Types of countries by level of socio-economic development. Differences between countries by socio-economic type Countries socio-economic development table

Typology of countries– identifying groups of countries with a similar type and level of socio-economic development. The type of a country is formed objectively; it is a relatively stable set of development features inherent to it, characterizing its role and place in the world community at a given stage of world history. To determine the type of state means to assign it to one or another socio-economic category.

To identify types of countries, the indicator is gross domestic product(GDP) is the cost of all final products of material production and non-production spheres produced in the territory of a given country in one year per capita. The criteria for identifying types of countries are the level of economic development, the country’s share in world production, the structure of the economy, and the degree of participation in the MGRT.

The UN has currently adopted two country classifications n. IN first all countries of the world are divided into three type – 1) economically highly developed countries; 2) developing countries; 3) countries with economies in transition (from planned to market). Moreover, the third type actually includes former socialist countries that are carrying out economic transformations to build a market economy.

According to second UN classifications highlight two large groups of countries: 1) economically developed countries and 2) developing ones. With this division, extremely different states are combined into one group of countries. Therefore, within each type of country, smaller groups – subtypes – are distinguished.

TO economically developed UN countries account for about 60 states: all of Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel. These countries, as a rule, are characterized by a high level of economic development, the predominance of manufacturing and service sectors in GDP, and a high standard of living of the population. But this same group includes Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Czech Republic, etc. Due to heterogeneity, economically developed countries are divided into several subtypes:

Economically highly developed countries:

A) main countries – USA, Japan, France, Italy, UK. They provide more than 50% of all industrial production and more than 25% of agricultural production in the world. The major countries and Canada are often referred to as the "G7 countries". (In 1997, Russia was admitted to the G7, which became the G8.)

b) economically highly developed European countries - Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Scandinavian countries, etc. These countries are characterized by political stability, a high standard of living of the population, high GDP and the highest rates of exports and imports per capita. Unlike the main countries, they have a much narrower specialization in the international division of labor. Their economy is largely dependent on income received from banking, tourism, intermediary trade, etc.;

c) countries "settler capitalism" – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa – former colonies of Great Britain – and the state of Israel, formed in 1948 by decision of the UN General Assembly. A characteristic feature of these countries (except Israel) is the preservation of international specialization in the export of raw materials and agricultural products. Unlike developing countries, this agricultural and raw material specialization is based on high labor productivity and is combined with a developed domestic economy.

Countries with an average level of development:

A) moderately developed countries Europe: Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland. In terms of the level of development of productive forces, they lag somewhat behind modern world technical progress. Spain and Portugal were the largest colonial empires in the past and played a big role in world history. But the loss of the colonies led to the loss of political influence and the weakening of the economy, which had previously been based on the wealth of the colonies;

b) countries with economies in transition – CIS countries, Eastern European countries, China. They carry out reforms aimed at developing market relations in the economy instead of centralized planning. This subgroup of countries emerged in the 1990s due to the collapse of the world socialist system. The subgroup includes countries that differ significantly from each other.

TO developing The UN classification includes all other countries of the world as countries. Almost all of them are located in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They are home to more than 3/4 of the world's population and occupy more than 1/2 of the area. Including former socialist countries in the two-member typology is quite difficult. The level of their socio-economic development is different: most countries, for example Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Russia, Ukraine, are economically developed, but other countries occupy an intermediate position between developed and developing.

China can also be classified as both developed and developing countries according to different criteria. Developing countries are characterized by an export-oriented economy, which makes the national economy of the countries dependent on the world market; diversity of the economy; special territorial structure of the economy, scientific and technological dependence on developed countries, sharp social contrasts. Developing countries are very diverse. There are several approaches to identifying subtypes within this group of countries. The place of any country in the typology is not constant and may change over time.

Problems of distinguishing between developed and developing countries.

UN experts usually determine the border between developed and developing countries according to the criterion $6,000 per capita per year in the country. However, this indicator does not always allow for an objective classification of countries. Some states classified by the UN as developing countries have come close to economically developed countries or have already surpassed them in a number of indicators (GDP per capita, level of development of advanced high-tech industries).

