1. GLOBAL STRATIFICATION
CHAPTER 9

2. What share of the world’s people live in absolute poverty?
Why are some of the world’s countries so rich and others so poor?
Are rich nations making global poverty better or worse? How?

3. GLOBAL STRATIFICATION: AN OVERVIEW
Global perspective
Social stratification (inequality) is far greater than in the U.S.
People in U.S. with income below the poverty line live far better than the majority of the people on the planet

4. A Word About Terminology
Various models of classification
“Three Worlds” Model
“First World” – rich industrial countries
“Second World”-less industrialized socialist
“Third World”-non-industrialized poor countries
Two reasons model does not work today
Grew out of cold war politics
Changes in Eastern Europe and Society Union collapse means there is no distinctive Second World
Model lumped together more than 100 countries as Third World inaccurately

5. Revised system of classification HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES
The fifty-five richest nations with the highest overall standards of living
MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES
The seventy-five nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole
LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES
The remaining sixty-two nations with a low standard of living in which most people are poor
Two advantages over “three worlds” model
Focuses on economic development and does not lump together all lower-income nations

6. High-Income Countries
25% of Earth’s land area and lie mostly in the Northern Hemisphere
Significant cultural differences exist
All produce enough economic goods to enable people to lead comfortable lives
People enjoy 79% of the world’s total income
Production is “Capital Intensive”
Based on factories, big machinery, and advanced technology

7. Middle-Income Countries
Industrial jobs are common
1/3rd of people live in rural areas
Poor, lack access to schools, medical care, adequate housing, and safe drinking water
Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were socialist economies
55% of world’s land area and home to 70% of humanity
Societies are densely populated compared to high-income countries

8. Low-Income Countries Societies are agrarian and severe poverty
Follow cultural traditions
Limited industrial technology
People’s lives are shaped by hunger, disease, and unsafe housing
People in rich nations have difficulty grasping the extent of human poverty and famine

9. Global Wealthy and Poverty
Low-income nations are home to some rich and many poor
Most people live with incomes of a few hundred dollars a year
Burden of poverty in low-income countries are greater than among the poor of the U.S.

10. The Severity of Poverty
Reason quality of life differs so much around the world
Economic productivity is lowest in regions where population growth is the highest
High-income countries have the advantage
79% of global income supporting just 18% of humanity
Middle-income countries
20% of global income support 70% of humanity
Leaves 12% of planet’s population with1% of global income

11. Relative Versus Absolute Poverty
People in rich nations focus on relative poverty
Some people lack resources that are taken for granted by others
Exists in every society; rich and poor
Absolute poverty is more important in the global perspective
Lack of resources that is life-threatening
Lack the nutrition necessary for health and long-term survival

12. Global indicator of absolute poverty
Median age of death
Rich countries – most people die after 75
Poor countries
Half of all deaths occur among children under age 10

13. The Extent of Poverty Poverty is more widespread in poor countries
Absolute poverty is greatest in Africa
High death rate of children
Half the population is malnourished
Worldwide
15% or 1 billion people suffer from chronic hunger
400,000 people per day or 15 million die each year from hunger

14. Poverty and Children
At least 100 million children in poor countries provide income for their families
Beg, steal, sell sex, or work for drug gangs
Means dropping out of school
Children are at high risk of disease and violence
Another 100 million leave families and live on the streets
Half of all street children found in Mexico City or Rio de Janeiro

15. Poverty and Women Rich societies Poor societies
Women work is undervalued, underpaid, or overlooked
Poor societies
Work in sweatshops
Tradition keeps women out of many jobs
Traditional norms give women the responsibility for child rearing and household maintenance
Men own 90% of the land
70% of world’s 1 billion people living in absolute poverty are women
Women in poor countries receive little or no reproductive health care
limited access to birth control

16. Slavery
200 million-about 3% of humanity live in conditions that amount to slavery
Four types of slavery
Chattel slavery – one person owns another
Child slavery – desperate families let children do what they can to survive
Debt bondage – employers hold workers captive by paying them too little to meet their debts
Human trafficking – movement of men, women, and children from one place to another for forced labor

17. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
Six decades later
Slavery still exists

18. Explanations of Global Poverty
TECHNOLOGY
¼ of people in low-income countries farm the land using human or animal power
POPULATION GROWTH
Poorest countries have the highest birth rates
Despite the death toll, double every five years
CULTURAL PATTERNS
Poor societies are usually traditional
Resistant to change

19. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION GENDER INEQUALITY
Low-income nations distribute wealth unequally
GENDER INEQUALITY
Extreme and keep women from holding jobs
Typically means they have many children
GLOBAL POWER RELATIONSHIPS
COLONIALISM
The process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations
Global exploitation allowed some nations to develop economically at the expense of others

20. Global Stratification: Theoretical Analysis
Two major explanations:
Modernization Theory
Dependency Theory

21. Modernization Theory Modernization Theory Historical Perspective
A model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of technological and cultural differences between nations
Structural-functional approach
Historical Perspective
Theory proposes that it is affluence that demands explanation
Industrialization’s productivity improved the living standards of even the poorest people

22. The Importance of Culture
Tradition as barrier to economic development
Technology opposed as a threat
Family relationships
Customs
Religious beliefs

