Chapter 14 The Developing World
• Definitions of development
• Attributes of less-developed nations
• Major theories and perspectives on
development
• Causes of poverty
• Gender roles in the workplace and the
place of women in the world economy
• Successful and unsuccessful development
strategies
Framing this chapter
• “Modernization” & wealth as a result of the
Industrial Revolution
• The nineteenth century dual: a few rich
industrialized countries and many poor
unindustrialized countries / colonies
• Today: “More recently, this global division of
labor gave away to a new one: The wealthy
minority is increasingly engaged in office work
and the masses in hand-on manufacturing jobs
on the global assembly line as well as in
agriculture and raw material production.”
Developing, Less developed,
Underdeveloped Concepts
• Underdeveloped: situations where resources are not yet
developed – but is this a natural condition or a sociallyconstructed outcome?
• Marxists use the phrase underdeveloped to reflect an
outcome
• Broadly, development entails growth in per capita
income and the reduction of poverty
• The list of development goals: balanced healthy diet,
adequate medical care, environmental sanitation &
disease control, labor opportunities commensurate with
individual talents, sufficient educational opportunities,
individual freedom, decent housing, sustainable
economic development, and social and political milieus
promoting equality
• Development ≠ Growth
Most Common Measure of
Development: GDP per Capita
Per Capita Purchasing Power – A
better measure of relative wealth
Economic structure of the labor force
A richer portrait would indicate % in goods production & % in services
Literacy Rate
Students per teacher in primary schools
Literacy rate of women
Compare Mongolia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (for example) w/Figure 14.4
Health Indicators: Caloric Intake as
a percent of daily requirements
Health Indicators: Persons per
Physician
Inversely correlated with infant mortality rates – see Figure 14.9
The Geography of AIDS
Life expectancy at birth – not just
correlated with per capita income
Urbanization – rising % of
population in cities – Figure 14.14
Human Development Index = f( life
expectancy at birth, GDP per capita, indices of
schooling & literacy) Table 14.2
The “North-South” Split
• A phrase referring to the First and the
Third worlds, not really to latitude
• Text has good narrative describing
characteristics of the Third World in Latin
America, Southeast Asia, East Asia
(except Japan), South Asia, Middle East
and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa
• Note exceptions in NIC’s: Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, S. Korea, and
Taiwan
Brain
Drain
Low
Labor
Productivity
Land tenure
rights for
rural poor
Unequal land distribution,
Poor terms of trade
High levels of debt (Figure 14.17,
also Figure 14.18
Restrictive gender roles
Corrupt and inefficient governments
Capital Flight
The cycle
Of poverty,
And attributes
Associated
With escaping
It.
Expanded formal sectors
Establishing political stability
Democratization
Ending trade restrictions by
developed economies
Debt relief
Changing women’s role
Theory Regarding Development
• Modernization Theory – rooted in work of
Max Weber, Talcott Parsons, and Walter
Rostow
• Dependency Theory
• World-Systems Theories – Immanuel
Wallerstein
Every country
can be positioned
at one of
these stages.
Rostow viewed
capitalism
to be the
proper type
of production
system for
this development
sequence.
Critics of
modernization
theory
Dependency Theory
• Argues that the poor / periphery countries
remain this way due to colonialism, in which
terms of trade were unequal, labor remained
unskilled and low-paid, and profit was extracted
from colonies
• Development of core countries is dependent on
the underdevelopment of periphery countries
• Imports tend to be high-value goods from the
core
• Policy to escape this “trap” has emphasized selfreliance, exclusion of TNC’s, promotion of import
substitution, debt default
• Criticism of dependency theory – sweeping
treatment of all peripheral territory
World Systems Theory: dynamic
capitalist relations, hegemonic power
Development Strategies
• Are based on the concept that developed
countries can take actions that will help
countries in the periphery
• Expansion of trade with less developed
countries
• Private capital flows
• Foreign aid from advanced nations (Figure
14.21)
Industrialization in the Developing World
East
Asia?
Industrialization in the Developing
World
• Very uneven – text notes 40 countries account
for 70% of mfg. exports from developing
countries. So, most countries have not shared
deeply in this industrialization process
• Fastest growth in countries shifting from an
import substitution to an export-led strategy
• Import substitution as a way of getting internal
development – but markets are often too small &
control often rests with foreign capitalists
• Export led development, fueled by low tariffs on
imports of inputs & duty-free exports, subsidized
infrastructure and physical space, tax holidays,
and abundant low-wage labor
East Asian export processing
And special economic
Zones.
Also located in other countries
Much industrial capacity by
Multinational corporations
With operating systems
Between locally owned firms
And foreign owned companies,
Doing international subcontracting,
Or outsourcing: Nike
Export-led Industrialization, cont.
• Strong reliance on female labor in many of these
export platforms, especially in electronics
• Sweatshops – often controlled by U.S.
corporations such as Wal-Mart—push suppliers
to push down costs & keep wages low and work
days long (Some companies impose work
standards)
• East Asian Economic Miracle : education, high
national savings, government support, land
reform, export-focus, unique corporate
institutions, U.S. development policy
Uneven Development in China, India
China is
starting to
develop
strategies
to lead to
more even
Development
India – Fig. 14.26