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An essay about the state of the Third World in todays Modernizing and
Globalizing era

Third World is a word that was coined by Alfred Sauvy in midst of cold war era.
The present day meaning of this word is still significant in comparing worlds of states
in terms of economic status and independency. Other people even try to use the terms as a
ranking scheme for the state of development of countries, with the First world on top, of
course, and those belonging to this third world-catchall-term encompasses those
developing nations that are poor, less technologically advanced, dependent on the
developed countries, or have unstable governments, high rates of population growth,
illiteracy and diseases, a lack of a middle class, a lot of foreign debt, or some combination
thereof. In todays modernizing and globalizing era which primarily concerns with
economic context and technological advancement, the state of Third World nations are far
behind from those in the front seat of development.

The concept of globalization and modernity is corollary to the term development. In

dealing with these concepts, it is necessary that there be two entities to be involved to
effect change in one state to another brought about by globalization. In this case, First
World countries tend to effect directly those in the Third World. Logically, it can be said
that those in first world countries became the standard and these third world entities
depends upon them. According to Spring (2009), Third World countries do not exist
in isolation. They can only be understood in the context of the world economic
and political system. Political events in Third World countries are directly related
to events in First World countries. However, relations between First and Third
World countries are asymmetrical. The flow of power and control is from the First
World (center or core) to the Third World (periphery). Political and economic
events in the First World have a huge impact on the politics and economics of
Third World countries, but Third World political and economic events usually have
little impact on the First World. This only means that whatever are the economic
and political activities of the First world also affects the Third world but the
activities of Third World does not affect the First World. Boundless (2015) added
that the Dependency theory of Andre Gunder Frank proposes that colonialism
and neocolonialismcontinuing economic dependence on and exploitation of
former colonial countriesare the main causes global poverty. Countries have
developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor
countries in the past and continue to do so today through foreign debt and
foreign trade. Let us take Philippines an example. Presently, wealthy nations like
the United States which is categorized as First World have taken a great quantity
of materials from the Philippines, such as minerals and metals necessary to
make automobiles, weapons, and jewelry. Large amounts of agricultural products
that can only be grown in the hot climates of the country, such as coffee, tea,
sugar, and cocoa, have been exported to and manufactured in United States.
United States would not be as rich as they are today if they did not have these
materials. First World increased their own profits by exploiting the resources of
the Third World by paying less and generating or producing a product that costs
triple or quadruple than that of the raw material. This relation between countries
clothed by strong economic partnership are oftentimes defeated due to strong
interest of the controlling power of the First World countries.

Today, Third world countries are trapped by large debts offered by the First
world which prevent them from developing. Most loans to the Third World are
brought about by interest of the First World. However, with such mechanisms of
the First World, economies grow too slowly and long-term development projects
such as irrigation schemes, dams, etc. can be slow to generate the predicted
income or may fail. In the meantime, the interest builds up and can eventually
outstrip the initial loan. Hayter (2015) argues that debts and or foreign aid leads
to dependency. Debt contributes to high infant-mortality rates and low life-
expectancy because the money spent servicing debt could be spent on
improving the infrastructure of Third World countries, especially health and
education. There is a lot more of failure on the part of the dependent Third World
countries than the even more successful developed nations.

The relationship of First World-Third World is best seen in the field of labor,
likened to that of the employee-employer relationship. While employees may
have rights to form unions and bargain their interest, still the measure of
controlling bargaining power tilts in favor of the employer who capitalizes
everything in the management of labor. Like in the case of labor, economic ties
and relationships between core and periphery countries are particularly important
in understanding the status quo, most especially on that of the Third World .
Core-periphery trading patterns result in continuous growth of political and
economic power of the core at the expense of the periphery. Economic trade
causes a widening gap between developed and developing countries, rather than
narrowing that gap. The less developed countries, collectively called the Third
World, are not poor. They are broke. Divided by interest of their worlds, there is
no best OF both worlds or FOR both worlds. What is best for one compromises
the others least.

References:
From the book:

Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Peter Grimes (1995). World-Systems Analysis.

Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 21 p. 387-417.
Chirot, Daniel and Thomas D. Hall (1982). World-System Theory. Annual Review
of Sociology. Vol. 8 pp. 81-106.
Goldfrank, Walter L. (2000). Paradigm Regained? The Rules of Wallerstein's
WorldSystem Method. Journal of World-Systems Research. Vol. 6. N. 2 pp.
150-195
Skocpol, Theda. (1977). Wallerstein's World Capitalist System: A Theoretical and
Historical Critique. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 82. N. 5. 1075-1090.
Vela, Carlos (2001). World Systems Theory.
Wallerstein, Immanuel (1974). The modern World System I: Capitalist Agriculture
and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century.
New York: Academic Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel (2000). The Essential Wallerstein. The New York Press.
New York.

From the internet:

Journal of World Systems Research (2008). World Systems Theory. Retrieved

from http://csf.colorado.edu/jwsr/ on March 1, 2016.
Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems and
Civilizations (2002). Propositions of World Systems Theory. Retrieved from
http://fbc.binghamton.edu/ on March 1, 2016.
Boundless. Dependency Theories. Boundless Sociology. Boundless, 21 Jul.
2015. Retrieved 29 Feb. 2016
from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-
textbook/global-stratification-and-inequality-8/sociological-theories-and-
global-inequality-72/dependency-theories-428-8541/
Ledgister, Fragano (2011). Third World and First World: Their Distinction.
Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-
80627,00.html on February 29, 2016.