Politics in the_third_world

POLITICS IN THE THIRD WORLD:
Politics doesn't show great differences in all parts of the world. Aims, targets,
conflicts are the same in every region. So, third world (third world) politics don't
show big differences when we compare them with other politics. The difference
does not come from the characteristics of people but from the unique
circumstances. The term ''third world'' contains Americas on the south of us,
Africa, Asia without Soviet union, China, Japan and ocean islands but not New
Zealand and Australia. This nearly takes the half of world population inside. We
can’t categorize these countries according to wealth or geography. Some third
world countries are extremely poor, on the other hand we have to keep in mind
that Kuwait is also considered as a third world country. But, third world countries
have some common parts; nearly most of them gained independence after
1945. What differs third world countries from the other parts of the world is their
peripherally. They are separate from the major economic power countries. Only
small part of third world population live in the same standards with the population
in western world. We can also define third world countries by saying that they
are ''non-western''. Their political and economic institutions are different from
the western institutions. Most of third world are governed by ''single-man
leadership'' and they are facing problems on maintaining a stable and healthy
bureaucracy. There are third world contrasting theories which try to describe
third world countries. First can be called as ''nationalist approach''. This
approach try to find regularities in the international evolution of each state and
defines the situation as ''development''. Samuel Huntington refuses the term
''political development'' and uses ''political order'' instead. The other approach
can be called as Marxist and Leninist school which believes that third world
countries need to incorporate to the global system. This second group is known
as ''internationalists''. Internationalists focus on Latin America and claim that the
economy is the biggest power behind the political change. Both nationalists and
internationalists have right aspects but, they are not enough to explain third
world individually.

COLONIAL STATE AND ITS DEMISE/EUROPEAN COLONIALISM:
A single world system is needed to define third world. If a global political system
and a global economy don't exist, then there would be no reason countries to
be categorized as third world. European colonialism is the main power behind
the forming of global world order. Many countries are affected by this
development, changes are observed in inner politics and also many states are
linked to this global system via various international institutions. All of the third
world countries used to be a colony of an European state once. Although they
are independent at the moment, European effect remained in some areas.
THE IMPOSITION OF COLONIAL RULE:
The imposition of European colonialism shows differences in third world
countries. Colonial rule was imposed some of them in 15th century while the
others stayed independent till 19th.colonialism was the result of technical
developments in Europe. The motive was economic. European states wanted
to use their technologic advantages in favor of being wealthier. The invention of
ocean going ships was the starting point of colonialism. Europeans hoped to
find rich territories but on the other hand, they were looking for easy control on
the resident. From this point of view, Americas was the best place. It was rich
but easy to control. The colonial rule imposed to Americas was very violent.
Europeans destroyed all cultural heritages in Americas. Populations are kept
away from social, economic and political life. Europeans used colonials for rich
minerals, food and especially in Africa they used slaves.in general, Asia and
Africa colonialism show similarities but colonialism in Americas, especially Latin
America is totally different. They became independent nearly a century before
the others. For long years, Europe took colonies only on the coasts, then they
began to come into the continents. For example, central parts of Asia became
colony only in 19th century. For centuries, south east Europe and northern Africa
was under Ottoman control. After Ottoman's collapse, France and Britain
governed many colonies of old Ottoman territory in cooperation with local

dynasties. Africa used for man power and the only state which could have
survived its independence was Ethiopia. In Africa, local people were seperated
into different colonies and after coloniel period, seperate states were build in the
continent according to early colony maps.
THE STRUCTURE OF COLONIAL GOVERNMENT:
We can’t speak about a single colonial goverment structure, there were
differences according to the region and who governed. But of course, there are
some common characteristics: in all colonies there were no borderlines before,
colonism brought territorial boundaries. This is the main point of independent
states after post-colonial period.one other important point is that the colonial
states brought some kind of political arrangement in each colony. Colonial states
based their political arrangement on absolute power. The amount of this power
was different but something was common for local people: they thought that
resisting to colonial powers would not change anything. Of course there was a
big gap bethird worldeen the technologies of colonies' people and Europe.the
structure of colonial power was both centralized and authoritarian. The core was
Europe, there was a governor in the central colony and there were
commissioners in the region colonies. The structure is nearly the same in every
colony. There are also some other effects of colonization. New colonial
economy, new behaviours and social life ocured in colonization period. Long
roads and railways were built for transfering mineral,food and slaves.Many
colonial states lost their authorities in the 19th century, only Britain and France
left as colonial imperials. After French Revolution, France wanted those
indigenous people of colonies assimilate into French culture and nation. By
contrast, Britain never accepted this approach. According to Britain, those
people could never become English.the British system was more centralized in
comparision with French experince but anticolonial movement were observed
earlier in British colonies. Colonial powers forced people to use a common
language, established an education system, so, colony people lost contact with
other colonies. There are three reasons for the different colonial goverment