23. Rostow’s Stages of Modernization
TRADITIONAL STAGE
Socialized to honor the past
Cannot imagine that life can or should be different
Life is spiritually rich but lacking in material goods
TAKE-OFF STAGE
Start to use talents and imagination sparking economic growth
Market emerges as goods are produced
Greater individualism, willing to take risks, desire for material goods

24. DRIVE TO TECHNOLOGICAL MATURITY
Growth is a widely accepted idea that fuels pursuit of higher living standards
Diversified economy
Industrialization weakens traditional family and local community life
Absolute poverty reduced in nations the this stage
Basic schooling for all and advanced training for some
Social position of women steadily approaches that of men

25. HIGH MASS CONSUMPTION
Economic development driven by industrial technology raises living standards
Mass production stimulates mass consumption
People learn to “need” the expanding selection of goods produced

26. The Role of Rich Nations
High-income nations play four important roles in global economic development
CONTROLLING POPULATION
Help limit population growth by exporting birth control technology
INCREASING FOOD PRODUCTION
Export high-tech farming methods
Referred to as the “Green Revolution”

27. INTRODUCING INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY
Introduce machinery and information technology which raises productivity
Industrialization shifts the labor force from farming to skilled industrial and service jobs
PROVIDING FOREIGN AID
Investment capital from rich nations boost prospects of poor societies
Foreign aid help raise agricultural productivity
Financial and technical assistance to build power plants and factories

28. CRITICAL REVIEW Most serious flaw of modernization theory
Has not occurred in many poor countries
Fails to recognize that rich nations, which benefit from the status quo, often block the path to development for poor countries
Treats rich and poor societies as separate worlds ignoring that the global economy affects all nations
Ethnocentric - Holds the world’s most developed countries as the standard for judging the rest of humanity
Suggests that the causes of global poverty lie entirely within the poor societies themselves – blaming the victim

29. Dependency Theory Dependency Theory Historical Perspective
A model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by rich ones
Social-conflict approach
Historical Perspective
People living in poor countries are better off economically
Based on the idea that the economic positions of rich and poor nations are linked
Prosperity of developed countries come at the expense of less developed ones

30. The Importance of Colonialism
Europeans established colonies
Americas, Africa, Asia
United States
Alaska, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, Hawaiian Islands, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba
European powers dominated most of the continent until early 1960s
According to dependency theory
Political liberation has not meant economic independence
Neocolonialism
Economic relationship between rich and poor nations continue colonial pattern of domination
Heart of the capitalist world economy

31. Wallerstien’s Capitalist World Economy
Suggests that prosperity or poverty of any country results from the operation of the global economic system
Rich nations are the core of the world economy
Low-income nations are the periphery of the global economy
World economy
Benefits rich societies by generating profits
Harms the rest of the world by causing poverty
Makes poor nations dependent on rich ones

32. Dependency involves three factors
NARROW EXPORT-ORIENTED ECONOMIES
Poor nations develop few industries of their own
LACK OF INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY
Poor societies depend on selling their inexpensive raw materials to rich nations and try to buy from rich nations the few expensive manufactured goods they can afford
FOREIGN DEBT
Unequal trade patterns plunged poor countries into debt causing high unemployment and rampant inflation

33. The Role of Rich Nations
Modernization theory
Rich societies produce wealth through capital investments and new technology
Dependency Theory
Views global inequality in terms of how countries distribute wealth
Rich nations have overdeveloped themselves as they underdeveloped the rest of the world
Claim that population and agricultural programs actually benefit rich nations and the ruling elites; not the poor majority

34. Lappe and Collins (1986)
Capitalist culture encourages people to think that poverty is inevitable
Dependency Theory
Global poverty results from deliberate politics
World produces enough food to feed the planet
Contradiction of poverty amid plenty
Stems from rich nation policy of producing food for profit
Governments of poor countries support this because they need food profits to help pay off their huge foreign debt
Capitalist corporate structure of the global economy is at the core of this vicious cycle

35. CRITICAL REVIEW Dependency theory treats wealth wrongly
Dependency theory is wrong in blaming rich nations for global poverty
Dependency theory is simplistic
Claims capitalist market system is the cause of global inequality
Rich societies cannot be held responsible for corrupt and militaristic foreign leaders
Wrong to claim that global trade always makes rich nations richer and poor nations poorer
Dependency theory offers only vague solutions to global poverty

36. Global Stratification: Looking Ahead
Most important trend is the expansion of the global economy
Supporters of the global economy claim
Expansion of trade results in benefits for all countries involved
Endorse NAFTA

37. Modernization and Dependency Theory offer some understanding
Greatest concern is the vast economic inequality that separates the world’s nations
Modernization and Dependency Theory offer some understanding
Must consider empirical evidence
Although all people are better off in absolute terms, there was almost twice as much relative economic inequality
Degree of inequality has declined since 1970
Greatest reduction in poverty took place in Asia

38. Latin America enjoyed significant growth
Little overall improvement
Half the nations of Africa are showing economic growth
In many countries south of the Sahara, extreme poverty has become worse
Insight of modernization theory
Poverty is partly a problem of technology
Insight of dependency theory
Global inequality is also a political issue

39. Human community must address crucial questions
Distribution of resources
Within societies
Around the globe
Though economic development raises living standards
Places greater strain on the natural environment

40. Gulf that separates world’s richest and poorest
Puts everyone at risk of war and terrorism
Poorest people challenge social arrangements that threaten their existence
Planetary peace can be achieved
Ensure that all people enjoy
Significant measure of dignity and security