Chapter 5: The Global South in a World of Powers.

Chapter 5: The Global South in a World of Powers

Chapter 5: The Global South in a World of Powers

Copyright © 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. 2

Some Definitions

• Global South: Less-developed countries

• Global North: Wealthy industrialized countries

• Third World: Cold War term for Global South

• First World: Cold War term for Global North democracies

• Second World: Cold War term for Soviet Union and other communist countries

• Fourth World: Indigenous peoples


Global South

85% of the World’s People

20% of the world’s wealth


The Global North, Global South (and Global East)


The Great North–South Divide in Wealth and Population


Imperialism

• Late 1400s: Europe used transportation and military technology to conquer colonies

• Mercantilism: Trade should increase state wealth; increase exports, decrease imports; used to take advantage of colonies

• 1880s: Final burst colonizes most of Africa

• China divided into spheres of influence


European Control of the Globe

1800 One-third

1878Two-thirds

1915Four-fifths


Global Imperialism 1914


Economic Explanations

for Imperialism• Marxism–Leninism: Capitalists need

overseas outlets for surplus capital

• Liberalism: Result of maladjustments within the capitalist system

• World-system theory: Capitalist core and dependent periphery


Political Explanations for Imperialism

• Hobson: Competition for power and prestige among European states

• Realpolitik


Imperialism Declines: 20th Century

• Self-determination: Woodrow Wilson, Treaty of Versailles

• League of Nations mandates• World War II saps strength of colonial powers,

demonstrates that colonial powers can be defeated• Decolonization from 1947–1960s• Neocolonialism: Continued domination of the

Global South by the Global North through economic means


Global North

• Democratic

• Technologically inventive

• Wealthy

• Aging populations

• Low population growth


Global South

• Most states: Not democratic Low technology use Poor Rapid population growth Overstrained social and ecological

systems

• 80 percent global population

• 15 percent global wealth


Poverty


How Do We Measure Poverty?

• Per capita GDP

• Purchasing Power Parity

• Basic Human Needs Approach Human Development Index (HDI)

• Inequality Gini Coefficient

• Gender Development Index


Gini Coefficients of Various Countries

Highest (most inequality)

Lowest (least inequality)

Selected Other Countries

Namibia, 70.7 Denmark, 24.7 Mexico, 54.0

Lesotho, 63.2 Japan, 24.9 China, 44.7

Botswana, 63.0 Sweden, 25.0 United States, 40.8

Sierra Leone, 62.9 Belgium, 25.0 United Kingdom, 36.0

Central African Rep., 61.3

Czech Republic, 25.4 Australia, 35.2

Swaziland, 60.9 Norway, 25.8 Canada, 33.1

Guatemala, 59.9 Slovakia, 25.8 India, 32.5

Brazil, 59.3 Bosnia/Herzegovina, 26.2

Russia, 31.0


UN Millennium Development Goals


The Problem of Late Development

• First Mover Advantages Economies of scale Network effects Investment funds

• Declining Terms of Trade


Strategies for Development Today

• Import Substitution

• State socialism

• Export led growth


The Asian Tigers

• Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong used export led growth to move from the world’s poorest countries to the world’s richest in half a century

• “Go where the money is.”

• Low cost production based on abundant cheap labor

• Use profits and expertise gained to move up the food chain


World Bank and Foreign Aid

• 1968–1981: Focus on basic human needs approach

• 1980s and 1990s: Focus on structural adjustment

• Recently, focus on good governance


Shortcomings of International Aid

• Goes primarily to governments

• Multiplier effect of aid

• Tied aid


Multilateral Aid and the World Bank

• Structure of the World Bank: In 2004, the U.S. had 16.4 percent of

the votes, followed by Japan with 7.9 percent, Germany with 4.5 percent and France and Britain with 4.3 percent each. 163 other members have less than one percent of the vote.


Some Critiques of the World Bank

• The voting procedure disenfranchises the poor countries that have the most at stake

• Lending may leave the recipient with debts, without much benefit

• Conditionality undermines the sovereignty of recipient governments

• Conditions often require harsh economic policies


Bilateral Foreign Aid


Modernization Theory

• Reasons for underdevelopment are internal deficiencies

• Global South must: Create conditions for efficient production, free

enterprise, and free trade Attract investment capital from the Global North Pass through stages of development and reach

“take off”

• Historical conditions that allowed the North to do this in the 19th century do not exist now


Dependency Theory

• Reasons for underdevelopment are external

• Capitalist world economy is based on a division of labor between the industrialized core and underdeveloped periphery

• Global North keeps Global South poor through: Terms of trade and finance Exploitation by multinational corporations Dualism—rural impoverished sector and urban

modernizing sector

• Has trouble explaining the NICs


The Global South’s Search for Power

• Nonaligned Movement

• Failed states

• External military intervention

• Arms acquisitions

• Preparing for natural disasters


The Global South’s Search for Prosperity (1 of 3)

• Import-substitution industrialization

• Export-led industrialization

• New International Economic Order (1974) Pushed by Group of 77 Called for changes in the international

economic system that would benefit development in the Global South and redistribute some global wealth to it

Most were rejected by the Global North



• Regional trade regimes: NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement Mercosur: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay APEC: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations SADC: Southern African Development

Community



• Trade, Aid, Investment, Debt Relief Bilateral aid: official development

assistance Multilateral aid: World Bank

• Conditionality Foreign direct investment (FDI) Multinational corporations (MNCs) Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs)


The Washington Consensus

• Free market approach is optimal

• Other approaches: Developmental state The Post-Communist Experience

• Emerging Consensus: Embraces both the developmental state

and the free market


Two Rankings of Global North Countries’ Aid to the Global South


Trends in Capital Investments in the Global South


Clooney’s Mission: Never Giving Up on Darfur

Click the icon to open the movie


Questions for Discussion

1. Do you think that the UN should make use of celebrities more often to help it with its mission of overcoming poverty in the Global South?

2. George Clooney believes that there is hope in some of the countries that he has visited. Do you see a change coming soon? Why or why not?


Questions for Critical Thinking (1 of 2)

1. What factors explain European imperialism?

2. What legacies of colonialism remain and how have they shaped the gap between the Global North and the Global South?

3. What characteristics do newly industrialized economies share with the Global North?


Questions for Critical Thinking (2 of 2)

4. What are the root causes of underdevelopment?

5. What changes in the international economic system would benefit the Global South?

6. What does the future likely hold for the Global South?


Web Links

• African Studies

• Asian Studies

• Latin American Studies

• Middle Eastern Studies

• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

• United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

• U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/?AS.html

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/favicon.ico

http://pdba.georgetown.edu/

http://menic.utexas.edu/

http://www.unctad.org/Templates/StartPage.asp?intItemID=2068

http://www.unctad.org/Templates/StartPage.asp?intItemID=2068

http://www.undp.org/

http://www.undp.org/

http://www.usaid.gov/

http://www.usaid.gov/

Chapter 5: The Global South in a World of Powers.

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Transcript of Chapter 5: The Global South in a World of Powers.