structures: economic change, structre of indigenous people and exercises of
different colonial states.
THE NON-COLONIAL STATES:
In the Americas there were colonies everywhere but in Asia and Africa there
were indirect colonies. In Asia and Africa some regions were non-colonial but in
fact they were close to being a colony. The indigenous elite had contacts with
colonial western countries, established European like institutions inside the
country. Thailand, İran and Ethiopia are the examples. These indigenous rulers
preferred centralized authority in order to maintain stability inside and continue
relations with capitalist powers. They did never have sympathy for political
participation, thus, there were bloody upheavals in non-colonial states.
DECLINE OF WESTERN EUROPEAN COLONIALISM:
The end of western European colonialism happened within a short period of
time. 20 years after Second World War there were nearly no colonies which
belonged to these states. Only a few micro colonies left which were totally
composed of islands.The western powers always claimed that, colonialism
would end either by independence or assimilation. The case of independence
was much more seen than assimilation. There were third worldo super powers
after the war and none both US and USSR did not support the understanding of
colonialism. There were also come other reasons that could explain the fall of
colonialism. First of all, the economic income reduced after the war because
all colonies were affected by the war. Secondly, western Europeans had security
concerns. Security was about to be one of the major objectives of these states.
And of course we have to keep in mind that post war governments of Europe
had been mentioning equalities and democracy. These ideas don't accept any
relation with colonialism. While Britain was making arrangements to transfer
power, there were problems in French colonies especially in Indochina and
Algeria. Since the coming of Charles de Gaulle in power, France continuingly
faced problems in colonies. In Portugal colonial upheavals put government into

a very difficult situation and there happened a revolution in 1974. We must not
forget that colonial period caused changes not only in colonial states but in the
colonies as well. Colonies had always thought that, no one could win against
colonial powers, but most of them got disappointed when they saw that colonial
states could not stop the occupation of the enemy. The breaking point of
colonialism was the end of war. Many powers could not maintain stability in their
colonies after the war.
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS:
Although external conditions and war had an effect on the fall of colonialism, the
main reason was the nationalist anti-colonial movements raised in the colonies
by time. The indigenous opposition wanted to get rid of the colonial power but
never wanted to turn back to their pre-colonial state conditions. The indigenous
elite ws very much effected by the colonial education and their thoughts. In some
colonies, especially in Africa, indigenous people considered colonial powers as
a force for development, demanded equal rights and same systems with
Europeans. In the second phase, there were some preparations for self-
governance but these were not strong enough. After a while, these thoughts
gained the support of large populations. In many colonies, leaders of national
movements aimed to control the rural groups and their nationalism was
moderate. And last but not the least, there were religion, ethnic and other kind
of disputes came to surface even before independence. We can say that
nationalist period in the colonies was transient and peculiar.
THE COLONIAL RESPONSE AND THE TRANSFER OF POWER:
The nationalism came to surface as a reaction to the injustice exercises of
colonial powers. The governors were trying to maintain stability in colonies and
since this was the final goal, they could have used violent tactics when
necessary. They had to find a balance bethird worldeen growing nationalism
and their behavior’s. They should stop colonization and give permission to
decolonization period. What they did first was to hold elections for limited

participation to political life, and while doing this, they hoped to suppress radical
movements inside. British followed this way, they were successful in some
places but not in Zimbabwe and South Africa, because they transferred power
so early to white minority. French did not look for decolonization till 1958 but the
assimilation policy of France formed a necessary base for decolonization. On
the other hand, Belgians accepted the possibility of independence but did not
do anything to create a base or group to take the power. That's why in Belgian
colonies there happened fights among groups to take the power.
THE NATURE OF THE THIRD WORLD STATE:
The state is the main force and element in the structure of third world country.
But the power balance in the state is different in these third world countries
comparing with the other states of world and the main characteristic of the state
is its fragility. In the first years of independence there was a hard struggle bethird
worldeen political parties but systems stood alive and survived. Third world
states generally had totalitarian structures. States usually did not present
commonly shared values. The state in its origins was to preserve of the
dominant immigrant group and used as an agency of control. The dominant
group was generally white and they were slave owners. We can say that there
wasn't any healthy relations bethird worldeen state and its society. Of course
this gap affected the political, social and economic developments of newly
independent third world countries.
FORMS OF AUTHORITY:
Modern states are based on rational, legal authority and they individuals have
an important role. It was the common values and aims of individuals that bring
people together in a state.Short after independence, third world countries
prepared their constitutions but these constitutions showed great sensibility to
the opposition and minority demands. Because of these constitutions there was
a danger of quick reversing of regimes in these sates. Third world countries
changed many constitutions since then, they were unable to continue their

