The Setting of Politics in the Developing World

Abstract

No single word better characterizes the nature of the developing world than diverse. Even the terminology applied to the states falling into this category varies. During the cold war (1947-92), those emerging from colonialism who sought to disassociate themselves from both the Western bloc led by the United States (the First World) and the Soviet bloc of communist countries (the Second World) were labeled the Third World on the basis of political as well as economic criteria. By 1960, when approximately 20 new states emerged in Africa alone, this group of economically less-developed countries had grown into a major presence in the UN’ General Assembly. Because their agenda was less concerned with foreign policy (beyond championing complete decolonization) than economic issues (they demanded preferential access to Western markets for their exports, for example), the Third World designation became progressively less associated with their foreign policy orientation than their level of economic development, and the term is still frequently used in that sense. On the other hand, because so many of these states immediately experienced a high degree of political instability—in particular, the collapse of the Western-styled parliamentary systems they possessed at independence—while continuing to fall further behind the more developed states economically, more frequently these economically and politically struggling countries have come to be known as the underdeveloped or developing world.1 KeywordsCapita IncomeColonial PowerCongress PartyIndependence MovementColonial AuthorityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.