Africa, Caribbean, South America, Asia, and those in Central America in The Third World
The Third World, which is popularly referred to the countries of the south or developing countries, consists of many states in Africa, Caribbean, South America, Asia, and those in Central America. These countries face a number of challenges, which have reduced their socio-economic and political development.
Even though scholars attribute these challenges to colonialism, the existing state of affairs does not favor the developing countries as far as development is concerned. However, some countries are trying to revitalize their economies including the countries of East Asia such as South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan.
Even though some countries are trying to develop economically, political instabilities and western influence are still the main problems facing them. In some parts of the third world, religion is inseparable with the state meaning that religious leaders are still the political leaders. This is true in the Middle East and other countries that practice Islam.
The works of Handelman prove that some religions are antithetical to democracy meaning that they are incompatible. In Latin America, the above scholar noted that the Catholic could no longer exercise control over the society on matters related to religion and reproductive health. Initially, the Catholic Church was against the reproductive rights of women, who advocated free abortion and the provision of contraceptives.
In India, the case was the same because the government ameliorated the injustices of the caste system by suggesting that people were different in society. This contravenes the ideals of democracy, which state that an individual has the right to do as he or she desires, as long as he or she does not interfere with the rights of other people.
In Syria, Egypt, and Turkey, the government insisted that religion could not be applied in making political decisions because it affected the rights and the freedom of many people. Therefore, it was agreed in the above countries that religion would be excluded from the political system because it is antithetical to democracy.
Theoretically, scholars hold different views as regards to the role of religion in developing. For modernization theorists, religion plays a negative role while dependency scholars do not mention anything regarding the role of religion in development.
In the third world, traditional religions are actually the enemies of development because they do not permit their members to engage in some of the developmental programs that would perhaps improve their living standards. In some countries, such as Iran during the revolutionary era, modernization failed to take place mainly because of the strong religious practices that opposed western developmental policies.
Handelman is of the view that religion is an ever-present element in the world of politics because the two are closely related. In fact, religious leaders use technology, which is an element of modernization, to disseminate information and preach hate speech to other members of society. In the Middle East, technology has contributed in the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, which is the major enemy of democracy (Handelman 34).
Modernization is a political theory that suggests that countries of the south or the third world should simply emulate the behavior of the west for them to develop. In fact, the theory suggests that the third world will never develop if it does not adopt the western policies. These policies include the opening up of the economy, adoption of democracy, the rule of law, respect of the human rights, and eradication of corruption.
This means that the third world should allow people to practice whatever they desire for them to develop. This view is greatly opposed because it goes against the culture of the African people. Regarding democracy, the government should never interfere with the rights of the individual meaning that people have the right to wage demonstrations, demand for equal pay, gender equality, and the observance of the international labor laws (Griffiths 7).
Moreover, private ownership of property should be respected given the fact that it encourages investment. Modernization suggests that the third world should privatize all public corporations and allow the market to operate in accordance with its internal logics.
Many leaders and scholars of the third world observe that western policies will never work perfectly in other environments because the contexts differ. For instance, African Culture does not allow an individual to exercise some rights, such as the right to choose sexual orientation, because it goes against the traditionally recognized rules.
After the demise of colonialism
After the demise of colonialism, many analysts and policy makers in the third world and the developed world were faced with one major challenge that was related to development. The third world failed to take off economically yet it had adequate resources and the work force. Scholars gave a number of suggestions, with one of the options being emulating the west, which had already taken off economically and politically.
Two schools of thoughts emerged in early 1960s to explain the way in which the third world would take off economically. One of the schools of thought was referred to as the modernization, which was mainly associated with the western philosophers. Dependency was another school, which offered a radical view regarding development. Dependency school was supported by scholars from the third world, who opposed the views of the western philosophers.
Regarding cultural values, modernization theory was very optimistic because it posited that adoption of western culture would definitely change the state of affairs in the third world. In fact, many countries of the third world were forced to abandon their traditional cultures and adopt the western culture, which was believed to be compatible with development.
Such scholars argued that western culture had already achieved a lot in the west hence it was a model for development. The works of various sociologists, including Talcott Parsons and Max Weber were utilized extensively in convincing the third world that its culture was traditional while that of the developed world was modern.
In this regard, traditional culture was perceived to be irrational and unscientific meaning that it could not achieve developmental goals. Developing countries were required to come up with complex political and economic institutions, which would complement the western culture.
On their part, dependency scholars were of the view that western developmental programs would not flourish in the third world because of the differences in contexts. Dependency theory argued that developed countries were able to take off economically because there was no competition globally. The third world faces stiff competition from industrialized states such as Japan and the United States.
The issue of technology was also mentioned as one of the problems that affect the developing countries (Handelman 22). Developing countries depend on the western democracies for technology meaning that they will never take off without involving other actors in their plans.
Works Cited
Handelman, Howard. The challenge of third world development. Upper Saddle River: Pearson education, 2011. Print.
Griffiths, Robert. Annual Editions Developing World, 12/13. 22nd ed. Dubuque: Mcgraw-hill/Dushkin, 2011. Print.