Poli 227 Study Guide for Exam #3

The Third World

• Population of the Third World:

• Roughly 70% of the global population lives in the third world
• While there are political and economic differences in many of these countries,
some general realities remain.
• Problems include:
• Extreme poverty of all types – on all major development indicators
third world countries lag behind first world countries
 Normally people think people don’t have money, or a house, or
food. More to it than that, can be investment impoverishment.
Clean water impoverishment.
• Severe environmental problems – including clean water, clean air,
deforestation, desertification and soil erosion
 Very real problems here that exist, they seriously impede upon
not only the quality of life but the availability of resources.
 Global warming too, etc.
• Population explosion – population is increasing at 3 ½ times the rate of
growth in the rich countries
 Expected to be between 9 – 11 billion people by 2050.
 Staggering, roughly a touch over 1 billion people from the dawn
of history until the year 1900
• In the last 108 years we have added over 5 billion people
to the planet
 And yet we won’t support organizations that advocate abortion
in these countries. Won’t make funds available for family
planning in 3rd world countries.
 Such large population growth exceeds the capacity of
governments, or the environment, to support it.
 High rates of infant mortality and high rates of death before age
5.
• Failed states – is just as bad as it sounds
 Governments that have not been able to control the ethnic
groups in their borders
 Governments that have not been able to provide the economic
and social means to lift their countries out of extreme poverty
 Examples include Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Congo,
Sudan

Summary: “All of these problems cannot be solved”, drug money and weapon
money, etc, is nonsense, its solvable. Nonsense that its not. We should try,
implement new ideas. War on drugs has done nothing, except get a lot of innocent
people killed. On Thanksgiving you’ll consume more calories in 30 minutes than a
majority of planet earth digest in a week. Our complains are miniscule in
comparison to what others have to complain about. Sewage problems can be fixed,
not an intractable problem, lack of will.

• Countries of the north are also known as the developed countries

• Countries of the south are also known as the developing countries
• The North/South dialogue emerged in the 1970s and was undertaken in
international bodies such as the UN.
• North = able to provide “the good life”
• South = “less developed countries” (great variance)
• Why the 1970s?
 That’s when we saw a globalization of the world economy
 Oil embargo of the US
 OPEC brought the US to its knees.
 Third world countries realized their power
 “We will not continue to sit by idly and continue to live in an
uneven economic world”
• At the heart of the dialogue was the call for a New International Economic
Order (NIEO)
• The NIEO called for a number of things including:
1. A global redistribution of wealth from the north to the south
2. More favorable terms of trade for the countries of the south
3. More favorable terms of aid money/loans for the countries of the south
4. Technology transfers to the south
5. More development assistance including agriculture, energy,
infrastructure, health care
6. A recognition of the importance of LDCs (less developed countries) in
world politics
7. A recognition of the economic and social injustices done to LDCs over
the course of history (colonial legacy)
• The call for an NIEO has not succeeded as hoped by the group of 77
• Group of 77 are the 77 countries who pushed the NIEO agenda back in the
1970s
• Many of the third world’s economic and social ills are still very present and
very pressing
1. Tuberculosis, etc.
• Also added to the mix are newer problems such as HIV/AIDs, climate change
and globalization
• A very pressing question: Does the north have an obligation to assist the
south? If so, in what ways? If not, why not?

