Models for Grouping Countries in the World A north/south model of classifying countries Place the following countries in a group (1-5) based on their overall success, with 1 being the best and 5 being the worst. Canada, Algeria, Brazil, England, Russia, China, Japan, Egypt, Israel, Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Australia, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Saudi Arabia Most countries can be grouped according to their level of social and economic development More Developed = Higher Ranking Social Development: level of education, health care, legal system, life expectancy, rate of infant mortality, etc. Economic Development: GDP (Gross Domestic Product), ratio of cars to people, per capita electrical power capacity, etc. Terms such as Developed, Newly Industrialized and Developing have been used to group countries together based on similar social and economic development criteria. 1.) Developed Countries Socially and economically I.E. Canada, the US, Germany, France, Japan. 2.) Newly Industrialized Countries: Identified based on economic characteristics In transition from agriculture base to industrialized based. I.E. India, China, Brazil and Mexico. 3.) Developing Countries Moving towards progressive social/economic status I.E. Bangladesh, Haiti, Ethiopia, etc Too general Does not account for history Can we have a world full of first world countries? 1.) First World Countries (Developed countries. I.E. Canada, US, Germany, France, Netherlands, etc) 2.) Second World Countries: Those that were or are communist countries. Similar social development, lacking economic development. (or vise versa) I.E. China, Cuba, Russia, etc Corrupt governments Communism works in theory but not in practice Wealth is never evenly distributed 3.) Third World Countries (Newly Industrialized) I.E. India, China, Brazil, etc 4.) Fourth World Countries Early stages of development I.E. Rwanda, Swaziland, etc. 5.) Fifth World Countries Little evidence of any transition beginning Often affected by war, drought, corruption, and natural disasters I.E. Haiti, Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia, etc.