Political, social, and cultural factors in the world have significant influence on the economic and security status of a society. The political, social, and cultural factors are parameters that reflect the stability of the local states, nations or the entire world. All countries are striving to shape their economic and security aspects by ensuring stability of political, social, and cultural factors.
Steinlin argues that, “the idea of development is the most recent stage of the enlightenment notion of human progress as a continual process of internal and external expansion based on values of rationality, secularity, and efficiency” (9).
Internal expansion involves local and national industrialization strategies geared towards economic growth while external expansion entails being in tandem with the globalization development.
The objective of achieving economic growth and stability is to eliminate poverty, which is a perpetual issue in the world full of inequalities and competition. Therefore, poverty is an issue that transcends political, social, and cultural dimensions and it affects individual members in the society at all levels, be it at local, national, or international levels.
People are unable satisfy basic human basic needs due to poverty. In the society, there are two types of poverty viz. the absolute poverty, and the relative poverty.
Absolute poverty is complete inability to satisfy the basic human needs while relative poverty is the inability to afford quality and standard human needs. Steinlin defines poverty “as a human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights” (9).
Poverty dictates the kind of lifestyles that people live and that explain why there are various socioeconomic classes of people in the society.
Human health and education depends on the economic status of the individual, family, the society. Compliant political, social, and cultural aspects in a society that seeks to keep abreast with economic development due to the globalization provide an environment where economy thrives.
Poor economic strategies by the government adversely affect the health and educational status of its citizens. Deprivation of the resources severely affects the living standards of the people for they will not afford quality and standard healthcare and education.
Poverty directly reflects poor health and low educational status of individual members in the society. Since poverty has social, political, and cultural dimensions, it affects everybody in the society. Therefore, so long as poverty still looms in the society, there would be hardly any achievements towards improving the health and educational standards of the people.
Poverty due to deprivation of basic human needs or inequality encourages the emergence of criminal activities in the society. The criminal activities in the society are proportional to the level of poverty.
Steinlin argues that, “poverty deprives individuals of privileges such as choices, security, and power needed for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other fundamental civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights” (13). This means that poverty discriminates against the poor in the society leaving them to resort to criminal activities as means of survival.
Eventually, the society becomes an unsafe place to both the poor and the rich due to poverty and crimes respectively. Therefore, the solutions to poverty lie in the government efforts that shape political, cultural, and social parameters, which determine poverty levels in a country.
Works Cited
Steinlin, Marc. “Basics on the Human Rights Based Approach to Development.” Helvetas Swiss Association for International Cooperation 6.2 (2004): 1-12.