The Third World: Conflict, Population

• The End of The War
○ What are the causes for war to be declining?
 End of the cold war, reduction in arms supplies to smaller
fighting factions.
 Peacekeeping. More spent on it, more done about it, more forces
insuring it.
 Rise of democracy.
 Nuclear weapons deters big nations, sets example for smaller.
 Economic competition rather than fighting
 Riskiest: Possibly enlightenment?
 Antiwar sentiments, etc, “War is absurd”
 Economic rise
• Pakistan and the Islamists
○ What is the Islamist surge?
 The Islamists winning 11 percent of the popular vote and 20
percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament in Pakistan
 Commitment to an ideological state of Islam, moved to a
commitment to a strategic
○ Why is Pakistan in a state of decline?
 In an effort to become an ideologic state guided by a praetorian
military, it has focused more on ideology, military capability and
external alliances and less on internal improvements
 US Support for the military makes it difficult for the weak secular
civil society to assert itself, wean the country away from the
rhetoric of Islamist ideology, and shift focus toward issues of real
concern
 Institutions are in a state of decline, from schools and
universities to the judiciary
 Relies too much on external flow of monies
 Massive urban unemployment, rural underemployment, and
illiteracy
 Not enough focus on education
 Too much population growth and health care in decline
 They continue to spend shitloads on the military, despite being
so poor
 Government is not stable
 More oriented towards the Middle East, despite being
geographically and historically part of South Asia
 Intermittent flow of US economic and military assistance has
lead leaders to over-assert their own sway
• Again
○ What is the crisis in Darfur?
  Genocide. 400k people have been killed.
 Our inaction. African problem, African Solution? African problem,
European solution?
○ What are reasons why the killing in Darfur has occurred?
 According to the article, we don’t want to act because we’re
afraid of becoming more unpopular post-9/11
• Bush Doctrine
○ A doctrine of preventive war, that is, initiating hostilities to eliminate
the possibility that an adversary might pose a future threat.
 If we just believe there is a threat out there, we’re going after it.
 Who deems someone a threat?
○ This is different than pre-emptive war, that is, initiating hostilities when
facing the clear prospect of imminent attack.
 We’re going to attack when the evidence is conclusive.
○ These two differences are mostly academic.
○ The Bush Doctrine was born in 2002 during a policy speech at West
Point on June 1st
○ The Bush Doctrine was put into action when the USA invaded Iraq in
March 2003.
○ This happens, we willingly abandon the idea that we won’t respond
until we’re hit first.
○ That reverses 200 years of policy.
○ The war in Iraq was a war of choice. This was the first time in US
history that the USA attacked a country without being attacked first.
 Hard to get around this fact. You can argue that Saddam was a
threat, etc. Bottom line, we chose.
○ The Bush Doctrine is a radical change in foreign and military policy for
the USA.
○ If preventive war is to be successful it must be quick and
decisive. Neither of these things has happened in Iraq.
• Booms, Busts and Echoes
○ How much bigger will world population get?
 9.1 billion inhabitants by 2050
○ Impact on Economies: Arithmetic accounting effects and behavioral
effects:
 Early on thought it would exhaust resources
 Then it was/is believed that it will have a negligible effect, held
sway for past 20 years
 Recently gave way to a more fine tuned idea
 As baby boomers move through ages, they go from being a huge
amount of workers to a huge amount of elderly. Huge amount of
savings to, well, not.
 Behavioral effects:
 • Reduced adult mortality will lead to a massive increase in
the elderly population
• Fewer women having children may increase labor, more
women in workplace
• People living longer may mean a ton of people will be
retiring at same time, increasing need for labor
○ Looking to the future: What are some of the future population trends?
 Continued but slowly population growth
 Aging of the worlds population
 International migration continues, but the extent is unclear
 Urbanization will continue but the pace is also hard to predict
• Malaria: The Child Killer
○ What is malaria?
 Death begins with a cyclical attack of fever, shaking chills,
sweating, dizziness, vomiting, diahrea, muscle pain. Kidney and
liver failures, and coma, followed by death.
 Disease spread by mosquitoes
○ Who does malaria kill and how many die each year?
 2 to 3 million people per year, 90% in Africa
 Mostly young children and pregnant women
○ Reasons why malaria has made a strong resurgence over the past 10
years
 Antimalarian-resistant strains of the parasite
 Focusing on chloroquin, which the parasite has become immune
to
 And resistance to the second-cheapest stuff
 Not enough people using nets
 Lack of interest after we got rid of it here/too expensive to DDT
all of Africa

The Third World: Conflict

• What are the causes of war?

○ Human nature
 “Stuff sucks and if we kill those other people we’ll improve
our situation”
○ There is no global police force to stop war from occurring
 The UN cannot stop two countries from fighting.
○ The sovereign state system legitimizes war
 Countries are almost encouraged to fight when they cannot
work out their differences.
○ Troublemakers
 Evil leaders
 Rogue states
  Wicked states
○ Certain economic and social systems
 Marxism
 Capitalism
 Imperialism
 Democracy
○ Nationalism
○ Greed
○ Failed States
○ Ethnic Conflict
 If theres one thing we cannot overlook about colonialism is
that it chopped up countries via stupid borders that have put
people together who should have never had to live together.
 An example is Iraq. The Sunnis, the Shi’ites, they aren’t going
to get along together any time soon.
○ States refusing to use alternate means of resolving conflict
○ States choosing to fight and/or choosing to resist
○ Non-state actors attacking a sovereign state
 Ex: Terrorism, assassination, etc

