Economic and Social Development

Factors such as literacy rate, average family income, infant mortality rate, and life expectancy are used most often to measure __________.

development

Based on this lesson's concepts, what are some possible solutions that would allow for greater equality in global economic development?

(Students need to consider more than just a stable economy/high GDP as a measure of modernization. Suggestions should include improvements to lifestyle, which often are linked with an improved economy. Some suggestions for greater equality in global economic development include eliminating core countries' control of peripheral countries' goods, services, or economies, other than for trade and investment purposes; developing underdeveloped nations' education systems; and core countries providing aid in the form of supporting human needs or modeling/setting up programs to move a country toward sustainability and economic security.)

Countries with low GDPs are the most highly developed countries in the world. Please select the best answer from the choices provided.

False

Which of the following indexs includes factors such as use of time, environmental issues, and income distribution to determine development?

Genuine Progress Indicator

In 2009, the author Pawel Bozyk described Brazil as a newly industrialized country. While its economy has not yet reached that of highly developed countries, Brazil has moved itself into being a significant member of the international economy. What economic model does Brazil fit into, regarding its development path?

Rostow's Modernization Model

How do the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) and the Human Development Index (HDI) differ from GDP as measures of development?

The GPI is an alternative to measuring development beyond just the economic focus of GDP. The GPI considers social and sustainability factors along with GDP data. Social and sustainability factors include lifestyle concerns, like the ratio of work to leisure time; human needs, like education and a secure environment; income distribution, like poverty and affluence; and environmental needs, like clean water, pollution, and sanitation. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether a country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped, and to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. While a country may excel in GDP, its development ranking according to one of these indicators may rise or fall depending on the quality of life it provides its people.

Explain how the maps above depict the relationship between neocolonialism and human development.

The first map shows colonized nations in 1945. European powers had colonized vulnerable and faltering nations to undergird their economies. The second map shows that, even more than 50 years later, the majority of moderately developed or underdeveloped nations were former colonies of the presently highly developed nations. This conclusion supports neocolonialism in that former colonies have moved toward industrialization and economic independence. The economies of the former colonies are still, to an extent, dictated by, and even hampered by, their former colonizers.

Using complete sentences, explain the connection between the colonized history of Africa, India, and Indonesia, and these countries' development.

The majority of Africa, India, and Indonesia were post-World War II colonies of superpowers like Britain, France, Japan, and the United States. The colonizers exploited these countries for cheap labor and resources. When the colonies finally gained independence, the colonizers still exerted influence over the countries' economies. Several economists argue that, as a result of this outside influence, these countries cannot easily move through Walt Rostow's process for modernization. Instead, they stay somewhat subjugated to their former colonizers, who continue to dictate world trade and the global economy.

Various models explain the geography of economic development. How do the Brandt line, Walt Rostow's Modernization model, neocolonialism, and Wallerstein's world systems theory inform and intersect with each other when explaining economic development?

These models provide various explanations for the disparities in economic development. Wallerstein's world systems theory divides the world into core, semi-periphery, and periphery nations. According to this theory, core nations are highly developed nations, semi-periphery are developing nations, and periphery are underdeveloped nations. This theory intersects with the Brandt Line model of economic geography in that most underdeveloped nations fall within the Brandt Line, which divides the world between the North and South, the North being developed nations. Furthermore, according to Wallerstein, core and periphery nations work together for their developmental needs. Yet, from a neocolonialist perspective, these core nations also once were the colonizers of the peripheral nations. As a result, they continue to dictate the underdeveloped nations' economies and trade, and subsequently, their independence. Economic growth is required for periphery countries to move from subsistence/agricultural economies to industrialization, as the Rostow Modernization model demands.

Wallerstein's periphery nations are the same nations that fall inside the Brandt Line. Please select the best answer from the choices provided.

True