Third World
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The terms First World, Second World, and "Third World" can be used to divide the nations of Earth into three broad categories. Third World is used to describe those nation-states that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Today, however, the term is synonymous with countries in the developing world, independent of their political status. However, there is no objective definition of Third World or "Third World country" and the use of the term remains common. The term Third World is also disliked as it may imply the false notion that those countries are not a part of the global economic system. Although it is also criticized as being out-of-date, colonialist, othering, and inaccurate, its use continues unabated. Political theorist Hannah Arendt contends that, indeed, "The Third World is not a reality but an ideology."
In general, Third World countries are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as OECD countries, and therefore in academia, the current term in use is "developing nation". Terms such as Global South, developing countries, less economically developed countries (LEDC), least developed countries and the Majority World have become more popular in circles where the term "third world" is regarded to have derogatory or out-of-date connotations. Development workers also call them the two-thirds world (because two-thirds of the world is underdeveloped) and The South. Some theorists, such as Andre Gunder Frank and Walter Rodney have used the term underdevelopment or underdeveloped world, to indicate the active process by which the global South has been locked out of development by imperialism and the post-colonial policies of the richer nations. Others claim that the underdevelopment of Africa, Asia and Latin America during the Cold War was influenced, or even caused by the Cold War economic, political, and military maneuverings of the most powerful nations of the time. (See Emerging markets)
It remains, however, that more politically-correct terminology continues to imply a path of progressive industrialization and/or (economic) liberalization not far removed from the more plainly ideological "Third World". Furthermore, it could be wrongly assumed that "developing world/country" is developing at all. Many developing nations, in fact, are not developing in any meaningful way what-so-ever. There simply is no path of progressive industrialization or economic advancement occurring.
The term Fourth World (as least developed countries) is sometimes used to describe the poorest Third World countries, those which lack industrial infrastructure and the means to build it.
[edit] Newly industrialized countries
Countries that have more advanced economies than developing nations in the Third World,but have not yet attained the level of developed countries in the First World, are grouped under the term Newly Industrialized Countries or NICs. These countries are: China, India, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and the GCC states.
[edit] How the concept developed
The concept of the "Third World" developed after the Bandung Conference of Colored People in 1955, a conference greatly influenced by Communist China after it began feuding with Russia (The Sino-Soviet Split). Its main idea was that a third power bloc had to be created that would be distinct from the capitalist, industrial world (First World) and the communist, industrial world (Second World). The French economist Alfred Sauvy popularized the term "Third World" to refer to these countries. "Third World" was also used in the West to refer to countries receiving foreign aid.
The majority of the population in these countries lives in poverty, and they receive foreign aid.
[edit] See also
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