North-South Divide:

Term used to describe the economic

gap between the rich northern
countries of the world and the south
poorer countries of the world.

NORTH
SOUTH
North-South Divide:
considered a socio economic and
political divide

 more metaphorical than it is

geographical.
 North-South Divide:
Globalization creates both affluence and poverty.
- it pushes people and groups into modernity
associated with western culture and capital
while simultaneously leaving others behind.
- Inequalities between countries and illustrate
how these inequalities necessitate the
emergence of categories like global south.
Inequalities have been produced through
political projects like colonization
Drawing the line between north and
south allows distinctions between the
beneficiaries of uneven systems of
global power
 Let’s Start with the NORTH
- includes the US, Canada, Western Europe,
Australia and New Zealand.
- Home to all the members of G8. The Group of
Eight (G8) refers to the group of eight highly
industrialized nations—France, Germany, Italy,
the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States,
Canada, and Russia—that hold an annual
meeting to foster consensus on global issues like
economic growth and crisis management, global
security, energy, and terrorism
 Let’s Start with the NORTH
- Home of the 4 countries of the P5 (excluding
China)
- Mostly Covers the West and the first World
along with the second world
- Maybe defined as richer, wealthier, more
developed region
- 95% of has enough food food and shelter
- In Economic Terms with 1 quarter of the world
population controls 4/5 of the income earned
anywhere in the world.
 Let’s Start with the NORTH
- Owns 90% of the manufacturing
companies and located in the North
- As nations become economically
developed they may become part of the
North regardless of geographical location. -
- Any nations that do not qualify for
developed status are in effect deemed to be
part of the South.
 And now the South:
- made up of Africa, Latin America and
developing Asia including Middle East
- Largely corresponds with the Third World,
developing, less developed,
- metaphor for underveloped and poorer
countries
- Lacks appropriate technology
- It has no political stability
 And now the South:
- The economies are disarticulated and their
foreign exchange earnings depend on primary
product exports
- 3 quarters of the population has only access to
1/5 of the world income
- with interconnected histories of colonialism,
neo imperialism
- with different economic and social change
with large inequalities in living standards, life
North-South Divide:
MAJOR DIFFERENCES
IN NORTH ANDSOUTH:
Some of the major differences in North and South
countries
are as follows:-
 NORTH SOUTH
 Less population  Large population

 High Wealth  Low Wealth

 High Standard of  Low Standard of

living living

 High Industrial  Low Industrial

development development

 Industry  Agriculture
Correction on below table - * Population: 71% - South, 29% North
Issues of North-South Divide:

North-South Divide Issues

Distribution of Economic
Standard of
income around competition
living
the world worldwide
Issue no. 1: Standard of living:

Lack of
trade
and aid Single
Factors lead crop
to low of farming
standard of
living
Abunda
Neo- nce of
Colonial debt
ism
Issue no.2: Distribution of
income around the world:
Liberalization of market occurs , most South
countries lost to the competition from the
North.
Encourage migration of people from South
to North for having a more good income.
Issue no.3:Economic
competition worldwide:
Stable macro
economic
framework Well
Appropriate functioning
infra public and
structure private
institutions

Factors
determine the
competitivene
ss of economy
Reasons for development gap:
ENVIRONMENTAL
natural features e.g. soil
HISTORICAL
things which have happen in years before
e.g war
SOCIO – ECONOMIC
society, culture and money e.g religion
North-south gap:
Some countries are developing faster than others.
Many Asian countries are quickly developing while
many African countries are slowly developing.
This picture of the Earth at night shows the wealthy Global
North, illuminating its communities at night, and the much poorer
Global South, which can’t afford to do so.
Comparison:
The comparison between North and South is not of
only one aspect . It can be seen through different
angles that is:
• Political
• Economical
• Social
Reasons:
There are 3 main reasons why our world is so
unequal today:

Colonialism
Trade
Debt
Colonialism:
Today’s North-South gap traces its roots to
the colonization of the Southern world
regions by Europe over the past several
centuries. This colonization occurred at
different times in different parts of the
world, as did decolonization.
Control by one power over a depend and
area or people.
Trade:
What you are spending to bring goods into your
country is a greater sum that what you aremaking
by selling products in the global economy.

You are loosing money.

Southern countries suffered from this.

Debt:
Their products were loosing money in the
global economy, so they needed to increase
production.
The only way they could do this was to
borrow money from the rich northern
countries.
This put them in debt.
Development gap:
The North-South divide has more recently
been named the development gap. This
places greater emphasis on closing the
evident gap between rich (more
economically developed) countries and poor
(less economically developed countries)
countries.
Why is the gap between the economic
north and south widening?
The richest 1% of the world’s population now receives as much
income as the poorest 57%.
Lack of trade.
Lack of aid.
Abundance of debt.
Failure of international organisations (e.g. IMF, World
Bank, WTO).
Neo-colonialism.
Adverse climatic conditions.
The difficulty of transforming the established.
Closing The Gap:
The United Nations has developed a
program dedicated to narrowing the divide
through its Millennium Development Goals.