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Issues of development and inequality

The scope of development and inequality issues is global the 1980s and 1990s
were characterized by deepening inequality whitin and between atates. An
understanding of this globalization of inequality callstarmore

Sophisticated analysis than the exclusive categorization of rich and poor


states which has dominated the international relations (IR) discipline for so long,
it is important to map development and inequality issues between states, and
also between groups of people within and across state boundaries. Increasingly
the benefits and costs of global economic intergration can be mapped along
lines other than the staste. Such mapping highlights possible gender,
racial,ethnic , age or other disparities which are unfolding or being exacerbated
by the globalization process. There is an increasing South (that is, poverty-
stricken strata) within the Northern states, and also there is a significant North
(that is, wealthy elite) within the Southern states.

Nevertheless, the traditional categorization of rich and poor states is still


important. The overwhelming majority of poor people after all live in third World
countries. Moreover, the grouping of Third World states, far from disappearing
with the demise of the Cold War, has been reconfigured. The Third World has
expanded, as the states of the former Eastern bloc have joined the Third rather
than the First World. The UNDP reports that No fewer than 100 countries-all
development or in transition-have experienced serious economic deckine over
the past three decades. As a result, re capita income in these 100 countries is
lower than it was 10,20 oe even 30 years ago (UNDP), 1998,p.37) global wealth
is becoming more concentrated within a narrow band of First World states.

Table 5.1 shows the distribution of global income , resources and wealth
between the highest-and lowest-income countries. It is worth pausing to
comment on the distribution of telephone lines. The ESCAP Survey (1999)
identifies the future of development as internet commerce. Yet out of the worlds
6 billion population , there are only 50 million internet users, and over 90 per
cent of internet hosts arew in North America and Western Europe . Eighty per
cent of people worldwide do not have access to a telephone (African
Development Bank, 1998,p.172). thus the majority of global citizens are not in a
position to tap into the ongoing technological advance and the associated
communications revolution. This revolution, therefore, is set to increase
disparities between states and between states and between people free also
chapter(12)

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