The Three Worlds

What are people talking of, when they say 1st world, 2nd world, or 3rd world?

The original definition (pretty much the one described as American below) was due to the French demographer Alfred Sauvy. His original (1952) article, [http://www.homme-moderne.org/societe/demo/sauvy/3mondes.html] is in French, and lays out the definitions. Interestingly he did not seem to intend 'poverty' as the criteria for belonging to the third world, though many poor countries fitted in. Nor was there an intent of a hierarchy 1,2,3. What Sauvy discussed was nonaligned nations that might end up not following either the west or the east but find their own third way.

Sauvy was making a deliberate allusion to the 'three estates' (the nobles, the clergy and the people) in the French revolutionary pamphlet by Sieyes (1789) [http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/11868.html]. Sieyes point, which Sauvy mirrors, is that the third estate/world have it in them to be a power on their own.

Other related phrases:

• 'Fourth Estate' (the press)
• 'Fourth World' (refers to aboriginal and other peoples without an internationally-recognized government, who thus wouldn't have made it into Sauvy's use of the term; emphasising that the 'third world' did not just mean 'the rest').
• The "nonaligned" countries, which didn't choose side for either the USA or the USSR. India saw itself as the leader of this group.

Sometimes thought to be, but not actually related:

• 'Fifth column' (the enemy within') originated during the Spanish Civil War[ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=34839]

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EuropeanCulturalAssumption

I only know of the traditional way to divide the world into the old world (1st world, Europe), the new world (2nd world, America), and the 3rd world (the rest). Of course this isn't appropriate anymore, if it ever was, but it is still in use.

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AmericanCulturalAssumption? WesternCulturalAssumption?

I learned in Junior High Geography class in 1987 that the First World was the Free Countries (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Australia, Japan, etc.), the Second World was the Communist Countries (Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Eastern Europe), and the Third World was the undeveloped countries (most of Africa and South America). The usage may indeed be antiquated; is Russia (the former Soviet Union) still Second World, or is it First World, or is it Third World?

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One world is enough, for all of us.- The Police

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Perhaps the best partitioning (when one is needed) today is the 'minority world', i.e. the `western' nations and Japan etc., and the `majority' world, i.e. those we tend to call 'developing'. This helps retain a realistic perspective. Realistic perspective of what? The EightyTwentyRule, perhaps.

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CategoryCulture