1. Unlike the North – a term in vogue today, among others, for highlighting the difference between the rich, industrialised nations of mostly Western Europe, North America, Australasia, and the rudimentary economies of Latin America, Asia and Africa – underdevelopment, characterised by low income levels, poverty, low living standards and other socio-economic ills seem to be a defining feature of countries in these regions, collectively described as the Global South. Thomas (2003), Hershberg and Moreno-Brid(2003), and, Solimano(2005) suggest, for instance, that the socio - economic structure of most Latin American countries remains defined by vast inequalities in income and wealth distribution, poverty, volatile growth, high mortality rate and a high level of economic vulnerability. In Asia, a number of countries including the large economies of India and China have made improvements in the 21st century in terms of reducing poverty. Yet, 22% of the developing countries in Asia live on a dollar a day . The situation is bleaker in the South and Southeast Asia region where 38% leave on less than a dollar a day and over 48% of the population living below the regions individual country poverty line . Likewise, absolute poverty is on the rise in Africa - generally recognised as the world’s richest continent in terms of natural resources - despite a recorded decline in global poverty rates (Bhattacharyya: 2005).
2. Against this bleak landscape, it is unsurprising that realising sustainable development continues to date to be a key priority in policy making processes these cases. In Africa, like elsewhere across the global south for instance, economic drivers of development have shaped constitutional reform processes as policy makers ...
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...n of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), adopted the ASEAN Charter (2007) in which they affirmed their adherence to the principles of constitutional government and expressly stipulated the strengthening of “democracy . . . good governance, rule of law, and . . . human rights” as one of its main objectives . In the context of Latin America, the Organisation of American States (OAS) adopted the Inter American Charter in 2001 in which member states recognised that democracy and development are mutually reinforcing and as such, affirmed their commitment to establishing a democratic and constitutional order to consolidate this relationship. The importance of this objective is underlined by their collective agreement to invoke sanctions as extreme as suspension from the organisation where the constitutional and democratic order is reversed through unconstitutional means .
For a document written in a mere one hundred and sixteen days, it is quite amazing that the United States Constitution still plays an integral role in the government. However, this document, like many important governing papers, has come with controversies and arguments since its establishment as a set of principles with which to govern states. The Constitution of the United States, created in 1787, arose from a need of a new document after the Articles of Confederation that could assert more control over the states. A product of the Constitutional convention, the Constitution laid out the framework for a popular government with checks and balances as well as a separation of powers. Since the Constitution is a relatively short document given
Poverty is not just an issue reserved for third world countries. Instead, poverty is a multifaceted issue that even the most developed nations must battle
The development of the U.S. Constitution was a series of many trials and errors. There were many problems starting from the Articles of Confederation and even the battle to ratify the constitution. Not everyone wanted the same thing for the new government, however they all agreed that they didn’t want the same type of government that they had unde English rule.
Alongside the brutal, bloody Civil War and makeshift post-war reconstruction in the South were several monumental changes within the United States. As federal power increased, so did the power of the Constitution, as it began to expand and shift to encompass more and more people. With this also came a social change; millions of blacks, now freed by the thirteenth amendment, had the potential to be just as successful as their white brethren. As time went by, however, numerous pitfalls and opposing viewpoints challenged the idea of constitutional and social transformation. While there was a constitutional revolution occurring from 1860-1877, there was little to no social revolution happening at the same time.
The neoliberal policies have benefited some people in generating great wealth for them, but controversially, the policies have failed to benefit the people who live in extreme poverty and those people are the most in need for financial support (Makwana, 2006). In the last 2 to 3 decades, the wealth disparity between nations as well as within nations has increased. Currently, one out of every 5 children in the United States is in a state of poverty, continual hunger, insecurity and lack of health care (MIT, 2000). This situation is becoming even more desperate. Between 1960 and 1980, the developing countries’ economic growth was 3.2 percent. Then it dropped significantly to 0.7 percent between 1980 and 2000, and this is the period when neolibe...
Paul Collier posits to his audience the argument that maybe global poverty is not so big of a problem as other activists and researchers lead their audiences to think in his book, “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It.” Through arguing the old-fashioned definitions of development, underdevelopment, and poverty, Collier states that true poverty is only an issue in about 58 countries, in which the four big “traps” cause drawbacks to the internal and regional development. Collier further emphasizes that the solution to widespread poverty in these forgotten “third world” countries is to combat corruption and other inside governing practices/infrastructures that simply do not work by using the “G8” – a group of the most industrialized nations – in order to make changes within the aforementioned countries.
