The Third World

The authors analyze the term "Third World" and how it is viewed today, as well as how we view the issue of development and the ability of a country to move from Third World status to developed nation. The Third World covers the non-industrialized and non-Soviet bloc countries (when there was a Soviet bloc). Indeed, the authors ask if it is still meaningful to speak of the Third World given that the Second World, the Soviet bloc, has dissolved, and the authors find that it is still a useful designation. There is also no acceptable alternative nomenclature to replace it. Sometimes the term "non-aligned nations" is sued, but this is less an economic and more a geopolitical designation.

The authors then consider the issue of development, its meaning, and various theories regarding how it operates and how it can be nurtured. The orthodox paradigm contains an economic model based on the neoclassical approach of Adam Smith and others. However, different theorists suggested different processes operating in development based on assessments of modernization and the role of resources and resource development.

One section of interest in this chapter refers to "New perspectives on Development," noting that the new approaches of the seventies and eighties did not necessarily eliminate the quantitative approach, but what did happen was a strengthening of the qualitative and

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h. The authors describe the models of development and health that have been in use and some of the information developed through these models. Transition models are models of change. The demographic transition model traces the historical progression of Western countries in terms of changing population characteristics, showing how development was achieved. However, since historical conditions are now different, the Third World cannot duplicate exactly the historical transition path traced by Western countries. Still, evidence of stages of development can be discerned using this model. Accompanying the demographic transition is an epidemiological transition suggesting relationship between life span and health and development and health. Other indexes have been derived from these sorts of studies, and the epidemiological transition model has analytical and predictive value, suggesting that ways that degenerative diseases operate in the population. Life expectancy becomes an easily understood statistic of development, and infant and child mortality is a major contributor to low life expectancy. Disease patterns are analyzed, especially with reference to the HIV-AIDs epidemic and other emerging diseases which may pose a major
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Third World, Commission Status, Health Organization, Potentials Fisher, World Economic, Latin America, Indus Ganges, World Soviet, Adam Smith, South Asia, third world, population growth, gender bias, south asia, economic development, life expectancy, world population, middle east, demographic transition, world health, demographic transition model, third world countries, development third world, population growth migration, responses similar conditions,
Approximate Word count = 2393
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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