So, in 1997 Singapore, Taiwan And The Republic of Korea were officially transferred from the group of developing countries to the group of developed countries. But at the same time, other indicators of the socio-economic and political development of these countries - the sectoral and territorial structure of the economy, dependence on foreign capital - still remain more characteristic of developing countries. Russia with this classification, having a per capita GDP of about $2500 per year, formally falls into the group of developing countries.

Given such difficulties with classifying countries of the world by GDP, they are now trying to identify other, more objective criteria for determining the level of socio-economic development of countries.

For example, based on the average life expectancy, level of education, and the real value of the average income of the population, they determine human development index (HDI). Using this criterion, UN experts divide the countries of the world into three groups - with high, medium and low HDI. Then the top ten most developed countries in the world turn out to be different than when taking into account GDP per capita per year, and Russia and the CIS countries fall into the second group, while Russia finds itself in 67th place between Suriname and Brazil.

Lesson summary "The main types of countries in the modern world".

On the modern political map of the world there are about 230 countries and territories, the vast majority of them are sovereign states.

With such a large number of countries, there is a need to group them, which is carried out on the basis of different quantitative criteria. 1 Their classification is carried out primarily on the basis of political criteria; it is also common to group countries according to the size of their territory and population.

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"PROFESSIONAL"

Abstract on the discipline

“Economic and social geography of foreign countries. Methods of teaching a course in secondary school"

On the topic: “Types of countries in the world according to the level of their economic development”

Executor:

Zhbanova Elena Veniaminovna

Moscow 20 16

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3

Chapter 1 Typology of countries as the basis for identifying subsystems of the world economy. Criteria and significance of country classifications………………………..5

1.1 Developed countries; ……………………………………………………….7

1.2 Developing countries; ………………………………………………..8

1.3 Countries with economies in transition. …………………………………....9

Chapter 2. Classification of countries by economic potential and level of economic development……………………………………………………….10

2.1 Low income countries; …………………………………...eleven

2.2 Middle-income countries, divided into lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income subgroups; ………………………12

2.3 High-income countries. ……………………………….....12

Chapter 3. Classification of countries by level of socio-economic development………………………………………………………………………13

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………..15

List of used literature……………………………………15

Introduction

On the modern political map of the world there are about 230 countries and territories, the vast majority of them are sovereign states.

With such a large number of countries, there is a need to group them, which is carried out on the basis of different quantitative criteria. 1 They are classified primarily on the basis of political criteria; countries are also grouped according to the size of their territory and population.

Based on the size of the territory, the seven largest countries are distinguished, with an area of ​​over 3 million km² each, which together occupy 1/2 of the entire earth's landmass. This is Russia (17,075 thousand km); Canada (9976 thousand km²); China (9561 thousand km²); USA (9364 thousand km²); Brazil (8512 thousand km²); Australia (7687 thousand km²); India (3288 thousand km). In terms of population, there are ten largest countries, with a population of more than 100 million people each, which account for 3/5 of the world's population. This top ten includes China (1343 million); India (1205 million); USA (313 million); Indonesia (248 million); Russia (138 million), etc. (data are given as of 2012).

Countries are often grouped according to the characteristics of their geographical location: coastal, peninsular, island and archipelagic countries are distinguished. Countries that do not have access to the sea are separately identified. There are about 40 of them. .

The countries of the world differ not only in size, population and geographical location. First of all, they differ in the level of socio-economic development, which characterizes their role and place in the world community at this stage of world history. To determine the type of state means to assign it to one or another socio-economic category.

To identify types of countries, the indicator is gross domestic product (GDP) - the cost of all final products of material production and non-production spheres produced in the territory of a given country in one year per capita. The criteria for identifying types of countries are the level of economic development, the country’s share in world production, the structure of the economy, and the degree of participation in the MGRT.

The purpose of this work: to study the common, similar characteristics of countries that underlie the typological approach and unite countries into one group. The typological approach is an important cognitive tool that allows us to reveal the most important features of the economic and social specifics of countries and thereby highlight the various subsystems of the world economy.