The last one is represented as the poorest in economic terms; it is therefore characterized by a high-income inequality between the two opposite classes. However, since the early 2000s, Developing countries like Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe developed their economic resources by a me-dian of 14% every year. In comparison, developed countries including America and Eastern Europe made benefits of only 3% per year (Neiger, 2010). Nonetheless, the gap between the rich and the poor is still considerable and according to Amina Mohammed, evidence was given that the region which will be the most disturbed by the growing income inequality is Asia with 25% (Mohammed, 2014).
Why nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, is a captivating read for all college economic courses. Coauthored by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, they optimistically attempt to answer the tough question of why some nations are rich and others are poor through political economic theories. They lay it all out in the preface and first chapter. According to Acemoglu and Robinson, the everyday United States citizen obtains more wealth than the every day Mexican, sub-Saharan African, Ethiopian, Mali, Sierra Leonne and Peruvian citizen as well as some Asian countries. The authors strategically arranged each chapter in a way that the reader, whomever he or she is, could easily grasp the following concept. Extractive nations that have political leadership and financial inconsistencies within their institutions are the largest contributor to poverty and despair within most countries. It also states that countries with socioeconomic institutions that work ‘for the people and by the people’, or in other words, focus on the internal agenda of that
Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are failing and What Can Be Done about It. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
The question of why poor countries are poor may seem simple and one dimensional at first glance. However, the answer to this question is actually quite intricate, as many interweaving aspects must be observed. Although it is impossible to explain why many countries remain in poverty within just a few pages, I will attempt to touch upon some of the broader factors. A poor country or a low-income economy is defined as a country with a Gross National Product per capita of $765 dollars or less. In 1995, the World Bank claimed that 49 countries fell into this category. Geography, colonialism, industrialization, resources, education, overpopulation, infrastructure, government, investment, and debt are only a few of the many interrelated factors that have caused many countries to remain in poverty.
To understand the developing countries and their aim of identification, it can be mentioned that “The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe, the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning” John F. Kennedy 1961. The south or third world countries are; “group of countries which have colonial histories and which are in the process of developing economically and socially from a status characterized by low incomes , dependence on agriculture, weakness in trading relations, social deprivation for large segments of society, and restricted political and civil liberties” (Smith, 1996, p:1). Nevertheless, third world countries can be considered the developing countries regarding the influences and affects that have been made to them and their nation by the greater power that they were ruled by.
The link between internationalization, governance and democracy is a central problem for politics as well as for political science. Even if clear evidence on the nature of this link is not yet available, the literature seems to support the view that internationalization both undermines the capacity for governance and puts into question traditional forms of democracy.
The North-South divide is a social, economic, and political separation between the highly developed nations and the rest of the world. The global North encompasses the world's richest countries, including Canada, the United States, western and central European Union members, Israel, Japan, the Asian Tigers, Australia, and New Zealand.1 These countries all currently operate under functional democratic governments and have over $20,000 GDP per capita. The rest of the world's countries belong with the global South; and although they make up the vast majority of the world's population, these states collectively hold less economic and political power. Global problems harm the poorer ...
Dr. Alex Borraine once said, “ I still believe that goodness and beauty, compassion and new beginnings, can triumph over the evil which seems to be all-persuasive.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu is an incredibly controversial man, with this being said his speech at Stellenbosch in August 2011 made headlines around the world. His speech was about the fact that the white population, being the beneficiaries of the apartheid system, should pay a “wealth tax”. This caused heavy debate within our country and therefore the main topic that will be addressed in this essay. Specific reference will be made to transformative constitutionalism and whether this “wealth tax” would be constitutional within our country.
As one of the biggest problems facing the world today, poverty continues to have significant negative implications for the society. The effects of poverty are extremely severe and far-reaching, so much so that it was one of the top Millennium Development Goals agreed upon at the Millennium Summit of the UN back in 2000 (Hatcher, 2016). To understand the effects that poverty has on the society, one must critically analyze the societies in which poverty is rampant, as well as analyze poverty from the relative perspectives that it presents. The core aim of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of poverty and elaborate on the diverse ways in which it continues to affect societies across the world.