Editing Third World (section)

== History ==
Most Third World countries are former [[Colony|colonies]]. Having gained independence, many of these countries, especially smaller ones, were faced with the challenges of {{nowrap begin}}nation-{{nowrap end}} and institution-building on their own for the first time. Due to this common background, many of these nations were "[[Developing country|developing]]" in economic terms for most of the 20th century, and many still are. This term, used today, generally denotes countries that have not developed to the same levels as [[OECD]] countries, and are thus in the process of ''developing''.

In the 1980s, economist [[Peter Thomas Bauer|Peter Bauer]] offered a competing definition for the term "Third World". He claimed that the attachment of Third World status to a particular country was not based on any stable economic or political criteria, and was a mostly arbitrary process. The large diversity of countries considered part of the Third World, ranged widely from economically primitive to economically advanced and from politically non-aligned to Soviet- or Western-leaning. An argument could also be made for how parts of the U.S. are more like the Third World.<ref>[http://www.macleans.ca/2010/09/14/third-world-america/ "Third World America"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140213004354/http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/14/third-world-america/ |date=2014-02-13 }}, ''MacLeans'', September 14, 2010</ref>

The only characteristic that Bauer found common in all Third World countries was that their governments "demand and receive Western aid," which he strongly opposed. The aggregate term "Third World" was challenged as misleading even during the Cold War period, because it had no consistent or collective identity among the countries it supposedly encompassed.

=== Development aid ===
{{Main|Development aid}}
[[File:Least Developed Countries Map New.svg|thumb|A map of the world with [[Least Developed Countries|Least Developed Countries]], as designated by the [[United Nations]], highlighted in red and countries formerly considered least developed highlighted in yellow]]
During the Cold War, unaligned countries of the Third World<ref name="Tomlinson">{{cite journal |last=Tomlinson |first=B.R. |date=2003 |title=What was the Third World |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |volume=38 |number=2 |pages=307–321|doi=10.1177/0022009403038002135 |s2cid=162982648 }}</ref> were seen as potential allies by both the First and Second World. Therefore, the United States and the Soviet Union went to great lengths to establish connections in these countries by offering economic and military support to gain strategically located alliances (e.g., the Soviet Union in Cuba).<ref name="Tomlinson" /> By the end of the Cold War, many Third World countries had adopted capitalist or communist economic models and continued to receive support from the side they had chosen. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the countries of the Third World have been the priority recipients of Western [[foreign aid]] and the focus of [[economic development]] through mainstream theories such as [[modernization theory]] and [[dependency theory]].<ref name="Tomlinson" />

By the end of the 1960s, the idea of the Third World came to represent countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that were considered underdeveloped by the West based on several characteristics: low economic development, low [[life expectancy]], high rates of poverty and disease, and others.<ref name="Gregory" /> These countries became the targets for aid and support from governments, [[non-governmental organization]]s (NGOs), and individuals from wealthier nations. One popular model, known as [[Rostow's stages of growth]], argued that development took place in five stages: traditional society, pre-conditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and age of high mass consumption.<ref name="reference">Westernizing the Third World (Ch 2), Routledge</ref> [[W. W. Rostow]] argued that "take-off" was the critical stage with which the Third World was struggling, which some argued could be facilitated through foreign aid.<ref name="reference"/>

=== Perceived "End of the Third World" ===
{{ref improve section|date=March 2025}}
Since 1990 the term "Third World" evolved to denote countries with less economic development. The term "Third World" is increasingly perceived to be politically incorrect or outdated, as it is a historical term that isn't as relevant in modern day [[geopolitics]]. Around the early 1960s, the term "underdeveloped countries" was frequently used to refer to roughly the same group of countries. This term was in turn replaced by 'developing' and 'less-developed' countries, as politicians{{which|date=March 2025}} found that the earlier term contributed to stereotypes or disrespect of this group of countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wolf-Phillips |first=Leslie |date=1979 |title=Why Third World?|journal=[[Third World Quarterly]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=105–115 |doi=10.1080/01436597908419410 |jstor=3990587 |issn=0143-6597}}</ref> 

The general definition of the Third World can be traced back to the history that nations positioned as neutral and independent during the Cold War were considered as Third World Countries, and normally these countries are defined by high poverty rates, lack of resources, and unstable financial standing.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Drakakis-Smith |first1=D. W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbzIix8TEckC&q=third+world&pg=PA3 |title=Third World Cities |date=2000 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-415-19882-0 |language=en |access-date=2020-11-22 |archive-date=2021-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715062318/https://books.google.com/books?id=WbzIix8TEckC&q=third+world&pg=PA3 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> However, based on the rapid development of modernization and globalization, some countries previously considered to be Third World countries, such as [[Brazil]], [[India]], and [[Indonesia]], achieved large economic growth and are no longer considered poor nations in the 21st century.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

The differences among nations of the Third World are continually growing throughout time, and it will be hard to use the Third World to define and organize groups of nations based on their common political arrangements since most countries live under diverse creeds in this era, such as [[Mexico]], [[El Salvador]], and [[Singapore]], which each have their distinct political systems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rieff |first=David |date=1989 |title=In The Third World |journal=Salmagundi |issue=81 |pages=61–65 |jstor=40548016 |issn=0036-3529}}</ref> The Third World categorization becomes anachronistic since its political classification and economic system are distinct to be applied in today's society. Based on the Third World standards, any region of the world can be categorized into any of the four types of relationships among state and society, and will eventually end in four outcomes: [[praetorianism]], multi-authority, quasi-democratic and viable democracy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kamrava |first=Mehran|date=1995 |title=Political Culture and a New Definition of the Third World |journal=[[Third World Quarterly]] |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=691–701 |doi=10.1080/01436599550035906 |jstor=3993172 |issn=0143-6597}}</ref>