GEOG2400 SPRING 2003 THE GEOGRAPHY OF WORLD DEVELOPMENT

1
GEOG2400 SPRING 2003 THE GEOGRAPHY OF WORLD
DEVELOPMENT

• CLASS 9
• Focus on Regions
• Latin (South and Central) America
• Social and Economic Issues

Element 3 Sophomore GE Cluster Global Wealth,
Poverty and Inequality
2
Geopolitical Framework

• Free-Market Democracies Dominate
• The region has had independent nations much
  longer than other developing regions
• Political stability has been a problem in the
  past, with military juntas frequently exercising
  power although all have faded to varying degrees
  to hold only background influence
• The US has long supported free-market principles
  and attempted to minimize tendencies toward
  communism or even socialism among its Southern
  neighbors.
• Most of the countries are free-market democracies
  in which privatization has occurred along with
  neoliberalization of the economies, opening them
  to foreign investment and eliminating some
  tariffs on imports
• Many nations have been oligarchies (ruled by
  political elites made up of a few influential
  families) or banana republics, influenced heavily
  by multinational corporations engaged in
  plantation agriculture (e.g. United Fruit
  Company) or mining operations.

3
Economic and Political Unity

• Regional Organizations can and will play a more
  dominant role
• Of increasing importance is the operation of
  regional organizations that help coordinate
  national policy, forge economic and trading ties
  and increase political leverage.
• Important supranatural organizations,
  governing/organizing bodies that include several
  states, include the Organization of American
  States, the Pan-American Health organization
  (regional branch of the WHO), and the
  Inter-American Development Bank.
• Regional trading blocks are increasingly
  important and are designed to foster internal
  markets (complementary trade based on respective
  comparative advantages that minimizes the legacy
  of dependency and lessens the core-periphery ties
  to Europe and North America) and reduce
  counter-productive trade barriers and unnecessary
  competition between neighbors
• Examples of such blocks include the Latin
  American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), the
  Central American Common Market (CACM), the Andean
  Group, Mercosur and, eventually, the Free Trade
  Zone of the Americas (should negotiations between
  the Bush Administration and Congress lead to its
  authorization).

4
Geopolitical Framework

• Several Latin American countries have suffered
  from political turmoil, violence and
  destabilization
• A number of countries, especially in Central
  America and the Andean region, have experienced
  political insurrections or ethnic struggles for
  independence or freedom from persecution.
• These have included full-scale ideological
  civil-wars related to the Cold War (e.g.
  Sandistas in Nicaragua, FMLN in El Salvador),
  socio-political guerrilla campaigns (Sendero
  Luminoso in Peru, FARC in Colombia) and struggles
  to end persecution or marginalization of distinct
  regional groups, usually indigenous peasants
  (e.g. Central Highlands Maya in Guatemala,
  Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico)
• Military-backed, usually right-wing dictators,
  have ruthlessly dealt with opposition movements
  through imprisonment and torture of political
  prisoners and the phenomenon of the
  desaparecidos too often with the help of the
  CIA and the School for the Americas based in the
  USA.

5
Fighting Organized Crime

• Increasingly, many Latin American countries are
  having to deal with the growing problem of drug
  mafiosi cartels of organized crime syndicates
  that tap into the global demand for marijuana and
  cocaine, among other drugs, from plants grown by
  farmers as an important cash-crop in the region.
• The most famous being Colombian (e.g. the Cali
  cartel), syndicates exist in many countries from
  Mexico down through Bolivia and sea, land and air
  routes through Central America and the
  neighboring Caribbean are principal smuggling
  paths to the lucrative US market.
• Drug interdiction is a major foreign policy issue
  in the Americas and frequently, a Latin American
  nations military and economic aid from the US is
  tied to cooperation in crop eradication, etc.
• The US DEA partners many Latin governments in
  covert operations against smugglers and
  processing facilities and in aerial spraying of
  drug plantations.
• Similarly, US AID is actively involved in
  agricultural and rural development programs to
  provide incentives and alternatives to planting
  coca.

6
Dependency Economic Growth

• In the league table of 173 ranked world nations,
  most Latin American countries are middle income
  although inequality in wealth and other measures
  of development is still marked.
• Based on GDP/cap US PPP, the spread of wealth
  from richest to poorest across the 17 nations was
  quite extreme, from a high in Argentina of
  12,377 to a low in Nicaragua of 2366, closely
  followed by Honduras and Bolivia (global average
  7466, OECD average 23,569).
• Based on the broader Human Development Index that
  takes into account life expectancy and
  educational opportunity also, the top-ranking
  nations in 2002 were Argentina (33), Chile (38)
  and Uruguay (40) (all in the more temperate
  south) and the bottom nations were Honduras
  (116), Nicaragua (118) and Guatemala (120) (all
  in the tropical north).

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Heavy Variations

• The spread in social indicators is also highly
  varied, not surprisingly, mirroring heavily the
  relative economic standings.
• Top ranking nations have high educational
  attainment rates, low probabilities of early
  death, and good health metrics.
• Lowest ranking nations have the reverse,
  Guatemala, for example, having a probability of
  dying before 40 of 15, adult illiteracy at over
  30 and 60 of people below the national poverty
  line, with poor health metrics like 24 of lt5
  children clinically under weight.
• Within nations (see maps of Mexico, Brazil),
  there will be heavy regional variations in most
  indicators, some a bias of geography, others of
  politics.

8
GDP Per Person

• The richest 10 frequently have 40-60 of the
  wealth compared to the 20-30 typical for the
  OECD nations Mexico 42, Brazil 48.

9
Neoliberalization

• Social safety nets, which were largely absent,
  are now even more scarce due to the free-market,
  small government approach adopted by many Latin
  nations.
• Historical Development Strategies
• Income substitution
• Relied on policies that foster domestic industry
  by imposing inflated tariffs on all imported
  goods led to inefficiency, high debt (continued
  to run balance of pay deficits), inflation, etc.
• Industrialization
• Manufacturing emphasized since 1960s to get away
  from primary materials and add value to the
  economy
• Maquiladoras Mexican assembly plants line the
  U.S. border but can be found in many nations,
  especially Central America
• Automobile and consumer electronic manufacturing,
  and apparel
• More than 4,000 exist in Mexico alone
• Lower wages in Mexico cause job loss in the U.S.
• Are frequently located in ZIPs tax-free zones
• Provide employment and wages to host country but
  little else.

10
Improving Economic and Social Development

• Social Development
• Marked improvements since 1960
• Declining child mortality rate, along with higher
  rates for life expectancy and educational
  attainment
• Most countries had cuts of 50 or more in child
  mortality
• Important role for non-government organizations
  (NGOs)
• Humanitarian organizations, churches, community
  activists attempt to do what governments cant or
  wont do
• Race and Inequality
• Relative tolerance, but Amerindians and blacks
  over-represented among the poor
• Hard to ignore ethnicity and race when explaining
  contrasts in income and availability of services

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Gender Differences

• The Status of Women
• Many women work outside of the home (30-40)
• Lower than rate in U.S. but comparable to many
  European countries
• Legally, women can vote, own property, and sign
  for loans, but less likely than men to do so
• Reflective of patriarchal tendencies
• Divorce still stigmatized in many nations
• Trend toward smaller families
• Related to education and workforce participation
• Has led to surprisingly rapid falls in total
  fertility rates and population growth.
• In the poorer nations, rates are still much
  higher than the richer nations in the region.

12
Decreasing Birth Rates