Third World Countries example essay topic

804 words
According to the modernization theory, Third World countries will have to follow the same path that Western states did earlier if they wish to modernize. (Jackson p. 440) Countries in Africa and Latin America will have to accept the modern ideas about political processes, education, and the economy. Nonetheless, leaders of these undeveloped countries normally followed the idea of authoritarian, which restricted the freedom of people. On the other hand, world institutions are only willing to provide fund and assistance to those countries with norms about freedom and capitalism.

As a result, these third world countries are unable to obtain fund to work their way out of poverty. In order to achieve modernization, Western states suggested, The way for Third World countries to develop is by competing with developed states in worldwide free trade. If domestic producers in these countries were exposed to international competition, they would be forced to become more efficient and effective: that is, they would have to modernize. (Jackson p. 440) How could these Third World countries in Africa and Latin America succeed if world organizations in developed states refuse to provide support to them? How could they compete with those highly developed countries with such limited resources?

The other factor that affects Third World countries is the dependency theory. It is basically Marxist inspired, attempts to describe the situation of LDCs as being caused by their incorporation into the global, capitalist economy during the period of colonization. (Jackson p. 440) Dependency theory actually suggests that LDCs should not follow the Western route to development. It also suggests that forcing the undeveloped countries to compete globally will only increase the gap between Third World countries and developed states. In other word, it increases poverty in those Third World countries. The existence of these Third World countries is only to provide cheap labors for the benefit of richer states.

The UN was established with its primary purpose as an international organization to ensure peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, and to promote human rights and better standards of living. The United Nations is not a world government, nor is it an independent entity. It is a means for countries to co-operate, when and if they choose to do so. The rulebook is the UN Charter, and decisions about how it is interpreted are taken by the member states.

The basic concepts on which the UN was established have also recently come under criticism from different nations. Many nations believe that the United Nations is too western orientated and claim that it pressures other nations to conform to the western ideals of right and wrong. Different cultures see differently on different issues and there is an underlying feeling amongst some nations that the UN does not cater to all cultures and nations alike. This belief has led to the UN's decrease in support and the blatant disregard for its jurisdiction shown my many countries of late. Third World countries of Latin America and Africa do not have much influence in the UN, which even makes them more weak in the political spectrum of new world order. These constant contradictions in situations worldwide and the different perspective on the fairness of international solutions to world problems make it very difficult to evaluate accurately the effectiveness of world order.

If the current global situation was examined by for example an person following western concepts, one might come to the conclusion that whilst the world is far from perfect, the initiatives in place have seen the vast improvement in achieving fair solutions. However, if one were to approach the question form the angle of a person of differing perspective, one would come to the conclusion that the initiatives in world order are not only ineffective in achieving fair national and international solutions to world problems, but are in fact creating an environment in which the major powers are attempting to violate the sovereignty of other nations and enforce their own concepts and beliefs. We can see that Third World countries in Africa and Latin America are still facing the problem of poverty. In order to work their way out, the governments should apply some appropriate policies and economic applications to overcome the problem.

On the other hand, the richer states or more developed countries should provide the necessary financial aid to those poorer countries. They should work hand-to-hand in order to strengthen the global benefit and interest, which indeed, in my opinion does not happen. This shows how week are the countries of Latin America and Africa are and how much they depend on western powers that dominate in the world.