The UN currently has two classifications of countries. In the first, all countries of the world are divided into three types - 1) economically highly developed countries; 2) developing countries; 3) countries with economies in transition (from planned to market). Moreover, the third type actually includes former socialist countries that are carrying out economic transformations to build a market economy. According to the second UN classification, there are two large groups of countries: 1) economically developed countries and 2) developing ones. With this division, extremely different states are combined into one group of countries. Therefore, within each type of country, smaller groups – subtypes – are distinguished.

1. Typology of countries as the basis for identifying subsystems of the world economy. Criteria and significance of country classifications

The main subjects of the world economy are individual states and countries. The diversity of the modern world is most clearly demonstrated by comparing countries.

A typological approach to the study of countries as subjects of the global economy allows us to assess the diversity of countries. General, similar characteristics of countries that underlie the typological approach and unite countries into one group are called typological features. The typological approach is an important cognitive tool that allows us to reveal the most important features of the economic and social specifics of countries and thereby highlight the various subsystems of the world economy.

Any state or country represents a variety of socio-economic characteristics. Therefore, there can be many variants of country typologies. But all typologies can be reduced to two large types: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative typologies of countries are carried out on the basis of formal external characteristics (territory size, population) or digital indicators. Quantitative typologies, which at the same time reflect the different qualities of the economies of countries, include their groupings according to individual economic indicators. The most general classification in this sense is the classification of countries by the volume of the country's GDP produced per year, or by GDP per capita. This allows us to distinguish between rich and poor countries.

Qualitative typologies of countries characterize more complex characteristics of countries. Such characteristics show the features of social development and its results. Moreover, in relation to quantitative characteristics they are causal in nature. And in order to sufficiently reliably reflect the essence of qualitative characteristics, a certain set of quantitative characteristics or their integral expression is required. To such a classification according to the level of socio-economic development, which includes a system of indicators such as GDP per capita, sectoral structure of GDP (economy), literacy level of the population, life expectancy. Classification of countries according to this group of characteristics allows us to distinguish between developed and developing countries.

Classifications of countries are varied. The most complete picture of groups of countries in the world economy is provided by universal international organizations, whose members are almost all countries of the world. Such organizations include:

• United Nations (UN)
• International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• World Bank (WB)

In international practice, there is a standard classification, according to which all countries are divided into 3 main groups: 4

• The developed countries
• Developing countries

This classification was chosen in 1980 by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

1.1 Developed countries

These are countries with a high level of economic development, the predominance of the service sector and manufacturing industries in the structure of the economy and employment, with a high level and quality of life. They produce the bulk of industrial and agricultural production. About 1 billion people live in economically developed countries. This is the so-called “golden billion”. This category includes 28 of the most developed countries in the world. : countries of Western Europe;

• seven countries and territories in Asia (including Hong Kong (SAR of China), the island of Taiwan, Singapore, the Republic of Korea - since 1997, Cyprus - since 2001);
• two - in America (USA, Canada);
• Australia and New Zealand.

Obviously, developed countries include small countries of Western Europe - Andorra, Vatican, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, as well as offshore countries - Bermuda (Br.) and the Faroe Islands.

1.2.Developing countries

The total number of developing countries is 172. In the statistics of the International Monetary Fund, 126 countries are classified as developing countries - former colonial possessions, as well as China, which, despite gigantic successes in the economy, high growth rates in GDP and foreign trade, still lags behind developed countries in terms of per capita indicators; South Africa, Türkiye. Based on the level and quality of life, developing countries also include 46 small countries and dependent territories, countries with an uncertain status - Western Sahara, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, as well as Cuba and the DPRK. This group of countries is characterized by a colonial past, agricultural and raw material specialization of the economy, an unequal position in the global economy, and lower per capita GNI indicators than in the group of economically developed countries.Some countries classified as developing countries not only approach developed countries in a number of indicators (GDP per capita, development of knowledge-intensive industries), but sometimes even surpass them. The globalization of the world economy has led to the spread of the achievements of the information society in less developed regions of the world.The differences between economically developed countries and developing countries lie not so much in the field of economics as in the features of the territorial structure of the economy. Within the boundaries of the territory of developing countries, as a rule, areas with different socio-economic structures coexist - from primitive appropriating economies, subsistence economies, to modern industrial ones. Areas with a predominance of subsistence farming occupy significant areas, but are practically excluded from the general economic life of the country. Commodity structures are associated primarily with the foreign market. Thus, a diverse, disintegrated economy is the main distinguishing feature of developing countries.

