Comprehensively and systematically analyze the political and economic dependency of the Third World on the First World

Comprehensively and systematically analyze the political and economic dependency of the Third World on the First World

Introduction

The term “Third World” was commonly used to refer to those countries which did not choose to side with either the West or East bloc during the Cold War. In academic circles, however, such countries are also known as developing countries, least developed countries and the Global South. Some experts do not like to use the term “developing countries” since they believe that then it would imply that industrialization is the only way to achieve progress, and they do not conform to this view. Most of the “third world” countries are situated in Africa, Asia and South America, and are mainly nations which served as colonies to other countries in the past. A high percentage of countries in the world today are third world countries, and are generally less advanced than the first world countries. Alfred Sauvy, a French economist, came up with the term third world countries, in a magazine L'Observateur on August 14, 1952, in a direct reference to the “Third Estate” of the bloody French revolution. The term “third word” was commonly used during the Cold War, to refer to those countries which remained non-aligned, and did support neither the United States nor the Soviet Union. “First World” was mostly used to describe the United States and its allies, while it was widely understood that the “Second World” accounted for Soviet Union and the countries which decided to align themselves with Moscow during the Cold War, even though this term was rarely used. There was a widespread belief amongst third world countries during the Cold War that they could seek economic aid by courting both the capitalist, as well as communist blocs, without having to align with either of them. However, such a belief was delusional on the part of third world governments, mainly because the underdeveloped, non-aligned countries were constantly suspected by both blocs of being hand in glove with the enemy, and the two superpowers worked to undermine and suppress third world countries, through covert means with mixed results. Nevertheless, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War, the term “Second World” became obsolete and the term “First World” incorporated all the developed countries, whereas the “Third World” continued to represent the world's least developed nations.

According to the dependency theory, the dependence of the third world on the first world in economic terms is due to multinational corporations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which have contributed detrimentally to this effect. It further exudes that the major beneficiaries of such an economic system are the first world countries and corporations, since dependence is self-maintaining. Many experts believe that the whole idea of development is heavily stacked in favor of Western thought. They further debate whether the root of all the ...