The Global Divides:

North and South

A Socio-economic and Political Division

By:
EYMARD JULIAN F. FADERON
BSCS – 1B
Overview

The North-South Divide is the socio-economic and political division that exists between the wealthy developed countries, known
collectively as “the North,” and the poorer developing countries (least developed countries), or “the South.” The North is mostly correlated
with the Western world and the First World, along with much of the Second World, while the South largely corresponds with the Third
World and Eastern world. The two groups are often defined in terms of their differing levels of wealth, development, income inequality,
democracy, political and economic freedom, as defined by freedom indices.

Learning objectives
At the end of this discussion, the students are expected to:
• define and understand the existence of the global economic division
• differentiate the Global North and the Global South
• assess and correlate Philippines economic status with other developed countries

Keywords

Few terms to be remembered:

Global North, Global South, Cold War, Brandt Line, First World countries, Second World countries, Third World Countries,
Development Gap
1. Introduction

The Global North – South Divide is an imaginary line that divides the wealthy developed countries and the poor
developing countries. It is also known as “Rich-Poor Divide”.

The north-south divide is more metaphorical than it is

geographical. Meaning, although most nations
comprising the “Global North” are in fact located in
the Northern Hemisphere, the divide is not primarily
defined by geography or location.

As nations become economically developed, they may

become part of the “Global North”, regardless of
geographical location, while any other nations which
do not qualify for “developed” status are in effect
deemed to be part of the “Global South”. World map showing a traditional definition of the North-South divide.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org)
2. History (How was it created?)

During Cold War, the Global Divide was made

official with the East and West Power.

WEST POWER EAST POWER

- United States - Soviet Union
- Allied Countries - China

They divided the world into three (3) categories that embodies 3 types of countries along the globe: the First World, the Second World,
and the Third World.

The “Three Worlds Theory”

First World
Composed of industrialized and democratic
countries, which most members were
assumed to be allied with United States
against Soviet Union. (Canada, Australia,
Japan, Western Europe, etc.)
Second World
Former communist countries that aren’t
quite in poverty but aren’t prosperous
either (East Germany, Georgia, Poland,
Ukraine, etc.)
Third World
Non-aligned world and as the global realm
of poverty and under-development.
(Afghanistan, Latin America, Asian
countries, etc.)
The “three worlds theory,” however, was
conceptually incoherent, combining
incommensurate geopolitical and socio-
economic features.
By 1989 - 1991, the Second World, by any
definition, ceased to exist when Soviet Union
collapsed. With the Second World gone, the
three-words model no longer made any sense.
Countries in red represent First World, green for Second World and Blue for the Third World .

Nowadays, we are still using though the terminologies “First World” and “Third World”
countries to categorize the developed countries which are industrially advanced, democratic
and with high Human Development Index (HDI) from the developing nations, which are poor,
economically underdeveloped and with low HDI.
After the demise of the Second World, leaders and scholars adopted new terms for the socio-
economically divided planet, differentiating a wealthy “Global North” from an
impoverished “Global South”.
The “Global North” mostly covers the West and the
First World, with much of the Second World. While
the “Global South” covers the countries from the
Third World.

Development Gap
The North-South divide has more recently been coined as the ‘development gap’
to emphasize the evident gap between rich (more economically developed)
countries and the poor (less economically developed) countries.
3. The Brandt Line
The Brandt Line is a visual depiction of the north–south divide. It encircles
the world at a latitude of approximately 30° North, passing between North
and Central America, north of Africa and the Middle East, climbing north
over China and Mongolia, but dipping south so as to include Australia and
New Zealand in the "Rich North".
More developed countries

It was proposed in the 1980s as a way of showing how the world was
geographically split into relatively richer and poorer nations. According to
this model:
• Richer countries are almost all located in the Northern Hemisphere,
with the exception of Australia and New Zealand.
• Poorer countries are mostly located in tropical regions and in the
Less developed countries Southern Hemisphere.

However, many countries in the poor south have become more developed
since the 1980s and so many people now think that the Brandt line is no
longer useful.