Mexico

• Clientelism: Government favors to groups for their support (CLIENTEL)

• Corporatism: Direct participation of INTEREST GROUPS in politics
• The Six-Year Presidency: PRI leaders picked their successor, meaning
PRI won whoever they picked. Six year terms they had as president. PAN
won when Fox won, but not in congress, so he wasn’t as powerful as past
PRI presidents.
○ Six year terms and you’re out, that’s it, bye. No reelection
• Mexico’s Legislature:
○ Bicameral congress (like us)
○ Fills most seats like us, but does some with proportional
representation
○ Is much less powerful or important as president
○ Lower House: Federal Chamber of Deputies, 3 year term
○ Upper House: Senate, 6 year term
○ PAN can’t seem to get control in congress, so can do little
• Dominant Party System
○ Other parties are perfectly legal, but one party is so powerful and
has so much resources at its disposal, they have no chance.
○ Bilateral opposition: both sides opposing centrists
 • Dependency Theory: Mannnn, us here in Mexico are like under your
thumbs there in capitalist America. You sharks are eating our sardines! We
gotta do something bout this!
○ People moved away from this in the 1980s, but the alternative
system (Capitalism) hasn’t helped them much either. Perhaps we’ll
see a resurgence.
• Politics inside the PRI:
○ Politicos (politicians): Guys looking for popular office, could give a
damn about economy/etc. They exploited oil and whatnot.
○ Tecnicos (technicians): Usually academics, in appointed positions,
don’t care about being popular, just want to do whats best for the
country. Technocrats.
○ They quarrel.
• Current President of Mexico: Felipe Calderon
• PAN: National Action Party: Conservative/Christian
• PRD: a left of center party. Born as "National Democratic Front", a splinter
group of the PRI, in the 1988 elections.
• PRI: the dominating party, under different names, at the local, state, and
national levels for most of the 20th century. It is currently the dominant
party at the local and state level, second at the higher chamber of
senators. Perceived as left of center, supporting a policy of mixed
economy and nationalized industries, both of which are longstanding
Mexican practices.
• Constitution: present constitution of Mexico. It was drafted in Santiago
de Querétaro by a Constitutional Convention during the Mexican
Revolution. It was approved by the Constitutional Congress on February 5,
1917, with Venustiano Carranza serving as the first president under its
terms.The first constitution was made in 1824.
• Congress: Early in the 20th century, the Mexican leader, Francisco
Madero, popularized the slogan, Sufragio Efectivo – no Reelección
(effective suffrage, no reelection). In keeping with that long held principle,
the Mexican Constitution states that "Deputies and Senators cannot be
reelected for the next immediate term

Iran

• Sunni: Mainstream Islam (80% of worlds Muslims)

• Shia: Minority branch. Islam with Persian (Iranian) characteristics
○ These two split over who was the successor to Muhammed
○ Only in Iran are they the official religion, even though theyre 60% in
Iraq (Shia)
• Theocracy: Rule by priests. Religious leader is real leader. Kha = now, Kho =
old.
• Iran’s Legislature: Unicameral
○ Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis): Single member districts,
like the US congress.
○ Council of Guardians: More powerful than the Majlis. Strange
organization combining features of an upper house, supreme court, an
electoral commission and a religious inquisition. They examine each
Majlis bill to make sure it doesn’t violate Islamist principles.
• Iran’s Economy and Oil: If world oil prices fall, Iran is in big trouble. US
pressure has kept most companies from dealing with Iran. Their crap is old,
needs to be replaced. Unemployment is high. They’re screwed.
• Current President of Iran: Ahmadinejad
• Former President Hatami: Khatami advocated freedom of expression,
tolerance and civil society, constructive diplomatic relations with other states
including those in the European Union and Asia, and an economic policy that
supported a free market and foreign investment.
• USA/Iran Hostage Crisis: We backed the Shah, the revolutionaries didn’t
like they, they kept the hostages 444 days.
• Iranian Revolution/Ayatollah Khomeini: Leader of the Iranian revolution,
all around nutjob.
• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini: Iranian politician and cleric. He has
been Supreme Leader of Iran since 1989 and before that was president of
Iran from 1981 to 1989. He has been described as one of only three people
having "defining influences" on the Islamic Republic of Iran