Poverty as the Most Important Issue Facing the Developing Countries Today - Essay Example

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEVELOPMENT Poverty as the most important issue facing the developing countries today Currently, linkages between the developed world and the developing countries have amplified. This can be evidenced by the fact that investments, foreign aid and flows of trade between these two worlds have all intensified. As a result, the large developing countries such as India and china have recorded high and sustained growth rates which have strengthened their political and economic power1. However, despite the increased links between the developed and developing worlds, the former has continued to benefit greatly compared to the latter. This has been caused by the fact that the developing countries are weak and the existence of various issues including political unrest, poverty, corruption, and poor economic policies to name a few. The essay will focus on poverty, as the most important issue facing the developing countries today. The discussion will be based with respect to both dependency/structuralist theory and liberal/neoliberal theory. Basically, poverty is the denial of opportunities and choices, the continued infringement of human dignity2. It is the pronounced deprivation of ones well being and it comprises of many dimensions. Poverty includes low incomes as well as the lack of ability to obtain the basic needs (goods and services) essential for human survival with dignity. Also, poverty encompasses low health and education levels, poor access to sanitation and clean water, lack of voice, inadequate capacity and opportunity to improve one’s life and inadequate physical security3. Poverty can also be defined as a feature of unequal social class and discriminatory social relationships, which are as a result of dependency, social isolation and diminished capability to actively participate or develop significant connections with people in the society4. Poverty is measured as absolute or relative. Absolute poverty usually refers to the set of standards which is regular between countries over time. Relative poverty on the other hand views poverty in a social context as a measure of the income inequality. By and large, relative poverty is calculated as the proportion of population with a less income than some fixed percentage of median income. Dependency theory is a theory of how the developed, developing and undeveloped nations interact5. It is also seen as a theory that opposes the free market theory of interaction. The dependency theory has the view that a number of developed nations are constantly fed by the developing and under-developed nations since resources always flow from the poor and under developed countries to the wealthy and developed states. These developing nations are in essence acting as the colonial dependencies whereby they send their wealth to the well established nations with very minimal compensation. The dependency theory posits that the level of dependence increases with time. The wealthy nations using their wealth are able to manipulate the undeveloped nations into adopting policies that will continuously increase the wealth of the rich while the poor countries get impoverished. The established nations are also able to shelter themselves from being curved by the developing countries by ensuring that they secure their systems more as time goes by6. Capital continues to flow from developing countries to the developed countries, hence the developing countries kept in a submissive position, mostly through an economic force of instituting sanctions and by proscribing liberated trade policies often attached to grants from the International Monetary fund or the World Bank. In addition, the dependency of the developing nations to the developed nations in terms of aid has also accelerated poverty levels in the former. This is usually caused by the fact that, the foreign aid offered to the developing nations is such large that, these countries cannot be able repay back. As a result, the developed nations usually manipulate the developing nations in terms of policy formulation. These policies which may include trade policies are usually made in favor of the rich nations. It is also true that, in many developing countries, there is influx of foreign investors. Although the foreign investors are meant to benefit the countries they have invested in, they only do this by paying taxes, and otherwise, they send the money back to their own countries7. This is referred to as outward foreign investment. This as a result implies that, although the developing countries try to create linkages for development with the developed countries, the latter always take advantage of the former which means that, the poor will always remain poor while the rich will continue being richer. Liberal theory on the other hand, is the economic and political principle that emphasizes the freedom and rights of individual as well as the need to control government’s power on its citizens8. In common with conservatism and socialism, the liberal theory originated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries during the conjunction of illumination, the political and industrial revolutions. Liberalism holds that there is room for improvement in current social conditions, which is linked to the notion of progress broadly acknowledged in the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century. That notion embraced the projection for developments in morality, knowledge, and welfare. Though the confidence in hope for advancement in a number of these respects has completely diminished, liberalism retains the high ambition. The illumination also changed liberalism’s view of human agency, perceived as coherent and responsible. In short liberal theory is a political ideology based upon the individual. It is seen as possessing civil liberties against the government which include rights of suitable development under the ruling, freedom of expression, the equality of respect and the freedom from ideological and religious constraints9. Liberalism is seen from side as the philosophy of liberated markets, with no protection against the increase of riches and power in the arms of the minority, and as not having any breakdown of the political and social nature of the persons. On the other side it is seen as being inadequately sensitive to the importance of developed institutions and traditions, or the need for constraints and social structures in providing the medium for individual freedoms. The liberal perspective on poverty is that there exists an opportunity deficit10. This means that, for various reasons, a percentage of the population lacks access to basic wants which are essential for a middle class and decent life. This as a result implies that there is a gap in the society, the rich who have access to basic, secondary and luxurious goods and the poor who fights for survival. This gap is caused by place of residence that is because of where they live, they generally lack access to health care facilities and good schools which would ensure that they are physically healthy and they obtain the required skills and knowledge to get them good and well paying jobs. These individuals have also a high probability of being exposed to environmental contaminants which as a result inhibit their full mental function11. Furthermore, these persons also live in economically depressed places and due to high poverty levels; they are unable to move to other prosperous areas. The causes of poverty according to the liberal theorists are composite and multidimensional. They also include, among other things climate, culture, public policy and markets. To have a better understanding of poverty, it is important to examine the social and economic context, including the markets, communities and institutions of the nation. The differences of poverty cut across gender, age, location, income source and ethnicity. In households, women and children suffer more as compared to men. Minority of religious or ethnic group suffer more than the majority in the community and the poor suffer more than the rich in the state. These differences greatly reflect composite interactions of markets, public policies and cultures. It is apparent that the rural people are the most affected and poverty in these areas has continued to accelerate especially in the developing countries. Governments in these countries concentrate development in terms of building good schools, and hospitals in urban areas with very little development in rural areas. As a result, the gap between the poor and the rich in the developing economies is very high, and in order to mitigate poverty levels, as put forth by the liberal theorists, governments should revitalize areas with increased concentrations of the poor so as to make them more prosperous, safer and have better access to basic commodities12. This approach has proved to be a success and has generally been adopted by poverty policy. In conclusion, poverty is a major issue which requires to be addressed. However, efforts by governments of the developing and underdeveloped nations to address this issue have yielded no fruits. This has been caused by high dependency as put forth by the dependency theorists which has resulted to high manipulation of the developing countries by the developed countries. Moreover, the liberal theorists argue that, the internal running of a country, the high gap between the rich and the poor caused by unequal development is the cause of the increased poverty in the developing countries. However, in order to succeed in the fight against poverty, governments in developing countries should address these concerns together with other issues such as corruption, political unrest and their economic policies13. Bibliography Babb, S. Behind the Development Banks: Washington Politics, World Poverty, and the Wealth of Nations. Washington: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Cardoso, F. H. and Faletto, E. Dependency and development in Latin America: University of California Press, 1999. Galston, W. Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. Kelleher, A. and Klein, L.F. Global perspectives: a handbook for understanding global issues (2nd ed). New York: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Susser, B. Political ideology in the modern world. Upper Saddle River: Allyn and Bacon, 1995. Zeitlin, M. Three theories of poverty 2011. Available at http://whippersnapper.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/three-theories-of-poverty/. Accessed July 22, 2011. Read More