Introduction
Today there are many people in the world in such continents like Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America who are living in poverty as a result of underdeveloped economical, political and social systems. Poverty is defined as living below the poverty line which is pegged on number of families that survive on one dollar or less per day.
According to Chaliand, “the underdevelopment of the third world is marked by a number of common traits such as distorted and highly dependent economies, rural social structures, high population growth and widespread poverty”. Poor level of education, illiteracy and shortage of mass media are also huge obstacles for underdeveloped countries to grow and progress. This paper examines the problems that prevent the development of the third world countries and the reasons why the western countries continue to progress on the other hand.
Problems facing third world countries
The Third World countries face multiple common development problems that have limited their economical, political, social and democratic development. Some of these common development problems include widespread poverty, low level of literacy, access to quality education, gender inequality, lack of access to information, knowledge and lack of adequate health service facilities. These common factors that prevent development of the third world counties do not work in isolation but combine together to cause these problems.
How population, health and economic problems prevent development
According to Willett (2011), rapid population growth is the single largest challenge to developing countries as it makes every other problem worse and difficult to solve since in essence it compounds them. The problem of population in the third world implies that a large number of inhabitants will tend to strain the available resources and diverts scarce government and non-government resources at its expense.
Health is a serious problem in many underdeveloped countries as many people frequently suffer from ill health and fatal diseases. The main causes of diseases in these countries are malnutrition, lack of health care, shortage of doctors, lack of qualified medical personnel, drug shortage, constrained sanitation facilities and consumption of contaminated water. Indeed, the well being of a society is measured by the physical state of its people and for any country to progress; it must have a healthy nation (Sonderling).
Many third world countries face serious economic problems such as high unemployment, technological limitations, weak industrial sector, limited natural resources, inefficient systems and unfavorable balance of payment in trade arrangements with the western countries. Because of these challenges many developing countries are unable to focus on important development issues such as improvement of infrastructure and economic policy (Sullivan and Sheffrin).
Modernization Theory: The Dominant Paradigm
Three reasons why tradition is an obstacle to development
Certain internal conditions such as rigid and retrogressive traditions limit development.
Traditional practices, coupled with long and established socio-political structures are seen as one of the major obstacles for transition from rural, underdeveloped economies to modernization. People in traditional societies are oriented towards the past way of life since they follow the old set of beliefs, customs and practices from previous generations which with time can become outdated or irrelevant.
Limited knowledge, lack of education and strong cultural mentalities prevents the least developed nations from adjusting and embracing modern technologies and systems. In third world countries, regulation and understanding of social, economic and political practices is dependent on the existence of present systems. A person’s position in the society for instance is determined by that person’s status in the family, clan or tribe and this are issues dictated by cultural norms which are unlikely to change anytime soon. This is because members of a traditional society normally have an emotional, superstitious and fatalistic perspective of the world that prevents them from moving towards modernization (Sonderling).
List and explain how ten traditional values of peasant society prevent development
The vast majority of people in third world countries live in rural areas where traditional values play a key role in understanding and interacting with each other in their community. These deep-rooted traditional values which have been used historically especially by peasant societies pose an inherent obstacle towards development. They include such practices like: mutual distrust, limited perception, dependence and hostility towards government authority, family dependence, lack of innovativeness, fatalism, limited aspirations, lack of differed gratification, parochial mind and low level of empathy.
When people stick to one common way of doing things such as is the case with tradition norms, they deny potential innovators and investors an opportunity to develop better ways of doing the same things. However, it is probably because the peasant societies believe that they are accomplished and refined in the way they live and on the other hand because they are afraid of modernity eroding their cultural values. As humanity progresses, multiple innovations have been developed as well as new ways of doing different things; thus, tradition is a hindrance since it obstructs such progress.
Three reasons why modern society develops
Modernization is a concept that refers to process in which a society is transformed from a rural society to an industrialized, urbanized society including the social changes that completely transform the lives of individuals in those societies. Modern society develops in the following ways that notably involve people discarding traditional values, customs and beliefs that prevent progress. In this process kinship ties becomes less important and people are geographically and socially more mobile. Generally, people earn their position in the society through hard work, economy becomes strong and politics is refined.
In addition members of modern societies are positive, innovative and free from superstition (Sonderling). Modernization is thus achieved through reduction of traditional values and increased modern values that comes with overall economic and social modernization. In particular through increasing individualism, social mobility, participation in economic activities, and increased awareness brought about by mass media.
How empathy can be acquired from mass media
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and share feelings such as sadness or happiness that is being experienced by another person regardless of whether such a person is a friend or a family member. It is the ability to imagine oneself in another person situation and circumstances and thereby hope to gain insight to their feelings and problems; this is an important element of modernization.
Through modernization new forms of media such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter many people have developed empathy because of these platforms which enable people to share and relate to each other circumstances. In addition conventional mass media such as television, radio as well as print media have continued to influence people’s perceptions and empathy through sharing of opinions, thoughts and ideas among others.
Conclusion
It is clear that in order for developing countries to progress, there is need for transformation to be made in economical, political, social and cultural spheres. A huge challenge to achievement of modernization by developing countries has to do with changing the perception of people from their traditional mindsets to one which are open and receptive to the changes and opportunities of the new world. Mass media has been identified as one of the key tools that can be influential in shifting people’s perception from traditional to a modernized way of thinking; which is undoubtedly the first stage of development.