); displacement of
subsistence farmers from the land.
– Impact of international food aid on…
Rural and Urban Populations
• The displacement of subsistence farmers leads
to massive population shift.
– Urbanization:
• Capital accumulation is concentrated in ______.
• Influx of people can cause difficulties.
• Slums
• Land reform
Women in Developing Countries
• Economic accumulation in poor countries is closely tied
to the status of women in those societies.
–
• Hold inferior social status to men in the countries of the
South (more so than in the North)
• Discrimination against girls is widespread in education
and literacy.
• Work of international agencies to help women
Migration and Refugees
• Millions of people from the global South have
crossed international borders, often illegally, to
reach the North.
• The home state – no obligation to…
• Migration produces complex patterns of…
• Most industrialized states try to limit immigration from
the…
Migration and Refugees
• Migrants are distinguished from refugees
– Refugees are people fleeing to find …
• Number of refugees in 2006 was…
• Kurds in Turkey –
• Palestine • Economic impact
• Nationalism:
Theories of Accumulation: Capitalism
• Capital:
• Capitalism
– Based on liberal economics stressing …
– System of private ownership of capital that relies on …
– Views the global South as …
– Cycle of accumulation depends on …
– Concentrates __________________
– No state is purely capitalistic
– Principles of capitalism underlie the global economy with its great
disparities of wealth
Theories of Accumulation: Socialism
• Socialism – concerned with the …
– Sees the North-South divide as more of a …
– Believes capitalists exploit …
– Generally endorses the use of the …
– Does not exist anywhere in pure form.
– In theory, central planners are supposed to use resources in a rational
way that maximizes overall efficiency.
• Russia and Eastern Europe:
• China:
• Privatization
• Does not mean socialism is dead: New mixes of socialism and
capitalism are being created.
Theories of Accumulation: The World-System
• The global system of regional class divisions has been
seen by some IR scholars as a world-system, or a
capitalist world economy.
– View is _____________ in orientation; global level of analysis
– Class divisions regionalized
• Third world regions …
• Industrialized regions …
• Class struggle between the two
– Semiperiphery:
• Actual patterns of world trade support the world-system
theory to some extent
– But the shift of export-oriented manufacturing from the
industrialized countries to Asia reflects globalization
Table 12.3
Imperialism
• Imperialism structured world order
starkly around the …
• At the same time, imperialism
depends on the …
World Civilization
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
North America
Europe
China and Japan
Latin America
Africa
Arab caliphate and the Middle East
Europe
History of Imperialism 1500-2000
• European imperialism
– 15th century, with the development of oceangoing
sailing ships in which a small crew could transport a
sizable cargo over a long distance
– Decimated indigenous populations
• Decolonization
• 19th century
• 20th century
Figure 12.6
Effects of Colonialism
• Being colonized had a devastating effect on a
people and culture.
–
– White domination seen as normal after …
– Negative economic implications
– Positives of colonization
•
•
•
– Anti-colonial movements
Figure 12.7
Postcolonial Dependency
• Accumulation in the global South did not take off
once colonialism was overthrown.
– Left few people with the experience to …
– Economies had been narrowly developed.
•
•
•
– Inherited borders that were drawn in …
– Government corruption of …
Figure 12.8
Postcolonial Dependency
• Dependency theory
– Dependency as a situation in which …
– A dependent country must borrow capital to …
• Types of non-colonial dependency
– Enclave economy
– Nationally controlled production by …
– Penetration of national economies by …
Revolutionary Movements
• Political revolutions seek to change the …
• Social revolutions seek changes in the …
• Cold War years: communist insurgency
– Chinese revolution
– Latin America
• By early 1990s, communist third world
revolutions seemed to have …
Post-revolutionary Governments
• Even though revolutionaries advocate the broad
distribution of wealth, they tend to find after
taking power that centralizing accumulation is
more practical.
– Gives the state more control of …
– New elite may begin to look like …
• Impact of …
• Marxist strategies have …