Underdevelopment: Under-Development: Poverty And Development

The term “under-development” is primarily used to describe the condition of poverty and economic stagnation characteristic of most third world societies. It implies that these societies are not simply suffering from lack of development, but that they have also not achieved the expected levels of socio-economic development which could have occurred. This is the result from the complex interplay of internal and external factors that allow less developed countries only a loop-sided development progression. Underdeveloped nations are characterized by wide income disparities between their populations, detrimental capital and current accounts and suffer from an inability to break-free of crippling debt traps.
For German-American economist and sociologist Andre Gunder Frank underdevelopment is the product of misuse of natural and human resources which has forcibly divorced certain regions of the world from economic expansion as well as prohibited structural and social change within those societies. He was of the view that the cause of such underdevelopment is because of the prevalent dependency model around the world. He believed the third world countries are underdeveloped not because of natural

At the forefront of this type of exploitation are the multinational corporations (MNCs). In their search for profit, these companies allegedly exploit the least developed countries (LDCs) for cheap labour, cheap raw materials and new markets. The search for new markets encouraged Western companies to expand in size and market their products globally. These multinational companies imported raw materials from the LDCs and exported manufactured goods back to them. Since the expansion of free market neo-liberalization increasing numbers of companies have started to produce manufactured goods in the LDCs, taking advantage of cheap labour, relaxed health and safety laws and low