System Requirements

Chapter 9 : Global Inequality

Differences Between Countries

The countries of the world can be stratified according to their per-person gross national product. Forty percent of the world's population live in low-income countries, compared with only 16 percent in high-income countries.

An estimated 1.3 billion people in the world, or nearly one in four people, live in poverty today, an increase since the early 1980s. Many are the victims of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or tribal affiliation.

In general, people in high-income countries enjoy a far higher standard of living than their counterparts in low-income countries. They are likely to have more food to eat, less likely to starve or suffer from malnutrition, and likely to live longer. They are far more likely to be literate and educated and therefore have higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs. Additionally, they are less likely to have large families, and their children are much less likely to die in infancy of malnutrition or childhood diseases.

Can Poor Countries Become Rich?

Such newly industrializing economies as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea have experienced explosive economic growth since the mid-1970s. This growth is due partly to historical circumstances, to a lesser degree to the cultural characteristics of these countries, and most important, to the central role played by their governments. Whether this growth will continue is now in question, given the economic difficulties some of these countries currently face.

Theories of Global Inequalitye

Market-oriented theories of global inequality, such as modernization theory, claim that cultural and institutional barriers to development explain the poverty of low-income societies. In this view, to eliminate poverty, fatalistic attitudes must be overcome, government meddling in economic affairs ended, and a high rate of savings and investment encouraged.

Dependency theories claim that global poverty is the result of the exploitation of poor countries by wealthy ones. Dependent development theory argues that even though the economic fate of poor countries is ultimately determined by wealthy ones, some development is possible within dependent capitalistic relations.

World-systems theory argues that the capitalist world system as a whole-not just individual countries-must be understood if we hope to make sense of global inequality. World-systems theory focuses on the relationships of core, peripheral, and semiperipheral countries in the global economy; long-term trends in the global economy; and global commodity chains that erase national borders.

State-centered theories emphasize the role that governments can play in fostering economic development. These theories draw on the experience of the rapidly growing East Asian newly industrializing conomies as an example.

The Future of Global Inequality

No one can say for sure whether global inequality will increase or decrease in the future. It is possible that some leveling out of wages will occur worldwide, as wages decline in wealthy countries and rise in poor countries. It is also possible that all countries will someday prosper as the result of a unified global economy

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