Society, Seventh Edition Global Stratification. Society, Seventh Edition Changing Terminology Old terminology –First world –industrialized rich countries

Society, Seventh Edition

Global Stratification


Changing Terminology• Old terminology

– First world –industrialized rich countries– Second world –less industrial socialist countries– Third world –non-industrialized poor countries

• Problems with old terminology– After cold war, second world no longer existed– 100 country third world too economically diverse to

be meaningful


Changing Terminology• New terminology

– High-income – richest forty nations with the highest standard of living

– Middle-income – somewhat poorer nations with economic development typical for the world as a whole

– Low-income – remaining sixty with lowest productivity and extensive poverty

• The extent of global inequality is much greater than these comparisons suggest. Well-off people in rich countries live ‘worlds apart’ from the poorest people in low-income countries


High Income Countries– First to develop during industrial revolution

two centuries ago– In the year 2000, includes some 900 million

people – Enjoy over half the world’s income– More income means control of world’s financial

markets– Control of financial markets means control of

other countries

• Examples– United States, Western Europe, Japan,

Australia, Canada, etc.


Figure 9-1 (p. 222)

Distribution of World Income


Middle IncomePer Capita Income Ranging From $2,500 to $10,000

• Limited industrialization• One-half of the people are rural and

engage in agricultural activities• Life is difficult:

– A general lack of good education, medical care, and safe water

• One-third of all people live in middle-income countries

• Examples – Russia, Eastern European countries, Latin

America, and some African countries


Low Income• 60 nations in this category• About one-half the world’s people• Mostly poor, rural economies• Life expectancy is very short• Examples:

– Africa, and much of Asia


The Severity of Poverty• The U.N.’S Human Development

Report, 2001 found that – Norway had the highest “quality of life”

rating (.939)– United States followed close behind (.934)– Sierra Leone had the lowest (.258)

• One reason why quality of life differ so much is that lowest in countries like Sierra Leone is because economic productivity is low in the same countries that tend to have high population growth rates


• Relative poverty – People lack resources that others take for

granted– This sort of poverty exists in every

society, rich or poor

• Absolute poverty– A lack of resources that is life threatening– While some may exist in U.S. One-third or

more of the people in low-income countries experience poverty at this level

The Severity of Poverty


EXTENT OF POVERTY• Is poverty life threatening?

– In some African countries, half of the annual deaths occur in children under the age of 10 years

• Every ten minutes, 300 people around the world die of hunger!– 40,000 persons a day; 15 million persons

a year starve to death• In the world as a whole 15% or 1

billion people suffer from chronic hunger


Poverty & children• Poverty and children

– 100 million children in poor countries are forced to work the streets (e.g., beg, steal, selling sex)

– 100 million children have deserted their families and live off the streets

• Public reaction to street children– U.S. House of representatives reports several

hundred street children murdered in Rio de Janeiro each year

• These “urban cleansing” campaigns are carried out by death squads

– About half of all street children are in Latin America• 10,000 in Mexico City alone


Women, Slavery & Poverty• Women

– In all societies, a woman’s work is unrecognized, undervalued, and underpaid

– Workers in sweatshops are mostly women– Seventy percent of the world’s 1 billion people

living near absolute poverty are women

• Slavery1. Chattel slavery – one person owns another2. Child slavery – a more common form of bondage3. Debt bondage – employers hold workers to pay

for their debts4. Servile forms of marriage – married against

their will or forced into prostitution


Correlates of Global Poverty• Technology

– One-quarter of the people in low-income countries use human or animal power to farm land

• Population growth– Population for poor countries in africa doubles

every twenty-five years

• Cultural patterns– People resist innovations, accept slavery as a way

of life

• Social stratification– Low-income countries distribute wealth very

unequally


Correlates of Global Poverty• Gender inequality

– Raising living standards means improving women’s standing

• Global power relationships– Colonialism –the process by which some

nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations

– Neocolonialism – a “new” form of global power relationships that involves not direct political control but economic exploitation by multinational corporations

– Multinational corporations – huge businesses that operate in many countries


Modernization TheoryThis Model of Economic Development Explains This Model of Economic Development Explains Global Inequality in Terms of Technological & Global Inequality in Terms of Technological &

Cultural Differences Between SocietiesCultural Differences Between Societies

• Historical perspective– As recently as several centuries ago the entire world

was poor– Exploration, trade, and the industrial revolution

transformed Western Europe then North America

• Cultural perspective– Weber explains that the protestant reformation

reshaped traditional Catholicism – The accumulation of wealth replaced kinship and

community and fostered the rise of capitalism– Tradition and “cultural inertia” discourages people from

adopting new technologies and rising living standards


W.W. Rostow’s Stages of Modernization

– Traditional stage•Changing traditional views

– Take-off stage•Use of talents and imaginations

– Drive to technological maturity•Diversified economy takes over

– High mass consumption•Mass production stimulates consumption


The Role of Rich Nations• Assisting in population control

– Exporting birth control and educating people on its importance

• Increasing food production– The use of new hybrid seeds, modern irrigation

methods, the use of chemicals and pesticides

• Introducing industrial technology– Machinery and information must be shared if

shifts in economies are to take place

• Instituting programs of foreign aid– Money can be used for equipment necessary

for change to take place


Critical Evaluation• Modernization simply hasn’t happened in many

nations• Fails to recognize how rich nations benefit from

the status quo of poor nations• Fails to see the international relations affect all

nations• Ethnocentric in that it holds up the richest

nations as the standard to judge other societies• Blames global poverty on the poor societies

themselves


Dependency TheoryDependency TheoryThis Model of Economic Development Explains This Model of Economic Development Explains

Global Inequality in Terms of the Historical Global Inequality in Terms of the Historical Exploitation of Poor Societies by Rich OnesExploitation of Poor Societies by Rich Ones

• Historical perspective– People living in poor countries were better off

in that past than they are now. Economic position of rich & poor are linked

• Importance of colonialism – Europeans colonized much of world west, south

& east of them• “The sun never sets on the British empire”

– African slave trade most brutal form of human exploitation

– Neocolonialism is the “essence” of the modern capitalistic world economy!


Wallerstein’s Capitalist World Economy

• Today’s world economy is rooted in the colonization that began 500 years ago

– Rich countries form the core of the world economy being enriched by raw materials from around the world

– Low income countries are the periphery, providing inexpensive labor and a market for industrial products

– Middle income countries form the semiperiphery, having a closer tie to the core


Wallerstein’s IdeasWallerstein’s IdeasBasic thesis -- the world economy benefits rich

societies by generating profits and harms the rest of the world by perpetuating poverty thus the world economy makes poor nations dependent on rich ones

Three factors are involved:1. Narrow, export-oriented economies

Poor countries produce only a few crops for export to rich countries

2. Lack of industrial capacityPoor countries must sell raw materials to rich countries and then buy finished products back from them at high prices

3. Foreign debtThe poor countries of the world owe the rich countries $1 trillion dollars, including hundreds of billions to the united states!


Critical Evaluation• Wrongly treats wealth as a zero-sum game• Wrong to blame rich nations for global poverty• Too simplistic citing capitalism as the single

factor– Repressive corrupt regimes, stifling cultural tradition

• Downplays the economic dependence fostered by the former soviet union

• More protest than policy– Thinly disguised call for world socialism

Documents

Society, Seventh Edition Global Stratification. Society, Seventh Edition Changing Terminology Old terminology –First world –industrialized rich countries