political life with a single constitution. Charisma had an important role in political
leadership. The system is held together by loyalty to state but this loyalty was
mostly for the leader himself. Third world were not feudal systems but we can
not speak of pure patrimonialism here, we an define the situation as "neo-
patrimonialism".officials who were in the key parts of bureaucratic system
exercised their powers in favor of the private property. In the neo patrimonialism
there were tribal societies in which loyalty to one's kin group was the primary
social value. Although third world countries are closer to modern states at the
moment, we can still observe some characteristics of neo atrimonialism.
Corruption: when state officials use their powers in favor of private aims, this
can be called as corruption. In a patrimonial system, corruption doesn't have
meaning because the ruler owns everything the state owns. But in a neo
patrimonial system exists since the state is based on the concept of rationality
and legality. Corruption is one of the main problems in all third world countries.
The main problem is that the officials and politicians don't support and work for
long term projects or plans, they are just trying to save the day.People in third
world countries are suspicious about their political and economic future. One
other important result of corruption is the distance bethird worldeen those who
exercise power and those who suffer from the corruption of the system and
power is not equally shared by these third worldo groups. Some officials can not
even be supervised by their own superiors and effective control of corruption
looks difficult. One important aspect of corruption is the relations with external
world. These relations are needed to do something with the money collected
from inside. And external relations are also sources for further corruption, for
example relations with big companies, various agreements can be used as a
source for corruption. There are some kinds of corruption which can be
observed in third world countries, these are: parochial, distributive, market or
extractive kinds of corruption.
PATRONS AND CLIENTS:

There are third worldo groups in a third worldo state one side is the people who
take the power and second group does not have the power and they are who
are not willing to participate social and economic life. Third world rulers tried to
extend their support beyond important groups who could play a role in rulers'
political advantage and competition. The regimes in third world countries were
searching for support the characteristic solution to this problem can be defined
as "patron client relationship. This is the way to define relations in a neo
patrimonialist system. The patron gives security and protects the client while the
client supports patron in his leadership. The term "security" can be both used
political, social, regional and economic aspects. This kind of relations are
generally applied in countries in which class divisions are sharp. Political party
leaders are in contact with local leaders in order to take the support of regions
via local leaders. When these political leaders come to power, they let local
leaders to get benefit from their governance as a appreciation for the former
support. This system works differently when there are weak local governments.
For example in Jamaica which is a urbanized country, trade unions do the same
work of local leaders and try to increase the support of he ruler. The main
dangerous part of this system comes when ethnic identities are mobilized. Since
most of third world countries are artificial, playing on ethnicity card may turn into
a dangerous game. The process of state consolidation: in all over the world,
although politics are made in favor of large populations, only small number of
people are interested in politics. But, situation is even worse in third world
countries. Non governmental political institutions are either weak or even don‘t
exist in these countries. The state looks authoritarian and in fact it is very fragile.
The small elite which has the power tries to increase effectiveness of of state
and also tries to get support of larger populations without taking any risk to its
political status. Elite tries to strengthen the concept of state. Elite used third
worldo methods to obtain its obstacles. First, ideological, second in political
practice. On ideological base, elite develops thoughts and arguments which can
justify their aims and existence. In political practice, they don‘t have tolerance to
other political institutions. They consider these institutions as a challenge to their

power, thus, destroy the institutions. On the other hand, these institutions are
the only linkage bethird worldeen ruler and large populations, the number of
people who are interested in politics never increases.
THE IDEOLOGIES OF INDEPENDENCE:
We can define ideology as ‚‘set of beliefs‘‘. It can either be true or false but it
must be based on experience and expectations of people. In the nationalist
leaders’ ideologies of third world countries, the main concept is the identity. The
main part of the ideology is composed of what we can call as ‚‘unity‘‘. Nearly all
post-colonial period ideologies focus on the concept of unity. According to
people on power, using unity helps to cover the sharp class divisions inside the
country. Secondly, unity is a good concept if we consider the ethnic structure of
third world states. Since ethnic diversity is much, third world countries
nationalists defined nationhood not on ethnic structure but on the idea of sharing
common boundaries. When opposition groups based their opposition on religion
or ethnic grounds, they were accused of being racist or tribalist. If a nationalist
movement is strongly anti-colonial, we observe that it has less tolerance to
opposition. On the contrary, if it is less anti-colonial then the elite considers itself
in security and becomes more tolerable to other political groups. Since the level
of education is low in third world countries, the political leaders thought that they
had right to decide everything in favor of their population. In the pre
independence period of third world countries, there was strong relation bethird
worldeen these people and populations but after independence things have
changed and these third worldo factors seperated.On ideological base, there
were also few states which accepted marxist ideology. The examples to these
states are Ethiopia, Cuba and Vietnam.The consolidation of state control: after
colonial period nationalist policies used third worldo institutions to strengthen
their own power. These were: political parties which they had formed and formal