1.3.Countries with economies in transition

This type includes 28 countries - all former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Asia, whose economies developed under the conditions of an administrative command system and copying the experience of the USSR. Political and economic reforms of the late twentieth century. were aimed at creating a market economy and included the introduction of a multi-party system, privatization, convertibility of national currencies, and the elimination of central planning.

Countries with economies in transition

Europe	Asia	Europe	Asia
Republics of the former USSR	Republics of the former USSR	Eastern European countries
Belarus	Azerbaijan	Albania	Mongolia
Latvia	Armenia	Bulgaria
Lithuania	Georgia	Hungary
Moldova	Kazakhstan	Macedonia
Russia	Uzbekistan	Poland
Ukraine	Tajikistan	Serbia
Estonia	Turkmenistan	Bosnia and Herzegovina
		Romania

2 . Classification of countries by economic potential and level of economic development

The economic potential of a country is evidenced by such an indicator as the country’s annual GDP. Based on the differences in this indicator, we distinguish, first of all, the grouplargest countries (over 1 trillion dollars): USA (11.6675 trillion), Japan (4.6234 trillion), Germany (2.7144 trillion), Great Britain (2.1409 trillion), France (2.0026 trillion), Italy (1, 6723 trillion), China (1.6493 trillion).

They account for more than 60% of the world's gross product. The economic power of these countries is based, first of all, on such advantages in population, size of territory and natural resource potential, economic and geographical location. A favorable combination of all factors is decisive. This dependence can be traced in other groups of this classification, especially in the next group of countries that havelarge volume of GDP (0.5 to 1 trillion dollars).This includes 6 countries: Spain, Canada, India, Brazil, Russia, Republic of Korea (South Korea). The next group is the average GDP volume (0.1 to 0.5 trillion dollars).– 30 countries. These are, for example, the Netherlands, Poland, Türkiye, Argentina, South Africa, Egypt, etc.

To small countries with a GDP of less than 100 billion dollars,This applies to most countries of the world, predominant in the post-Soviet space, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania. However, GDP volume indicators do not allow us to judge the level of economic development of the country. Therefore, to compare the levels of development of countries, economists most often use GDP (GNP) per capita indicators. The conditionality of this indicator is determined by the size of the country’s population, including those not participating in the creation of GDP. These indicators are also called per capita income or per capita income. A standard classification for this indicator is being developed by the World Bank.

In its analytical and operational work, the World Bank Group classifies the economies of countries depending on annual per capita income, distinguishing the following groups of countries:

• Low income countries
• Middle-income countries, divided into lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income subgroups,
• High income countries.

According to the World Bank classification, countries with a GNP per capita equal to or greater than 9,386 US dollars based on the purchasing power of the dollar that existed in 1995.

2.1 Low-income countries

Low-income countries - according to the World Bank classification - countries with a GNP per capita not exceeding 765 US dollars based on the purchasing power of the dollar that existed in 1995.

In this group, the World Bank includes 25 low-income countries with the most pressing problems in economic development and quality of life.

These countries are home to almost 500 million people, half of whom have a daily income of less than $1 per day. In these countries, internal political conflicts continue, there is insufficient security, there is corruption, violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens, and economic growth rates are negative. On the other hand, they have the highest infant mortality rates in the world (1/3 higher than in the group of low-income countries) and low life expectancy. All this is an obstacle to attracting investment and hinders economic growth.

Countries and territories with low income and unstable political conditions, 2010-2011.

2.2 Middle-income countries

Middle-income countries - according to the World Bank classification - countries with a GNP per capita ranging from 766 to 9385 US dollars based on the purchasing power of the dollar that existed in 1995. Middle-income countries are divided into:

For low-middle-income countries: $766 to $3,035;

For high-middle-income countries: $3,036 to $9,385.

2.3 High-income countries

High-income countries, as classified by the World Bank, are countries with a GNP per capita equal to or greater than $9,386 based on the purchasing power of the dollar in 1995.

High-income countries are all industrialized countries and high-income developing countries.

