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The World Social Situation: Development Challenges at the Outset of a New Century

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Abstract

World social development has arrived at a critical turning point. Economically advanced nations have made significant progress toward meeting the basic needs of their populations; however, the majority of developing countries have not. Problems of rapid population growth, failing economies, famine, environmental devastation, majority-minority group conflicts, increasing militarization, among others, are pushing many developing nations toward the brink of social chaos. This paper focuses on worldwide development trends for the 40-year period 1970–2009. Particular attention is given to the disparities in development that exist between the world’s “rich” and “poor” countries as well as the global forces that sustain these disparities. The paper also discusses more recent positive trends occurring within the world’s “socially least developed countries” (SLDCs), especially those located in Africa and Asia, in reducing poverty and in promoting improved quality of life for increasing numbers of their populations.

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Notes

  1. "Adequacy of social provision" refers to the changing capacity of governments to provide for the basic social, material, and other needs of the people living within their borders, e.g., for food, clothing, shelter, and access to at least basic health, education, and social services (Estes 1988, pp. 199–209).

  2. Because of their volume, these data are reported separately on the author’s website developed specifically for this study: http://www/sp2.upenn.edu/~restes/WSS09.

  3. The four primary groupings used in this analysis are: (1) Developed Market Economies (DMEs) consisting primarily of economically advanced countries (plus selected middle income countries added to the Organizations of Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] on the basis of their current level of economic development and the rapid pace of that development, e.g., the Czech Republic, Mexico, South Korea, Turkey); (2) the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) consisting entirely of successor states to the former Soviet Union (FSU), including the Russian Federation; (3) Developing Countries (DCs) consisting primarily of low, middle and high income countries located in developing Africa, Asia, and Latin America; and (3) Least Developed Countries (LDCs) which, for a variety of historical and socio-political reasons, experience net negative patterns of socio-economic development from one time period to another. A fifth category of countries also exists within this latter cluster of nations, i.e., a subset of LDCs that are “land- or ocean-locked developing countries” (LLDCs), which in addition to being among the world’s poorest countries, share more or less a common set of barriers to development (UN-OHRLLS 2009a). In the current analysis, the LLDCs and small island developing countries are classified with the LDCs and are not separated into a group of their own, albeit they are easily identified by an examination of WISP2009 data reported in Table 4 located at the end of this paper. Readers in need of a formal listing of the LLDCs are referred to the following sources: UN-OHRLLS 2009b, c.

  4. For methodological reasons, the ISP's 41 indicators are divided between positive and negative indicators of social progress. On the Education Subindex, for example, higher adult illiteracy rates are negatively associated with social progress whereas gains in primary school enrollment levels are positively associated with overall improvements in development. Thus, not only is the ISP representative of all major sectors of development, the instrument also achieves balance with respect the range of positive and negative factors that are used to assess changes in social progress over time.

  5. A fuller description of these procedures is summarized in Estes (1988), pp. 199–209.

  6. The components of some of these metrics, however, are included in the WISP’s Economic subindex.

  7. Owing to problems of data availability and integrity, some societies with populations of one million or more people experiencing major social chaos could not be included in the present analysis.

  8. Unless otherwise indicated, “M” refers to the average or mean score(s) on the Weighted Index of Social Progress (WISP); “Md” refers to median scores and “SD” refers to the standard deviation. When used, all three numbers are presented in relation to the same interval-level variable and every effort is made to not jump around in comparing different variables at the same time using different units of measurement.

  9. The BRICs consist of four of the world’s most rapidly developing countries: Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, and China.

  10. See footnote #3 for a fuller explanation of the countries included in each category of this typology.

  11. Countries were inversely ranked on the WISP from 1 to 162 with lower rank numbers indicating more favorable WISP rankings.

  12. The impact of the financial crisis that afflicted Iceland in 2008 and 2009 occurred after the data collection phase of the present study ended. For stories from governmental sources and in the popular media concerning the crisis see: Government of Iceland 2009; Stoddard 2009.

  13. Exceptions to this general pattern are France, the United Kingdom, and the United States all three of which are actively engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  14. The phase "least developed countries" (LDCs) was created by the United Nations in 1971 to describe the situation of the world’s "poorest and most economically weak of the developing countries, i.e., countries characterized by formidable economic, institutional and human resource problems, which are often compounded by geographical handicaps and natural and man-made disasters" (see UN-OHRLLS 2009d for current resolutions pertaining to recognition of and special UN support for the LDCs).

  15. Increases in the populations of the SLDCs will result from a combination of continuing high fertility and declining rates of adult morbidity. Quite simply, SLDCs, due largely to continuing advances in public health, are expected to add to the size of their populations at both ends of the age pyramid for the foreseeable future (UNPOP 2009).

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Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges with deep appreciation the contributions made by Huiquan (Mary) Zhou and Tae Ho Kang during the data collection phase of this project. Without their persistence and attention to detail the project could not have been brought to closure in such a timely manner. Prof. Kim Euiyoung, Dean of the Office of International Affairs, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea is thanked for providing the author with a precious block of time during Summer 2009 within which to conduct an in-depth analysis of the data. Amy Hillier of the PennDesign Department of City and Regional Planning of the University of Pennsylvania is thanked for her cartographic contribution to this paper as are Femida Handy and Ram Cnaan of the School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) of the University of Pennsylvania for their good cheer in supporting me through the various stages of this research inquiry.

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    Richard J. Estes

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Estes, R.J. The World Social Situation: Development Challenges at the Outset of a New Century. Soc Indic Res 98, 363–402 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9550-6

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