GEC 8 - THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Global Divides:
The North and
South

PREPARED BY: GROUP 2

 Evaluate the term Global North
01 and Global South

Objectives Analyze the important

concepts, characteristics and
02 developments of Global North
At the end of the discussion,
the students should be able to; and Global South; and

Demonstrate understanding of
the topic through sharing of
03
realizations

ACTIVITY
ACTIVITY: WATCH-THINK-SHARE

Directions: Watch the prepared film about

the factors affecting on why there is a poor
and rich countries. After watching the
videos, give your understanding on the video
and identify different factors that have
mentioned.
Global divides:
the north and
south
Introduction

The concept of Global North and Global South is used to describe

a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political
characteristics.
It is a is the socio-economic and political division that exists
between the wealthy developed countries, known collectively as
"the North," and the poorer developing countries (least
developed countries), or "the South."
The two groups are often defined in terms of their
differinglevels of wealth,development, income inequality.
democracy, political and economic freedom, as defined by
freedom indices.
GLOBAL NORTH
(Comprises one quarter of the world population) refers to
developed societies of Europe and North America, which
are characterized by established democracy, wealth,
technological advancement, political stability, aging
population, zero population growth and dominance of
worldtrade and politics.

Global North would include the United States, Canada,

England, nations of the European Union, as well as
Singapore, Japan, South Korea,and even some countries in
the southern hemisphere: Australia, and NewZealand.
GLOBAL SOUTH
(are the developing countries) (comprises three quarters
of the world population) represents mainly agrarian
economies in Africa, India, China, Latin America and
others that are not as economically sound and politically
stable as their global North counterparts and tend to be
characterized by turmoil, war, conflict, poverty, anarchy
and tyranny (Odeh, 2010).
Southern states are generally poorer developing
countries with younger, more fragile democracies
heavily dependent on primary sectorexports, and they
frequently share a history of past colonialism by
Northern states.
GLOBAL SOUTH
The Global South would include formerly colonized
countries in Africa and Latin America, there are outliers
that muddy the attempt to specify a clear North/South
divide.
For example, where do China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia
fit? In terms of their economies and power, they resemble
the North, but their political and social organization can
also resemble the South.
Global Divides: The North and South

The terms the North and the South, when

used in a global context, are alternative
designations for “developed” and
“developing” countries.
The Global North refers to the First World
Countries or Developed Countries.
The Global South refers to the Third World
Countries or the Developing Countries.
Global North Global south
Characteristics of the South
Characteristics of the North
•3/4 of the world’s people
•1/4 of the world’s people •1/5 of world’s income
•4/5 of world’s income •Average life expectancy more than 50
•Average expectancy of 70 years years
•Most people have enough to eat •1/5 or more suffer from hunger and
•Most people are educated malnutrition
•Over 90% of the world’s •1/2 of the people have little chance of
any education
manufacturing industry
•less than 10% of the world’s
•About 96% of the world’s
manufacturing industry
spendingon research and •4% of the world’s research and
development development
HISTORY OF
GLOBAL DIVIDES
HISTORY OF GLOBAL DIVIDES
The origin of dividing countries into the North-South Divide
arose during the Cold War of the mid-20th century.
During this time, countries were primarily categorized
according to their alignment between the Russian East and the
American West. Countries in the East like the Soviet Union and
China which became classified as Second World countries.
In the west, the United States and its allies were labelled as First
World countries. This division left out many countries which
were poorer than the First World and Second World countries.
The poor countries were eventually labeled as Third World
countries.
HISTORY OF GLOBAL DIVIDES
COLD WAR
•Cold War, the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after
World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union and
their respective allies.
•The Cold War was waged on political, economic, and propaganda
fronts and had only limited recourse to weapons.
•The term was first used by the English writer George Orwell in an
article published in 1945 to refer to what he predicted would be a
nuclear stalemat ebetween “two or three monstrous super-states,
each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be
wiped out in a few seconds.”
 THREE WORLD'S THEORY
FIRST WORLD SECOND WORLD THIRD WORLD
Composed of industrialized
Former communist Non-aligned world and as
and democratic countries,
countries that aren't quite the global realm of poverty
which most memberswere
in poverty but aren't and under-development.
assumed to be allied with
prosperous either (East (Afghanistan, Latin
United States against Soviet America, Asiancountries,
Germany, Georgia, Poland,
Union. (Canada, Australia, etc.) generally poor nations.
Ukraine, etc.)
Japan, Western Europe,
etc.)
 What makes a nation Third World?

Nowadays, the term Third World is more often replaced by

the terms Least Developed

Countries (UN) or Low-Income
Countries (World Bank.) Whatever term is used, it serves to
designate countries that suffer from:

high poverty
high child mortality
low economic and educational development
low self-consumption of their natural resources
Countries that are vulnerable to exploitation by
large corporations and industrialized nations.
Third World Countries
These are the developing and technologically less advanced
nations of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America.
Third world nations tend to have economies dependent on the
developed countries and are generally characterized as poor
with unstable governments and having high fertility rates, high
gender-related illiteracy and are prone to diseases.
One of the critical factors is the lack of a middle class; there is a
huge impoverished population and a small elite upper class that
controls the country's wealth and resources. Most Third World
nations also have very high foreign debt levels.
The "three worlds theory," however, was conceptually
incoherent, combining incommensurate geopolitical and socio-
economicfeatures
The Third World has become a convenient catch phrase that refers
collectively to the large number of heterogeneous societies, cultures,
and civilizations of the non- Western world most of which lie in the
tropics, have experienced colonial rule, whose economies are less
industrialized or not completely modernized and a majority of whose
population has the lowest standards of living or are considered or
consider themselves poor relative to those of the First and Second
Worlds.
The Brandt Line
The Brandt Line

