The politics Of poverty in the periphery ~

By Timothy Shaw

“It’s the same the whole

world over

It’s the poor what gets the

blame

It's the rich what gets the

pleasure‘

isn’t it a blooming shame.” —Song from the

1914-1918war

"Current .trends point to a sombre future for the world economy and international relations. A painful outlook for the poorer countries with no end to poverty and hunger, continuing w'orld stagnation combined with inflation . . . the 19805 could witness even

" greater catastrophies than the

19305.” ’ ~ » — North-South (Brandt Commission Report) ' '5 (1 980)

the low-income countries'by just 1.3%

each year. By contrast, the populations of,

the former groups have grown by 1% or 2.5% per annum; of the latter by 2.4%

each year. So income per person in the in— .

dustrialized countries has almost trebled in 30 years from $3,841 to $9,684; in the middleincome countries it has more than doubled from $625 to $1,521; whereas in the low-income countries it did not even double between 1950 and 1980, just rising from $164 to $245 per person.

The Basic Human Needs of a growing number of people are not being met as the year 2000 approaches. As the Brandt Commissiop points out:

“Precisely how many people in the Third World live in such ' conditions of poverty, no one can say. The International Labour Office estimated the number of destitute at 700 million in the early 19705. World Bank estimates today put them at 800 million. This suggests that almost 40% of the people in the South are

World coalitions— have begun to demand changes in the structure of the global economy to turn around such asym- metries and to permit the Third World to develop itself without having to subsidize growth in the First World. The Non-

,aligned were initially concerned with the

Cold War and bipolarity; now they are demanding a New International Economic Order (NIEO) as a prerequisite for development and the satisfaction of Basic Human Needs in the Third World. Hence the special general assemblies of the United Nations on international development and the Conference on In- ternational Economic Cooperation (the Paris dialogue). But the range of issues is lengthy—trade, technology, finance, labour, energy, commodities, industri- alization,

been retarded by the general recession in the global economy since the mid-19705. The prospects for the Brandt Corn- mission’s “mini-summit” this summer in Mexico City are not good.

corporations, etc.—and the ' number of actors is large. Progress hast

The world now contains more poor people than ever; and their numbers are projected to continue to increase into the foreseeable future. Paradoxically, this post-war explosion in the ranks of the poor coincided with the movement towards decolonization in the Third World; just when the problems produced by colonialism were intensifying the colonial masters retreated to the com- forts of their own surroundings. The new post-colonial leaders were, immediately confronted with massive difficulties exacerbated by their peoples’ wild dreams: how to control populations growing at exponential rates with great expectations about the golden age of in- dependence? /

Awareness about the intractable problems of poverty in the Third World grew slowly in the sixites—the decade of independence—but faster in the seven- ties—the second UN Development Decade. The 19805 have opened in an am- bivalent moo'd. Development strategies are being reassessed given the lack of either growth or redistribution since in- dependence. Moreover, the general global economic crisis from the mid-19705 onwards has produced a widespread re evaluation in international economic relations and institutions. There is a danger that the plight of the poor will be overlooked as the very rich and middling rich countries scramble to salvage their own affluence. "Protectionism” and ‘freindustrialization” in the North threaten to take away even the marginal gains that the Third World has made in the last twenty or thirty years.

Theer continue to grow

Because of_low levels, of economic growth and high levels of population growth "the number of people in absolute p'm‘rerty has increased,” according to the latest World Development Report. And the "gap" continues to widen. Over the last 30 years, the economies of the _in- dustrialized and middle-income countries have grown by 3% per annum; thoSe of

.now demanding

,. surviving - but only barely sur— From interdependence to isolationism?

primary issue. In 1964 Lyndon Baines Johnson asserted that "For the first time in our history it is possible to conquer poverty.” Yet, there is more poverty now than ever and protectionist pressures in the North may retard progress in the South. Unless the Nonaligned continue to demand a NlEO we may even lose sight of international inequalities let alone begin to do anything about them. As the Brandt Commission laments: _ .

Few people in the North have

any detailed conception of

the extent of poverty in the

Third World'or of the forms

that it takes. Many hundreds

of millions of people in the

poorer countries are preoc-

cupied solely with survival

and elementary needs . . . In

the North, ordinary men and

women face genuine econom-

ic pgoblems - uncertainty, in-

flation, the fear if not the

reality of unemployment. But

they rarely face anything

resembling the total

deprivation found in the

South. Ordinary people in the

South would not. find it

credible that the societies of

the North regard themselves

as anything other than

wealthy. ‘ Given inherited structures of in- ternational exchange, the North has

grown because of the South. Processes of international dependence ' and un- derdevelopment mean that those of us who live reasonably comfortable lives in the North cannot escape from some recognition and responsibility of our association with the poverty of the South. As George Bernard Shaw said in Man and Superman: “I am a gentleman: I live by robbing the poor.” The global poor are reparations and redistribution from the international aristocrats, not to catch-up or emulate but merely to begin to be able to satisfy their Basic Human Needs. President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania expressed the Third World’s frustration well in 1977:

The complaint of the poor‘

viving - in . . ._ poverty. . . with incomes judged insufficient to secure the basic necessities oflife.

‘The irrelevance of independence

Such poverty poses major political, as

well as social and economic, problems for

the new leaders of the Third World: in- stability and coups have their roots in the inability of thesestates to alleviate suf-’ fering'. Despite the very considerable ef- forts 'made by national regimes and in- ternational organizations, Standards of

education, health, communications and "

services have not improved significantly since independence. Poverty cannot be attacked successfully without changes in the global as well as the local economy. The Third World was incorporated into

However, disorder in the world system should act as an incentive to cooperation, restructuring and redistribution. As is pointed out in North-South, there is a mutual interest in‘moving beyond the post-war Bretton Woods system and towards some form of NIEO:

nations against the present system is not only that we are poor both in absolute terms and in the comparison with the rich nations. It is also that within the existing structure of economic interaction we

While the international system has become much more complicated, with more independent nations, more in- stitutions and more centres of influence, it has also become much more interdependent. More and more local problems can only be solved through international solu- tions . . . the achievement of economic growth in one

_ the world system decadesago and the ' ~benefits of international exchange have

country depends increasingly

on the performance of others. floWed to the North, to advance its in- However» 6V9" if awareness 0f in- dustrialization and affluence. terdependence expands. a tension re The Nonaligned States, and the Group mains over whether poverty in the Third

of 77 in usiCTAD—Wo conective Thjtd :World or. inflation in’the First World is the \

must remain poor, and get relatively poorer, whatever wedo.

Timothy M. Shaw is an Associate Professor of. Political Science at Dalhousie. He has recently authored a monograph for its Centre for Foreign 'Policy Studies on Towards an In- ternational Political Economy for the '19809: from dependence to (in- ter)dependence. It deals 'with several of 'the issues discussed in this article and in— ,cludes two comments from experts in the field. It is available for $2.50 ($2.00 for students) from Room 351 in the Arts & Ad- ministration Building at Dalhousie.