Poverty's Worst Enemy

Research Paper # 27815

Economics > International
Sociology

A discussion of the effect of globalization on international poverty.

5,914 words () | 19 sources | MLA | 2002 | United States

Published on: Jun 18, 2003

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how poverty is a global social problem and how people in various regions of the world experience it differently. It looks at how globalization accounts for an increased awareness of poverty as a global problem. It evaluates how the world-systems theory provides a simple explanation for the existence and continuance of poverty, the more powerful states exploit the weaker ones for production and sales and how this approach fails to account for other causes of poverty such as the presence of an authoritarian regime that has failed to open up to today's global economy, as is the case in Iran.

Outline
What is the Extent of Poverty Worldwide?
How Do Particular People or Countries Experience Poverty?
How Can Theories of Globalization Help to Explain Poverty?
How Does Economic Globalization Contribute to the Problem?
How Does Political Globalization Affect Poverty?
How Does Cultural Globalization Affect Poverty?
Conclusions: The Globalization Debate

From the Paper:

"What would be a better tool to measure human development? The Human Development Index (HDI) works better as a simple measure of human well-being than the Purchasing Power Parity. Every year, the United Nations releases an updated report on the HDI, measuring a country's achievements in three aspects of human development longevity, knowledge, and standard of living. Longevity involves measuring life expectancy at birth; knowledge is a measurement of adult literacy and combined gross primary, secondary, and tertiary enrollment ratio; and finally, the standard of living is measured by GDP per capita using the Purchasing Power Parity in U.S. dollars. Allow the HDI uses the PPP, it takes into account other factors, such as life expectancy and education, in determining the broad issue of human development. Even the HDI is not enough to measure a country's level of development since it does not reflect certain issues such as political participation and gender inequalities."