The Brandt Report is the report written by the Independent

Commission, first chaired by Willy Brandt in 1980.
The Brandt Line is a visual depiction of the North-South divide
between their economies, based on GDP per capita.
It encircles the world at a latitude of 30° N, passing between
North and Central America, north of Africa and India, but
lowered towards the south to include Australia and New
Zealand above the line.
The Brandt Line

The Brandt Line

Classifying countries
In the 1980s, the Brandt Line was developed as a way of showing
how the world was geographically split into relatively richer
and poorer nations. According to this model:
• Richer countries are almost all located in the Northern
Hemisphere, with the exception of Australia and
New Zealand.
• Poorer countries are mostly located in tropical regions and in
the Southern Hemisphere.
The gap between the
‘North’ and ‘South’
The gap between the ‘North’ and ‘South’

Despite very significant development gains globally which have

raised many millions of people out of absolute poverty, there is
substantial evidence that inequality between the world’s richest
and poorest countries is widening.
In 1820 western Europe's per capita income was three times
bigger than Africa’s but by 2000 it was thirteen times as big.
In addition, in 2013, Oxfam reported that the richest 85 people
in the world owned the same amount of wealth as the poorest
half of the world’s population.
The gap between the ‘North’ and ‘South’
Today the world is much more complex than the Brandt Line
depicts as many poorer countries have experienced significant
economic and social development.
However, inequality within countries has also been growing and
some commentators now talk of a ‘Global North’ and a ‘Global
South’ referring respectively to richer or poorer communities
which are found both within and between countries.
For example, whilst India is still home to the largest
concentration of poor people in a single nation it also has a very
sizable middle class and a very rich elite.
There are many causes for these inequalities including the:
availability of natural resources;
different levels of health and education;
the nature of a country’s economy and its industrial
sectors;
international trading policies and access to markets; how
countries are governed and international relationships
between countries;
conflict within and between countries;
and a country’s vulnerability to natural hazards and
climate change.
 The Global Debate

Modernization
One answer to that question came from theorists whose work was
rooted in functionalist ideas about inequality. Because one of their
favorite themes was the transition from traditional society to modern
society, these theorists became known as the modernization school.
They never saw themselves as a single school of thought, but they did
have some perspectives in common (see Weiner, 1966).
 The Global Debate

Blame traditionalism
Poverty is the basic primordial condition of humanity: Once all societies were
poor. Poor societies stay poor because they cling to traditional and inefficient
attitudes, technologies, and institutions. In contrast, in the “modern world,”
the rise of industrial capitalism brought modern attitudes, such as the drive to
experiment and achieve; modern technologies, such as machinery and
electronics; and modern institutions to manage all this, such as financial
institutions, insurers, and stock markets.
CLOSING THE
GAP
 Closing the Gap

The North-South Divide is criticized for being a way of

segregating people along economic lines and is seen as a
factor of the widening gap between developed and
developing economies

However, several measures have been put in place to

contract the North-South Divide including the lobbying

for international free trade and globalization. The

United Nations has been in the fore frola in diminishing
the North South Divide through policies highlighted in
its Millennium Development Goals. This includes
improving education and health care, promoting gender
equality, and ensuring environmental sustainability.
 Impact of Global Divides

The globalized world faces two contradictory trends. While a globalized market
opens the prospects of unimagined wealth, it also creates new vulnerabilities to
political turmoil and the danger of a new gap.

The impact of these new trends on the developing world is profound. In economies
driven by a near imperative for the big to acquire the small, companies of developing
countries are increasingly being absorbed by American and European
multinationals. While this solves the problem of access to capital, it brings about
growing vulnerabilities to domestic political tensions, especially in times of crisis.
And within the developing countries, it creates political temptations for attacks on
the entire system of globalization.
 Impact of Global Divides

The typical developing country’s economy bifurcates: one set of

enterprises is integrated into the global economy, mostly owned
by international corporations. The rest, cut off from globalization,
employs much of the labor force at the lowest wages and with the
bleakest social prospects
 GROUP 2
GEC 8 - THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Cobacha, Kristine Mae P
Fernandez, Ranz Gio
Thank you for Cajan, Rusian Mae
Racho, Vera Shanley
Listening!! San Agustin, Joanabell
Olavere, Christine Jou
Ajento, Arriana

 References

Wikipedia contributors. (2023, January 19). Global North and Global South. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South Sawe, B. E. (2017, August
1). What is the North-South Divide?
WorldAtlas. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-north- south-divide.html
Angtud, F. M. (n.d.). global divides. https://www.slideshare.net/wildbush/global-divides

Ramos, R. (n.d.-b). Global Divides: The North and the South (Written Report). Scribd.
https://www.scribd.com/document/467579458/Global-Divides-The- North-and-the-South-
Written-Report

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, August 5). Brandt Report. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandt_Report