Countries and territories with high per capita income

3. Classification of countries by level of socio-economic development

Socio-economic development of the countryis a complex phenomenonand represents a comprehensive characteristic of the country’s socio-economic system.

The classification of countries according to this criterion refers to a qualitative typology. To classify countries by socio-economic development, it is necessary to use a set of detailed characteristics.

These include the following indicators and characteristics:

• Level of economic development
• Type of economy (market economy, non-market, mixed, transition)
• Sectoral structure of GDP
• Level and quality of life of the population.

This set of criteria includes, in addition to economic characteristics, also social characteristics. Such a signas the level of economic developmentis already known and measured by the level of GDP/capita.

The definition of a market economy states thatmarket economyis an economy that is based on free private enterprise, there is a free pricing system under the influence of supply and demand and based on competitive relations.

The definition of the type of economy in the form of market/non-market is currently largely determined by political motives and the competitive struggle between countries and firms of these countries is often determined in the process of negotiations between countries, between countries and international organizations, and can also be determined unilaterally. However, there is a classification of countries that can be used to determine the market nature of the economy. This is the definition of the Economic Freedom Index.

Sectoral structure of the economyis an important indicator of the development of society and country. Industry structure refers to the relationship between various industries or their groups.

In macroeconomic analysis, there are 3 sectors of the economy:

1. Primary sector, including such sectors of the economy as agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing.
2. Secondary sector, including industry and construction
3. Tertiary sector, including service sectors or industrial and social infrastructure sectors. That is, trade, transport, communications, tourism, financial services, educational, consulting, research, etc.

In accordance with this allocation of economic sectors, the following levels of development of society are distinguished:

1. Traditional society, if the primary sector predominates.

2. Industrial society, if the secondary sector predominates.

3. Post-industrial society, if the tertiary sector predominates.

But the predominance of not all services is evidence of a post-industrial society. There are countries that do not have a developed industry, but their structure is dominated by service industries such as trade, tourism or transport.

In the modern world there are several groups of states characterized by the similarity of the named socio-economic indicators. The world is extremely heterogeneous in its socio-economic nature.

Currently, three groups of countries can be distinguished:

- industrialized countrieswith a market economy, forming, as it were, the framework of the world economy;

- developing countriesAsia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania (or third world countries);

- countries with economies in transition, represented mainly by the states of Eastern Europe, as well as Russia, which are on the path to developing new forms of economic management.

Conclusion

Based on all of the above, the following conclusions can be drawn: from the analysis of the sectoral structure of production, industrial, industrial-agrarian, agro-industrial and agricultural countries are distinguished. This structure is flexible, since in the course of economic progress, many agricultural countries first become agrarian-industrial, and over time - industrial. Based on the degree of integration into the world economy, integrated and weakly integrated countries can be identified

The diversity of countries included in the world economy cannot but cause its inconsistency. First of all, a contradiction arises between developed and underdeveloped countries. If developed countries are characterized by a relatively favorable situation with the standard of living of the population, unemployment, inflation, healthcare and other problems, then in underdeveloped countries these are acute problems. About 40% of the world's population lives in absolute poverty. More than 1.5 billion people. deprived of basic medical care. Many of the underdeveloped countries have retained their monocultural economy, which developed during their colonial dependence. Most of them have a raw material specialization with a poorly developed processing industry.

At the same time, recently there has been a tendency to “pull up” underdeveloped countries with the help of developed ones. This is due to the respective interests of both parties. It has become obvious that cooperation with a weak partner is beneficial for developed countries. On the one hand, a weak partner does not stimulate the growth of production efficiency, and, ultimately, its profitability. On the other hand, underdeveloped countries often use environmentally harmful production technologies that disrupt the extremely important natural balance not only in a given country, but throughout the globe. The second important contradiction of the modern world economy is the contradiction between the developed countries themselves, based on competition between them. After World War II, the lion's share of world production came from the United States. At the same time, in the second half of the 50s, Western European countries, having restored their economies and united into the European Economic Community, significantly strengthened their positions and began to compete on equal terms with the United States for sales markets and areas of investment of capital. Since the late 60s, Japan has also joined the leaders. For this reason, the modern world economy is characterized by the presence of three competing centers.

