Third World / Global South

Couple words about the Global South.

These countries are also called underdeveloped countries. The global South is where most people live. Today several countries in Africa (Ghana, Somalia, Niger, Congo, Liberia, Zambia) would be called Third World as well as states in Asia (Afghanistan) and Latin America. Freedom and equality is often limited. Also, economic and political power is in the hands of a very few. State is unable to guarantee economic and political stability. Poverty and authoritarian rule are the norm. Democracy does not exist. Individual freed is limited. Clientelism,rent-seeking, and corruption occur in the struggle for state jobs and revenue. Sovereignty is compromised by external actors (other states, international organizations).
States are unable to perform basic tasks expected by the public such as; providing education and health care, creating infrastructure. It’s difficult to establish a democracy. It’s caused by lack of capacity because of absence of a professional bureaucracy to run the government. State is packed with officials that only supports those in power, and want to rip off resources from state for personal gain. Therefore, there is lack of growth. Poorer countries can’t compete with the advanced industrialized democracies. As a result, state decides on import substitution, import become restrict making foreign products more expensive. One local firms had developed to compete at home and abroad trade barriers were lifted off. Import substitution resulted in industries reliant on the state for economic support and unable to compete in the international market. State had to borrow in order to build and subsidize their industries. In many third world countries informal economy which is not taxed by the state. It is dominated by small enterprises (street vendors), informal economy contribute up to 60% of a country’s GDP. However, it does not generate tax revenues that could be spent on infrastructure or social welfare. These workers are not subjected to labor laws. Globalization increase gap between the North and the South. Disease such as malaria cured in the West long time ago, is still killing millions of Africans each year. West still extract natural resources from African nations. Third world states were left with legacies of colonialism (ex. Basic economic infrastructures) made wealth accumulation difficult.