administrations of colonial regimes. Nearly in all newly independent former
colonies, power was transferred from the party to the state. Party was the main
institution in political life and there wasn‘t any remarkable opposition. In some
cases, opposition leaders were sent to exile or imprisoned. Opposition parties
never had the chance to obtain the governance. Even in federal systems,
opposition party could not show effectiveness to central government. The
potential sources of opposition like trade unions or labors were without any
effect, too. These groups were divided among themselves and could not ever
create a significant union against the current political power. In short terms,
consolidation of state can be described as ‚‘‘returning to the authoritarianism of
colonial rule‘‘. In the first stage, colonial administration let nationalist parties to
work then built constitutions. There are three differences when we compare
colonial and indigenous governments:first, colonial rulers could not build a
bureaucracy, on the other hand indigenous leaders succeeded to create it.
Secondly, indigenous rulers were searching for political and social development,
thus they used nation state as a tool. Third was a result of above mentioned
third worldo factors; there were much more indigenous trained and educated
people in these countries compared with the colonial period.The management
of the core:after independence state consolidation became intensive, but it was
unable to solve the question on how to manage the state. The ruler and the
court: in third world countries, top leadership had always been personal. In third
world, there wasn‘t any immediate institutional constraint on rulers.it is strange
that military governing looks like more institutionalized than the civil political
parties. Military rulers used the concept of collective leadership instead of one
man rule. But, military governments were not willing to replace themselves for
civil administrations. As a result of this they usually lost their power by another
coup. In third world, we can say that a successful ruler is the person who can
get loyalty and support, who can demolish political enemies and who gets the
sympathy and closer cities and support of the external world. External political
and economic support was one of the key elements for third world rulers. These
leaders preferred bureaucrats to other politicians because they had the authority

to replace bureaucrats. In addition to authoritarian leaders, Jackson and
Rosberg claim that there are some other types of leadership like tyrants or
prophets. But if we look closely we will see that there is no big difference bethird
worldeen these and an authoritarian leader. In fact, political and economic
structures of the third world states supports the idea of strong leadership. We
can define court as the inherent factional form of political organization. The main
problem of one man leadership is the succession. Some third world leaders
could have done positive achievements in political and economic life but all of
these always had the risk to collapse with the coming of a new leader. Since
ruling does not base on continuous efforts, new leader could have started from
another subject and left his precedessors efforts incomplete.
MAINTAINING A RULING COALITION :
Political leaders have to be good strategists and tactic experts. In order to
continue their leadership, they have to build a coalition considering the aims of
different groups and the will of various ethnic or religional minorities, on the other
hand, they have to build this coalition so carefully that , this coalition will not be
a threat to their leadership and legitimacy. The role and the methods of coalition
building in western democracies is very well defined and clear, but not the same
in third world states. The norms are not defined well. Even in one man
leadernship or militery governments, there has to be a coalition building
understanding. One of the main component of this coalition is ethnicity. Many of
the third world states have heteregenous ethnicity, thus this ethnicity provides a
form of political identity. Leaders should not exclude some ethnic minorities from
the participation to political life. This is a dangerous approach which can take
the country into a civil war like in the cases of ethiopia or sudan. In these
examples, central govenment lost much of its territory after the civil war. The
situation is more difficult when there are third worldo major power groups inside
the country nearly in equal Size and political structure. In this cse, coalition has
to be built carefully. But in all cases, there are some unsatisfied ethnic groups
and these become a threat to political stability of the country. One another

