Third World

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Third World Meaning

The Third world comprises economically developing or underdeveloped countries. Additionally, these countries have lower living standards concerning health, education, and quality of life. As a result, hunger, crime, and mortality rates are higher in comparison.

Countries that chose to stay away from the 1945 Cold War, between western Capitalists and Soviet Socialists, are considered the Third world. The war ended in 1990. The majority of these countries are former colonies. After gaining independence, many of these countries faced the obstacles of nation-building.

Third World Meaning

The Third world refers to the economically weak countries. They have relatively poor living standards and a high mortality rate.
In 1952, Alfred Sauvy introduced the Third world in his article "Three Worlds, One Planet", published in L'Observateur, a French Newspaper.
In Sauvy’s historical representation, the world was divided into three segments based on economic prowess: the first world, the second world, and the third world.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) supports the growth of developing countries by offering specific grants.
In the 21st century, the term has faced significant backlash and is now considered an outdated classification.
Many of the formerly labelled poor countries are flourishing financially. Thus, Sauvy's ideology is obsolete.

Understanding Third World Countries

Third World countries practised non-alignment politics. However, in the mid of the 20th century, the nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact entered into a Cold War.

In 1952, Alfred Sauvy, a renowned French Demographer, wrote an article "Three Worlds, One Planet" for the L'Observateur. On the grounds of geopolitics and financial ability, he divided the countries into three categories: first, second, and third. The distinction between them is as follows.

First World: It was led by the U.S, comprising the Capitalist nations. It included economically powerful countries like the U.S., Australia, Western Europe, and Japan. These western countries possessed a stable democracy, strong economy, high standard of living and optimum industrialization.
Second World: It comprises the Socialist nations of the Soviet Union like South America, South Africa, China, Cuba, Thailand, Turkey, and others. These nations were focused on peasants and communist workers.
Third World: The countries which did not participate in this cold war are called Third world countries. Most of these were the former colonies and were economically underdeveloped. Geographically these countries were situated in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In the 21^st century, though, historical categorization holds no relevance. Therefore, contemporarily the countries are classified as follows.

Developed Countries: The countries possessing robust economy, advanced industrialization, sophisticated infrastructure, political stability, competitive Gross Domestic Product (GDP), quality education, life expectancy and health facilities are called developed.
Emerging Nations: The low- and middle-income nations with low per capita income, a lower standard of living, lesser gross domestic product (GDP), below-average education rate, low literacy rate and poor health facilities are called Emerging Nations.

Additionally, pollution, poverty, mortality rates, crime and corruption are relatively higher in these countries.

Frontier Markets: These countries are less developed than the emerging nations. The frontier markets face this setback due to their small size, high liquidity, and significant risk involvement. Also, termed as pre-emerging markets, they are still ahead of the Least Developed Countries (LDC).

The World Trade Organization (WTO) let the countries self-nominate, labelling themselves as developing or least developed countries. These positions can be contested between the nations. In addition, the developing countries are eligible for certain grants from the WHO. Therefore, an extended transition period is allowed when a trade or infrastructure agreement is signed between a country and WHO.

The United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) have recognized 47 Least Developed Countries (LDC). These nations have the lowest per capita income and do not have a proper sustainable development structure. In addition, these nations failed to meet the minimum two of three criteria required to be labelled as emerging nations. The criteria are economic vulnerability, human asset index, and per capita income.

List of Third World Countries

During the Cold War, the following countries were labelled as developing countries.

Mexico
Guatemala
El. Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Jamaica
Honduras
Dominican Rep.
Grenada
St. Kitts and Nevis
Antigua and Barbuda
Dominica
St. Lucia
Barbados
Trinidad & Tobago
Venezuela
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
Peru
Brazil
Bolivia
Paraguay
Chile
Argentina
Sweden
Finland
reland
Switzerland
Austria
Liechtenstein
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro
Morocco
Algeria
Mauretania
Senegal
Gambia
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea
Sierra Leone
Liberia
Ivory Coast
Burkina Faso
Mali
Ghana
Togo
Benin
Nigeria
Niger
Libya
Chad
Lesotho
Swaziland
Madagascar
Mayotte
Botswana
Zambia
Malawi
Dem. Rep. Congo
Tanzania
Burundi
Rwanda
Uganda
Kenya
Cameroon
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Congo
Central African Rep.
Sudan
South Sudan
Egypt
Israel
Syria
Iraq
Jordan
Bahrain
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Kuwait
Afghanistan
Pakistan
India
Nepal
Bhutan
Bangladesh
Myanmar
Sri Lanka
Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
Malaysia
Java
Indonesia
East Timor

Third World Countries List 2020

The list of developing countries in 2020 is as follows.

Afghanistan
Algeria
Angola
Bangladesh
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic
Congo, Republic
Côte d'Ivoire
Djibouti
Egypt, Arab Republic
El Salvador
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia, The
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Haiti
Honduras
India
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, Democratic Republic (North Korea)
Kyrgyz Republic
Lao PDR (Laos)
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Micronesia, Federal States
Moldova
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Rwanda
São Tomé and Principe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Sudan
Sudan
Sri Lanka
Swaziland
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vietnam
West Bank and Gaza (Palestine)
Yemen, Republic
Zambia
Zimbabwe

The Controversy Around Using the Word "Third World."

The third world concept has lost its ideology post-Cold War. However, this term still needs justification on the part of its basis for categorization. The ongoing debate around the terminology is based on the justification of two different criteria. Was the phrase used to describe nations which did not align for the war? Or was it used derogatorily to label nations struggling financially?

The characteristics of these countries cannot be generalized. Not all of those nations are poor, corrupt, economically vulnerable, and politically unstable. Moreover, each nation has different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, generalizing all of them under the same label is unfair.

The "Third world" concept is an economic hierarchy. This ideology hinders developing countries from growing. Many of these countries, therefore, took offence and called out the unfair discrimination. More importantly, in the 21^st century, the term has become obsolete. With the end of the Cold War, this term lost its relevance. There is no legitimacy to continue using that categorization. There is no legal authority to validate an outdated universal tag.

Alfred Sauvy had an ideology that the society comprises Capitalist and Socialist nations. Therefore, he marked a portion of the society and considered them insignificant. But in the present contemporary, many of those countries possess excellent business potential. These nations contribute substantially to the global economy through exports, human resource outsourcing, and other resources.

Frequently Ask Questions (FAQs)

What makes a country Third world?

The ideology primarily refers to economic struggles. Additionally, these countries have a lower quality of life with poor education, health and law enforcement facilities.

What are 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries?

The countries that took part in the 1945-1990 Cold War are the first and second world countries. It was fought between the Capitalist and Soviet Socialist nations, called the first and the second world, respectively. However, many countries chose not to participate in the war; these countries were labelled Third World countries.

Is it bad to say Third World?

Yes, it is a derogatory term discriminating against countries who chose not to fight in the 1945 cold war. These countries are unfairly labelled as poor. They are considered economically backwards based on an age-old ideology, totally obsolete in the 21st century.