To what extent is Brazil and its development typical of a country of South America?

Résumé du document

In 1952 when the demographer Alfred Sauvy first used the expression "Third World" in an article titled "Three worlds, one planet" to designate the poor, recently decolonized countries or those due to soon break free of their colonized past, this new world struggled to define its own identity in a rigorous bipolar globe where both capitalist and communist camps endeavored to deeply organize the entire planet following their specific models of development. Yet in the fifties these developing countries presented a real unity. Stricken with an ever booming population explosion, they remained in majority rural countries, too often failing to nourish their starving populations and presented serious setbacks in infrastructure, health care and education, as well as withholding weak economies based chiefly on the export of primary or basically transformed primary goods and were very dependent on aid from the developed world, sharing the difficulties of massive debt. Plagued with political instability with numerous dictatorial regime attempts, beginning the country's road to development was often a rocky route full of setbacks and difficulties, and a sense of unity was established in the common experience of all these hardships.

Extraits

[...] However, a high human development index can be misleading if considered as the sole determinant of a country's belonging to The South or to The North, and must thus be considered with caution. Indeed a high literacy rate, a boosted gross enrolment ratio in education, a considerable GDP and a rather mediocre life expectancy speak of a globally educated, “healthy” and “wealthy” nation, but can in no way reflect or suggest the immense inequalities that make Brazil one of the most contrasted nations in the world for living conditions and revenue. [...]

[...] To the image of the massive global development inequalities in between the three main continents of The South, Africa, Asia and Latin America, with average HDIs of and 0.777 respectively, Brazil is also host to considerable inequalities in national territorial development. The example of the urbanization, the hunger and the poverty crisis Brazil has been facing for decades and is still facing today, making slow and long- awaited progress whilst much inefficiency persists, remains one of the most blatant illustrations of the massive social inequalities which undoubtedly undermine Brazil's road to progress. [...]

[...] To what extent is Brazil and its development typical of a country of the South? In 1952 when the demographer Alfred Sauvy first used the expression “Third World” in an article titled “Three worlds, one planet” to designate the poor, recently decolonized countries or those due to soon break free of their colonized past, this new world struggled to define its own identity in a rigorous bipolar globe where both capitalist and communist camps endeavoured to deeply organize the entire planet following their specific models of development. [...]

[...] Brazil is perhaps one of the most manifest embodiments of a land of contrasts in today's world. Fifth in the world for its land area of over 8.5 million square kilometres and for its population of over 188 million in 2006, being by far the largest and most populous nation of South America, Brazil is also part of The South's three most powerful nations, behind China and equalling Mexico, acting as a major driver of the Latin American force, which incontestably represents the most advanced of the developing blocks, in front of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. [...]

[...] The HDI evolution namely illustrates the symbolic trend of Brazil's development which is undoubtedly dynamic, seemingly far from static and which could propel Brazil into the developed world in the not so distant future. Putting hypothetical predictions aside, it is nonetheless clear that Brazil cannot simply be ranked as a nation of The South when it is undeniably much closer in its development to many countries of The North rather than to many countries of The South, notably most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. [...]