important problem is that there are some differences and seperations even in
the same ethnic group. That is why it is better to base this coalition on class
concept rather than ethnicity. In Latin America we observe that coalitions are
grounded on class. In inhdustrialized countries, the main classes that take place
in the coalition are working or middle class, but in third world we can speak about
urban and rural dwellers. In the urban coalition building, the emphasis is made
on towns because the main institutions of this urban life are in towns. The most
important factor has always been the bureaucracy. In rural based coalition
building, bureaucratic authoritarianism is being observed. Trade unions are also
another important factor especially in countries where people have bad living
conditions and standarts. The other supporters of urban coalitions are the
intellectuals and students. Coalitions are governed via political parties. A
political party can be considered as an umbrella which can gather different
groups in the single framework.
HOW REGIMES FAIL?:
One of the comlmon characteristics of third world political life is the military
coups. Nearly all of them had the experience of military governing after
independence. In fact third world leader have many advantages to come to
power and endure their leadership comparing with the laders of western world.
The state is more powerfull and they have the instrument to supress opposition
groups. The key is the individual success of the ruler. If he can able to supress
opposition, get good contacts both inside and outside, he can stay in power for
so long.third world countries are also fragile in economic field. They have little
participation in global economy but on the contrary they are dependent on
international economy. They have weak national identity but strong political
autrority. These third worldo factors put obstacles on the formation of institutions
which can bring stability to political and economic life. One other reason of
instability is sometimes authoritarian ledarships give wrong decisions, they use
wrong tactics, since non governmental reaction is low, the mistakes can last
long. The most difficult problem in political management is that of responding to

a shrinkage in the ruling coalition. Before they come to power they gfive
promises which are impossible to keep. After coming to power, they dissappoint
the populations. This may end the coalition short after the formation.the result
of this disappointment is either a militry coup or the riots, upheavels inside the
country. The central governments are sometimes even unable to control their
own territories. There appears local warlords which establish their own
governance against the central leadership.
THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT:
There were third worldo options for third world states on economic field after
independence. They would close either socialist or capitalist approaches. For
third world states main objective of economic management is to maintain and
consolidate of state. They accepted marxist approach as an easier way to
maintain these objectives. Economic management is considered as a tool for
political control. There are third World main control managements; one is the
imposition of force and the other is the manupilation of economy. Many third
world states prefered the manipulation option. These states generally used
socialist policies in order to strenghten their own political power.Links and
relations with external powers play an important role in the control of economy.
For example there are few states who accepted the foreign contribution so much
that they even left the inner authority to these external powers. These states are
called ‚‘‘banan republic‘‘. But we have to keep in mind that these cases are
exception. Most of third world countries , in one way or another succeeded to
maintain control on economies.the concept of competition is vital in economies
in general. Third world sates generally accepted competition as a threat to their
existance. They used competition by calling for investment, their aim was to find
financial support to strenghten their politival existance in the country. In order to
filfill their economic goals, third world states needed to impose a single
economic strategy. The result of this understanding is the creation of
development plans. They usually prepared long and short term development
plans but only a small part of them were able to be imposed properly. Since

these plans required the power to be shared among local and central
leaderships, central leadership put obstacles on these plans for their own
political considerations.
GOVERNMENT REVENUES AND EXTERNAL DEPENDENCE:
The revenues of third world govenments were higly dependent on external
trade. In western world, states have various revenue sources such as sales
taxes, the third world economies were dependent on external transactions. They
continued the economic habit of formal colonies and encouraged export
production.this dependence on external-oriented revenues had also political
impacts. Because their economies were based on external trade, they never
had the chance to form developkment plans which includes and foresees any
reduction in external trade. The governments of third world was depended on
revenues but they were facing with an important problem of smuggling. The
control on borders is very important for every economy in the world, but this
dependence makes it more important for third world. Smuggling is still one of
the main economic problems in third world. Capitalist and socialist government
differ on the subject of border control. Socialists apply non convertible currency
and this currency helps state to maintain better control on its borders.the
relations bethird worldeen governments and transnational corporations had also
a key role in economies. Corporations were interested in importüing minerals
from third world, but they were not willing to share the profit with third world. The
governments were trying to increase their surpluses, if they had no chance left,
they prefered nationalization of these corporations.nationalization gave
governments to increase their control on these corporations. Sometimes these
corporations played risky games and got involved with the domestic policies of
host country. By doing this, they also lost popularity and support of people.

GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND INTERNAL TRANSFERS:
Third world countries faced with similar problems in government spending they
had faced in government income. There was a gap be third World’s income and
expenditure of third world countries and this made them more and more
dependent to external world than ever. Because they were trying to fill the gap
by using external loans. It is not easy to say that these government used external
sources in order to fulfill their social development aims such as education and
health. On the contrary, statistics showed that there had not been any
significant change in the defense expenditures of these countries. Thus, the
main problem is not the external source they have used but how they distributed
it. The main portion of this money was used for the payments of government
employees. This means that the money was generally spent for capital and big
cities. This did not only create economic problems but also they created social
problems as well. The difference be Third World cities and other areas
deepened.

Politics in the_third_world

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