GLOBAL STRATIFICATION

First, Second and Third World

 The terms date back to the Cold War, when Western policymakers began talking about the world as
three distinct political and economic blocs
 Western capitalist countries were labeled as the “First World.” The Soviet Union and its allies were
termed the “Second World”. Everyone else was group into “Third World”
 After the Cold War ended, the category of Second World countries become null and void, but
somehow the terms “First World” and “Third World” stuck around in the public consciousness.

First World Countries have stable democracies and are characterized by the rule of law, a
capitalist economy, and a high standard of living.

Second World refer to nations that fall between first and third world countries in terms of their
development status and economic indicators. The list includes countries from Latin and South America,
Turkey, Thailand, and South Africa

Third World associated with impoverished states.

What is Global North and Global South Divide?

A socio-economic and political division of Earth popularized in the late 20th century and early
21st century. A new simpler classification created as Second World countries joined either the First World
or the Third World

Global North - high level of development; advancements in technology, a transition from an economy
based largely on agriculture to one based on industry and an improvement in living standards; high level
of life expectancy, education, and employment.
1. United States, 6. Japan,
2. Canada, 7. Singapore,
3. the United Kingdom and all member 8. South Korea,
states of the European Union, 9. Australia
4. Russia, 10. New Zealand
5. Israel,

Global South - lacks the right technology; politically unstable; economies are divided, its foreign
exchange earnings depend on primary product exports to the North; represents the previously colonized
countries which need help in the form of international aid agendas.
1. Africa,
2. Latin America,
3. developing Asia, including the Middle East, and is home to the BRIC countries (excluding
Russia): Brazil, India, and China, which, along with Indonesia, are the largest Southern states.

The Modernization Theory

This theory frames global stratification as a function of technological and cultural differences
between nations. It specifically pinpoints two historical events that contributed to Western Europe
developing at a faster rate than much of the rest of the world:
1. The Columbian Exchange- worked so well for the European countries but not to the native
Americans
2. Industrial Revolution- countries that were industrialized in the 18th and 19th centuries saw
massive improvements in their standards of living and countries that did not industrialize lag
behind.

Modernization theory resets on the idea that affluence could be attained by anyone.But why did
the industrial revolution not take hold everywhere? Modernization theory argues that the tension between
tradition and technological change is the biggest barrier to growth. A society that is more steeped in
family systems and traditions may be less willing to adopt new technologies and the new social systems
that often accompany them.

Modernization theory, in general, argues that if you invest capital in better technologies, they will
eventually raise production enough that there will be more wealth to go around and overall well-being will
go up. Furthermore, rich countries can help other countries that are still growing by exporting their
technologies and things, like agriculture machinery, information technology, as well as providing foreign
aid
Dependency Theory
After the second world war, there were many questions about international relations, one of those
questions was “why are many countries in the world not developing?” Latin American scholars are critical
and intrigued by their region’s underdevelopment. Dependency theory was a product of this experience.

The development of the nation-states of the South contributed to a decline in their independence
and to an increase in economic development of the countries of the North; was initially developed by
Hans Singer and Raul Prebisch in the 1950s and has been improved since then.

It argues that liberal trade causes greater impoverishment, not economic improvement, to less
developed countries. Trade protectionism through import substitution is the key to self-sustaining path to
development, not liberal trade or export.

In other words, rather than focusing on what poor countries are doing wrong, dependency theory
focuses on how poor countries have been wronged. It further argues that in a world of further resources,
we cannot understand why rich nations are rich without realizing that those riches came at the expense of
another country being poor.

The terms “Core nations” and “Peripheral nations” are the heart of dependency theory.
 Peripheral Nations are countries that are less developed and received an unequal distribution of
the world’s wealth.
 Core Nations - are more industrialized nations who receive the majority of the world’s wealth.

The Modern World-System

The history of colonialism inspired American sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein model of what he
called the capitalist world economy.

He described high-income nations as the “core” of the world economy. This core is the
manufacturing base of the planet where resources funnel in to become the technology and wealth
enjoyed by the Western world today.

Middle-income countries, such as India or Brazil, are considered the “semi-periphery” due to
their closer ties to the global economic core

Low-income countries are what Wallerstein called the “periphery” whose natural resources and
labor support the wealthier countries, first as colonies and now by working for multinational corporations
under neocolonialism.

In Wallerstein’s model, the periphery remains economically dependent on the core in a number of
ways, which tend to reinforce each other. First, poor nations tend to have few resources to export to rich
countries. However, corporations can buy these raw materials cheaply and then process and sell them to
richer nations. As a result, the profits tend to bypass the poor countries.

All of these unequal trade patterns lead to poor nations owing lots of money to richer nations and
creating debt that makes it hard to invest in their own development. In sum, under dependency theory,
the problem is not the lack of global wealth; it is that we do not distribute it well.