What Does Third World Mean
The notion of the third world was developed by the French economist and sociologist Alfred Sauvy in the early 1950s . The concept derives from the idea of the third state , which is used with reference to the organization of society in the so-called Old Regime .
At that time, society was divided into three estates: the nobility , the clergy, and the third estate , made up of the bourgeoisie and the peasants. Sauvy started from this idea and drew a parallel that allowed him to explain the conformation of the world in the times of the Cold War (which began at the end of World War II and continued until the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ).
Sauvy differentiated between western and capitalist countries, socialist or communist countries and the rest of the nations. In this sense, the first world corresponded to industrialized capitalism, the second world to socialism and the third world to countries that did not belong to any of the previous groups.
After the fall of the socialist bloc, the second world ceased to exist as such. In this way, the concept of the third world began to be used to name underdeveloped countries : that is, they have a low development index, a high rate of malnutrition, educational problems and poor public health, to name a few characteristics. There are those who even speak of a fourth world to name the world's most backward nations for their enormous poverty and structural problems.
The concept of the third world is very difficult to define, since it is not something with very precise limits, but it is essential to know it in depth to work towards its eradication, to build a more just world, in which poverty does not exist and the imbalance of opportunities .
Although the lack of resources of a portion of society is something as old as humanity itself, Alfred Sauvy coined the term third world to refer especially to the countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa that, despite hosting three quarters of the world's population suffered and suffer from a high level of exploitation, contempt and neglect.
Another author who dealt with the subject of the third world was Yves Lacoste , a geographer in whose work " Geography of Underdevelopment " points out a series of characteristics that describe with great precision and in a timely manner the reality that underdeveloped countries must experience; Let's see some of them below:
* deficient and insufficient nutrition, which leads to a series of diseases and alterations in physical and mental development, with the corresponding consequences in social insertion;
* a high percentage of illiteracy, infant mortality and epidemics, phenomena that are included in the category of population deficiencies ;
* resources that the people do not take advantage of, or that they do not use in the best possible way, due to the deficiencies mentioned above and many others;
* A large part of agricultural production does not generate the expected benefits, since the techniques of developed countries are not applied, nor are there favorable trade relations at the international level;
* accentuated weakness of the middle class and a clear backwardness in the infrastructure of the cities;
* excessive restrictions on industrialization;
* absence of the tertiary sector;
* child exploitation, and a worrying percentage of unemployment and work stoppage;
* Third world countries often depend on others to sustain themselves economically;
* a social inequality impossible to ignore;
* Awareness of belonging to the third world, something that threatens development given the contempt they receive from other countries.
"Tercer mundo" is also the name of an album by the Argentine musician Fito Páez , while TercerMundo is the name of a rock band from Ecuador .