Third World

Third World, general designation of economically developing nations. The term arose during the cold war, when two opposing blocs—one led by the United States (first), the other led by the USSR (second)—appeared to dominate world politics. Within this bipolar model, the Third World consisted of economically and technologically less developed countries belonging to neither bloc. Originated by the Martinique-born Marxist writer Frantz Fanon, the designation was essentially negative and not always accepted by the countries concerned. Although political and economic upheavals in the late 1980s and early 1990s marked the collapse of the Soviet power bloc, “Third World” remains a useful label for a conglomeration of countries otherwise difficult to categorize.

The countries of the Third World, containing some two-thirds of the world's population, are located in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Politically, they are generally nonaligned (see Nonaligned Movement). Some are moving out of their previous situation and may soon join the ranks of industrialized countries. Others, with economies considered intrinsically incapable of development, are at times lumped together as forming a “fourth world.”

Political instability caused by precarious economic situations is widespread in the Third World. Democracy in the Western meaning of the term is almost completely absent. Both the Western and the former Soviet blocs have tried to entice the Third World to follow their own examples, but the countries concerned generally prefer to create their own institutions based on indigenous traditions, needs, and aspirations; most choose pragmatism over ideology. It is debated whether China is part of the Third World, with which it once identified itself on racial, cultural, and developmental grounds, proclaiming that the exploited countries should unite against imperialist forces, both Western and Soviet. After the death of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) in 1976, however, the Chinese attitude moderated.

The Third World displays little homogeneity; it is divided by race, religion, culture, and geography, as well as frequently opposite interests. It generally sees world politics in terms of a global struggle between rich and poor countries—the industrialized North against the backward South. Some nations, such as those of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), have found ways to assert their economic importance as sources of raw materials indispensable to advanced societies, and others may follow suit. Widely advocated within the Third World is a so-called New Economic Order, which through a combination of aid and trade agreements would transfer wealth from the developed to the developing nations.