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Economic development is a widely studied historical
process that exerts profound effects on the physical quality
of life (PQL). 12 The effects of differing politicaleconomic systems,
specifically
socialism
versus
capitalism, have re ceived much less attention. Whether a
country adopts one system or another exerts a profound
inftl!en e on .social policy in general and on developm n.t
strateg1es 1part1c ar.
Despite the importance of th1s 1ssue, there is very httle
published research that addresses the relationship of PQ
and political-economic system at different levels of
econom1c
development. Large cross-national studies, such as those
conducted by the World Health Organization, have assessed
the relationship of economic development to PQL without
taking political-economic system into accou_nt. 3 I th
anal ysis that follows, we have compared PQL m cap1tal1st
and socialist countries, grouped by level of econoffilc
develop ment.
Methods
Sources of Data
Classification of Countries
Low-lncome Countries
Recen! postrevolutionary
Capitalist
Lower-Middle-lncome
Countries
Socialist
Capitalist
Upper-Middle-lncome Countries
Capitalist
Socialist
High-lncome Countries
Capitalist
High-lncome Oil-Exporting Countries
Capitalist
Number
of Countries
GNP/c
Range ($),
GNP/c
Mean($),
1981
1981
33
1
28
10
70-870
80-530
300
540-1700
347
299
300
1080
20
8
2140-7700
2100-7180
4018
4129
15
9110-17430
12281
8450-24660
16653
Variables
lnfant mortality rate (per 1000).
1981
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Child death rate (per 1000), 1981
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-inci>me
High-income oil-exporting
Lite expectancy (years), 1981
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Population per physician, 1980
Low-income
Lower-iniddle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Population per nursing person,
1980
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Daily per capita calorie supply (%
requirement), 1980
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Adult literacy rate (%), 1980
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Secondary education (% age
group), 1980
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Higher education (% age group),
1979
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
POLI, 1980-1981
Low-income
Lower-middle-income
Upper-middle-income
High-income
High-income oil-exporting
Recent PostRevolutionary
Countries
133
22.3
Capitalist
Countries
131
81
42
10
73
25.7
11.0
4.0
(.)b
Socialist
Countries
71
38
22
7.0
2.3
1.1
Measures of Education
8.2
48
18873
5699
85
46
48
67
69
75
61
72
60
68
19100
5832
1154
524
965
1920
4763
1646
692
142
518
1890
94
107
117
137
34
63
81
69
106
122
131
134
99
638
488
303
210
87
97
50
22
15
38
59
86
56
1.9
38
34
74
74
1.0
11.7
18.6
35
76
81
98
1.7
12.1
15.7
28.3
7.0
62
83
92
60
a)
b)
Constant
Beta..i
-.60
(-.01)
-.52
(-.001)
.61
(.001)
-.42
(-.93)
-.28
(-.23)
.65
(.003)
.50
-.34
(-55.97)
-.28
(-11.77)
-.33
(11.56)
-.25
(-8332.49)
-.16
(b)
-.35
(20.75)
.35
(31.73)
(.003)
Secondary education
.33
.63
(31.29)
.14
(.004)
Higher education
POLI
.55
(.001)
.58
(.003)
(b)
.35
(28.68)
(214.92)
(41.18)
(31.78)
(28310.82)
(2892.71)
(57.84)
(-12.38)
(-34.61)
(7.46)
(-6.75)
R2
.45
.33
.47
.23
.08
.53
.35
.49
.30
.44
a)
b)
Kampuchea and Mozambique; and crude birth rate for Kampuchea and
Mozambique. From World Military and Social Expenditures, 1983, compiled
by R.L. Sivard, 1 the following data were obtained: adult literaey rate for
Kampuchea, Ghana, Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Guatemala, Mongolia, North
Korea, Iraq, Lebanon, Chile, South Africa, Greece, Israel, Libya,
Spain,
Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany; and population per
physician for Angola and South Africa.
Comments
Analysis
//l.
Data
Malaysia and Panama, with GNP/c of $1840 and $1910 respectively, fell
between the lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income capitalist catego
ries and were eliminated from the analysis. If they had been included in the
lower-middle-income capitalist category, the average GNP/c for capitalist and
socialist countries at this level would have been $1133 and $1040 respectively,
instead of $1080 and $1040. If they had been included in the upper-middle
income category, the average GNP/c for capitalist and socialist countries at this
level would have been $3823 and $4129, instead of $4018 and $4129. We
peormed a subsequent analysis to include Malaysia and Panama in first the
lower-middle-income category and then the upper-middle-income category.
Results were similar and are available for interested readers on request to the
authors.
The decision to use unweighted meaos was consistent with the goal of
retaining, to the greatest extent possible, each country's characteristics,
rather than the cumulative characteristics of the world's population. With
weighted meaos, data on the low-income capitalist countries would reftect
mainly the conditions in India, while Brazil and the Soviet Union for the
upper-middle income categories, and the United States for the high-income
category, would greatly color all the statistics computed.
In this study, the countries comprised the universe of ali countries in the
world with populations of one million or more. Because the data derived from
the universe of all such countries, sampling procedures were not used. The
reporting of statistical significance levels in Tables 2 and 3 therefore would be
controversial. While this report does not present tests of statistical signifi
cance, the results of such tests are available from the authors on request.
l.
Classification
Countries
on
APPENDIX B
of
The following list presents the classification of countries that was used in
the study. Within each category, the ordering of countries corresponds to that
of the World Bank.
Capitalist Countries
Low-income-Bhutan, Chad, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bunna, Mali, Malawi,
Zaire, Uganda, Burundi, Upper Volta, Rwanda, India, Somalia, Tanzania,
Guinea, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Benin, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone,
Madagascar, Niger, Pakistan, Sudan, Togo, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal,
Mauritania, Yemen (Arab Republic), Liberia, Indonesia.
Lower-middle-income-Lesotho, Bolivia, Honduras, Zambia, Egypt, El
Salvador, Thailand, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Morocco, Nigeria,
Cameroon, Congo, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, Jamaica, lvory Coast,
Domin ican Republic, Colombia, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Turkey, Syria,
Jordan, Para guay, South Korea, Lebanon.
Upper-middle-income-lran, Iraq, Algeria, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal,
Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, Greece, Hong Kong,
Israel, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, lreland, Spain, ltaly, New Zealand.
High-income-United Kingdom, Japan, Austria, Finland, Australia, Can
ada, Netherlands, Belgium, France, United States, Denmark, West Gennany,
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland.
High-income oi/-exporting-Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab
Emirates.
Socialist Countries
Low income-China.
Lower-middle-income-Cuba, Mongolia, North Korea, Albania.
Upper-middle-income-Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, USSR, Czechoslovakia, East Gennany.
Bank'
From The State of the World's Children, 1984, by the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF),9 the following data were obtained: GNPlc for
Kampuchea, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Mozambique, Angola, Cuba, Mongolia,
North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, USSR, Czech
oslovakia, and East Gennany; infant mortality for Kampuchea, Albania, and
USSR; life expectaney for Kampuchea and Mozambique; crude death rate for
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Robert Frs and Sheryl O'Rourke for their extremely
helpful technical assistance. David Himmelstein and Howard Tucker kindly
provided statistical consultation. This work was supported in part by a
Fellowship for lndependent Study and Research from the National Endow
ment for the Humanities (FA-22922, Dr. Waitzkin) and a grant from the
Division of Medicine of the US Public Health Service (PE-19154).
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