Measuring World Development

Measuring World Development

Development is a complex economic, social and political phenomenon.

There are a range of simple and composite indicators used to measure

development. There are many definitions of development, perhaps the

most used is;

“Development refers to a number of characteristics such as demographic

change, economic growth, an increase in the case of resources,

modernisation, higher levels of technology and political freedom.”

Indicators of development are put into four sectors: Economic, Social,

Political and environmental.

These factors can be broken down into two groups, simple and

composite. Such simple indictors would be birth rate, death rate and

GNP. Examples of composite indicators are PQLI, HDI and HSI. All of

these indicators can be measured quantitatively. The HDI is the human

development index, which is based on adult literacy rates, standard of

living based on GNP per capita, life expectancy and income. The HDI

is a measure of how well people can live long, healthy and creative

lives.

However, qualitative measures of development are non quantitative.

Examples of these are freedom and security, human suffering index,

human development index, sustainability, conservation and the plight

of indigenous people. These indicators do not strictly follow the

definition as described above. This definition is mainly based upon

the MEDC interpretation of ‘developed’ or ‘developing’. It does not

look at things which to some people, may also determine a ‘developed’

or ‘non developed’ country. For example, aborigines in Australia,

according to the definition would most certainly not be classe...

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... the collapse of the former communist

government of East Germany. Now, the two countries have joined to

become one Germany. The advantages of this are that the country now

has a central command economy, and is now a western democracy. Also,

East Germany is an open market.

Another example of how patterns of world development are changing is

Newly Industrialized Countries or NIC’s as they are more commonly

known. A good example is South Korea, whose economic growth is high,

at around 7% per year. The country invests highly in its industrial

base and it has a young, well educated workforce with full employment.

In order to become more flexible and competitive the Government is

helping to fund small and medium sized businesses and industries to

set up in the country to improve the economic strength of the country.