Third World Dependency on First World

ECONOMIC GROWTH: A COMPELLING MOTIVE TO DEPENDENCY “Is Third World dependency on First World development, practices, and funding avoidable? ” By Michael John A. San Roque ABS681M G01 Submitted to: Dr. Ma. Elena Chiong-Javier October 9, 2012 Countries of the world have been sharply divided along development. Countries that are economically buoyant, technologically advanced, and politically stable are termed ‘Developed Countries’ or ‘First World’.
On the other hand, countries that are technically and economically backward and are world market’s suppliers of primary commodities are tagged ‘Developing Countries’ or commonly referred to as ‘Third World’ (Aluko & Arowolo, 2010). During the post-world war and until now, Third World countries depend greatly on First World in order to restore and improve their agricultural, technological, political, and economic conditions which are apparently known as development (Patterson, 1999).
This development has connoted at least one thing: to escape from the undignified condition called underdevelopment (Esteva, 1992). No country would say that she doesn’t want development to occur in her lands. Third World countries are “nothing that wants to be something”. It is, therefore, proper to say that Third World dependency on First World development, practices, and funding is not avoidable. This paper would present the evidences that would support the above notion.

The evidences are based on the inevitable support given by Developed Countries in the form of foreign aid, technological, political, and economic advancement that the needy countries lack. Foreign Aid Foreign aid has become a focus and locus in the Third World. The Developing Countries are experiencing the different facets of development problems. First World countries offer aid through investment in the economy of the needy countries, loans, infrastructural development, funding of poverty-reduction programs, and also through supply of military hardware at subsidised rates.
One of the best examples of how a needy economy was not able to refuse a foreign aid was when the US created the The Marshall Plan (officially known as the European Recovery Program, ERP) that aided Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II. That quickly revived and integrated European economies into the global economy (Remenyi, 2004). Technology Transfer Third World’s desire to minimize or eradicate the gap that separates their economy to that of the First World makes them receptive to whatever the latter does in order to advance its economy.
One thing that Developed Countries have is their sophisticated technology that contributed much to the development of their industrial and agricultural sectors (Remenyi, 2004). The empirical analysis has also shown that the technological capability of the five richest countries in the world is about 13 times better than that of the five poorest. This technological progress magnetizes the poor countries and makes them realized that if they really want to enjoy the perks of development, they must adopt the advancement in technology of the rich countries (Nazara, 2000).
The importance of technology in the industrializing Indonesia’s economic development has been well established. In the era of East-Asia Miracle, the country was regarded as one of the eight economies in the region whose economic growth was founded on technical progress (World Bank, 1994). Political Ideologies The last factor that fosters inevitable dependency of Developing Countries to Developed Countries is their outstanding and influential political ideologies. The world has seen how the excellent governance and political principles brought prosperous economy to rich countries especially the United States.
The liberation of countries political mind has been necessary to break the chains of underdevelopment. This has become the stimulus for the poor countries to shift from tribal forms of authority to suffrage, political parties, elected representatives, and democratization. It also paved the way for the adoption of the policy-making strategies, economic-boosting techniques, and the integration of Third World countries to global economy (So, 2011) Dependency: Contemporary Way to Economic Development
The dependency of underdeveloped countries and domination of the developed ones are reinforced as the Third World states attempt to expand their economies (Patterson,1999). In pursuit of this endeavor, the Developing Countries has opened their hands to aid, practices, and ideologies that the economically, politically, and technologically successful countries are offering making Third World dependency unavoidable. REFERENCES Aluko, F. & Arowolo, D. (2010). Foreign aid, the Third World’s debt crisis and the implication for economic development: The Nigerian experience.
Retrieved from http://www. academicjournals. org/ajpsir/pdf/pdf2010/April/Aluko%20and%20Arowolo. pdf Esteva, G. (1992). The Development Dictionary: A guide to knowledge as power. New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd. Ferraro, V. (1996). Dependency Theory: An Introduction. Retrieved from http://marriottschool. net/emp/WPW/pdf/class/Class_6-The_Dependency_Perspective. pdf Nazara, s. (2000). The Contribution of Technology in Economy: The Decomposition of Output Differentials in 1995-2000 Indonesian IRSAM. Retrieved from http://www. iioa. rg/pdf/Intermediate-2006/Full%20paper_Prihawantoro__Nazara. pdf Patterson, T. (1999). The Cold War, decolonization, and Third World development. In T. C. Patterson, Change and development in the twentieth century (pp. 113-150). Oxford: Berg. Remenyi, J. (2004). What is Development? In D. Kingsbury et al. , Key issues in development (pp. 22-44). NY: Palgrave Macmillan So, A. (2011). The Dependency And World-Systems Perspective. Retrieved from http://www. eolss. net/Sample-Chapters/C04/E6-99A-36. pdf World Bank (1993).