For example, some countries that are considered to be 'developing' have experienced
rapid growth (especially in manufacturing and tertiary industries) in recent years. We call
TRIVIA these countries the newly industrialized countries (NICs) e.g. China, Brazil and Mexico.
Willy Brandt (1913 – 1992)
A former chancellor of West Germany who
proposed the Brandt line in the 1980s.
4. Global North

 Comprised of only one quarter (25%) of the total global population

 Richer and more economically developed region
 Accounts for over 90% of all manufacturing industries.
 About 95% of the population have enough basic needs and have
Global North
access to functioning education systems.

Global South

World Population

Countries comprising the North include The United

States, Canada, all countries in Western Europe,
Australia, New Zealand as well as the developed
countries in Asia such as Japan and South Korea.
5. Global South

 Accounts for the three-quarters (75%) of the global population BUT

only accounts a fifth (20%) of the globally earned income.
Global North
 Poor and less developed region
 Relatively low GDP and the high population.
 Only 5% of country’s population has enough food and shelter
 Source of raw materials and labor for the “North”
Global South
 The economies of most countries in the South rely on imports from
the North and have low technological penetration

World Population
The countries making up the South are mainly drawn from Africa, South America, and
Asia with all African and South American countries being from the South. The only
Asian countries not from the South are Japan and South Korea.

TRIVIA Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total value of goods and

services produced in a country. It is measured over specific time
frames, such as a quarter or a year. GDP as an economic indicator
is used worldwide to show the economic health of a country.
6. The Development Gap

Despite very significant development gains globally which have raised many millions of people out of absolute poverty, there is
substantial evidence that inequality between the world’s richest and poorest countries is widening. In 1820 western Europe's per
capita income was three times bigger than Africa’s but by 2000 it was thirteen times as big. In addition, in 2013, Oxfam reported that
the richest 85 people in the world owned the same amount of wealth as the poorest half
of the world’s population.
There are many causes for these inequalities including:
• the availability of natural resources;
• different levels of health and education;
• the nature of a country’s economy and its industrial sectors;
• international trading policies and access to markets;
• how countries are governed and international relationships between countries;
• conflict within and between countries;
• and a country’s vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change.
Closing the Gap
The North-South Divide is criticized for being a way of
segregating people along economic lines and is seen as a
factor of the widening gap between developed and
developing economies.

However, several measures have been put in place to

contract the North-South Divide including the lobbying
for international free trade and globalization. The United
Nations has been in the forefront in diminishing the
North-South Divide through policies highlighted in its
Millennium Development Goals. This includes
improving education and health care,
promoting gender equality, and ensuring The eight millennium development goals included in the United Nations’ Millennium
Development Goals.
environmental sustainability.
Resources & Citations

My gratitude and credits to the following sources of the materials, images, and definitions I used in this
presentation, be it subject to copyright or not.

https://www.lifeliqe.com/

https://www.rgs.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://www.worldatlas.com

http://www.geocurrents.info https://www.cartoonmovement.com/

https://www.shutterstock.com
A 60 Second Guide to the Global North/South Divide. https://www.rgs.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?nodeguid=9c1ce781-9117-4741-af0a-
a6a8b75f32b4&lang=en-GB. Accessed 17 Sept. 2019.

Lewis, Martin W. “There Is No Third World; There Is No Global South”. GeoCurrents, 15 Nov. 2010. Retrieved from:
http://www.geocurrents.info/economic-geography/there-is-no-third-world-there-is-no-global-south#ixzz5zkx9CER6

Ramos, Ricca. “Global Divides: The North And The South”. Prezi.com, 18 Aug. 2018. Retrieved from: https://prezi.com/-jnfbggt48jo/global-
divides-the-north-and-the-south/

Sawe, Benjamin Elisha. "What is the North-South Divide?" WorldAtlas, Aug. 1, 2017, Retrieved from:
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-north-south-divide.html

Warren, Katy. “The Global North/South Divide”. Prezi.com, 5 Sept. 2014, Retrieved from: https://prezi.com/dwhvbzpvuzax/the-global-
northsouth-divide/

Yaqoob, Umm-e-Rooman. “The North-South Gap”. SlideShare, 22 March 2014. Retrieved from: https://www.slideshare.net/Yaqoob63/the-
northsouth-gap-m-yaqoob