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    Third World

    It's re-reading Glanville's History of the World Cup book, where contemporary reference is made to the "Third World" in the chapters to do with the 70s and 80s, that got me thinking about this again.

    "The Third World" used to be pretty clearly used in those days as a euphemism for much of the whole geographical entities of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

    But assuming the "First World" was Western Europe, the USA and the larger ex-Commonwealth countries that still had the Queen as head of state, what was the "Second World" ever meant to be? The USSR and its satellite states?

    Is there a modern equivalent, as well? It's clearly not on geographical boundaries anymore, seeing as several Asian economies appear far healthier than most in the EU?

    #2
    Third World

    Yeah, the second world was the communist bloc. Who may well have used the same term for the west.

    Third World is now very non-PC as it suggests inferiority as well as reflecting archaic political realities.

    I guess the current reality is reflected in G8 countries, then G20 countries, then the rest.

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      #3
      Third World

      The split is usually labelled "developed"/"developing" these days. Arguably "heavily indebted poor countries" are a third, bottom rung, but it's not a clean taxonomy.

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        #4
        Third World

        I think it's probably less clear now than I can recall. As Nouriel Roubini has been stating recently, indebtedness as a measure of development can't be well-applied anymore given the effects of recent financial crises and that some western nations now have higher debt/GDP ratios than 'developing' countries.

        Add to the list of categories:

        Late industrializers
        LDCS
        NICs
        BRICs
        Tigers
        Southern / Northern hemisphere countries
        Basket cases

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          #5
          Third World

          Interesting to notice that in French, there was a thing called "Tiers Etat" aka "Third of the State" which was the category in which the vast majority of the population fell into prior to La Revolution. The other thirds being nobility and clergy.

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            #6
            Third World

            I think the US was referred to as the 'New World'

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