Dividing the world economy into spheres of economic activity and determining the main economic relationships between them makes it possible not only to analyze the development trends of individual countries, but also to compare them with each other. However, in the world as a whole there are approximately 200 countries, which are very different in terms of economic development. And knowledge of classifications is extremely important for mutual study and exchange of experience in economic development.

The International Monetary Fund identifies the following states as economically developed countries: 1. Countries qualified by the World Bank and the IMF as countries with developed economies at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece , Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, .

2. The more complete group of developed countries also includes Andorra, Bermuda, Faroe Islands, Vatican City, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.

Among the main characteristics of developed countries, it is advisable to highlight the following:

5. The economies of developed countries are characterized by openness to the world economy and a liberal organization of the foreign trade regime. Leadership in world production determines their leading role in world trade, international capital flows, and international currency and settlement relations. In the field of international labor migration, developed countries act as the receiving party.

Countries with economies in transition

Countries with economies in transition usually include the 28 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR, moving from centrally planned to market economies, as well as, in some cases, Mongolia, China and Vietnam. Among the countries with economies in transition, due to its political significance, Russia is usually considered separately, without connection with other groups (2% of world GDP and 1% of exports). A separate group includes the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that were once part of the socialist camp, as well as the countries of the former USSR, which are called the countries of the former “ruble zone”.

Countries with economies in transition include:

1. Former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, successors to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro;

2. Former Soviet republics - now CIS countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine;

3. Former Baltic republics: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia.

The classification is particularly difficult, since the construction of capitalism, and therefore market relations, in the PRC occurs under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CCP). The Chinese economy is a symbiosis of a planned socialist economy and free enterprise. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) classifies China, like India, as a developing Asian country.

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic countries and some Balkan countries are characterized by an initially higher level of socio-economic development; radical and successful implementation of reforms (“velvet revolutions”); expressed desire to join the EU. The outsiders in this group are Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. The leaders are the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

The former Soviet republics, with the exception of the Baltic countries, have been united into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) since 1993. The collapse of the USSR led to the severance of economic ties that had been developing for decades between enterprises of the former republics. The one-time abolition of state pricing (in conditions of shortage of goods and services), the spontaneous privatization of the largest export-oriented state enterprises, the introduction of a parallel currency (US dollar) and the liberalization of foreign trade activities led to a sharp drop in production. GDP in Russia decreased by almost 2 times. Hyperinflation reached 2000% or more per year.

There was a sharp drop in the exchange rate of the national currency, a state budget deficit, a sharp stratification of the population with absolute impoverishment of the bulk of it. An oligarchic version of capitalism was formed without the creation of a middle class. Loans from the IMF and other international organizations were used to “patch holes” in the state budget and were stolen uncontrollably. Carrying out financial stabilization through budget restrictions and a policy of restriction or compression of the money supply (increasing interest rates) gradually reduced inflation, but had serious social losses (unemployment, increased mortality, street children, etc.). The experience of “shock therapy” has shown that the mere introduction of private property and market relations does not guarantee the creation of an effective economy.

If we talk about the term “transition economy,” it is used to characterize the transformation of the economy of socialist countries into a market economy. The transition to the market required a number of significant transformations, which included:

1) denationalization of the economy, requiring privatization and stimulation of the development of non-state enterprises;

2) development of non-state forms of ownership, including private ownership of the means of production; 3) formation of the consumer market and saturation of it with goods.

The first reform programs consisted of a set of stabilization measures and privatization. Monetary and fiscal restrictions were supposed to bring down inflation and restore financial balance, and the liberalization of external relations was supposed to bring the necessary competition to the domestic market.

The economic and social costs of the transition were higher than expected. A prolonged economic recession, high unemployment, the decline of the social security system, deepening income differentiation and a decline in the well-being of the population were the first results of the reforms.

The practice of reform in various countries can be reduced to two main alternative paths:

1) the path of rapid radical reforms (“shock therapy”), adopted as a basis in many countries, including Russia. The strategy was historically formed back in the 1980s by the IMF for debtor countries. Its features were the landslide liberalization of prices, incomes and economic activities. Macroeconomic stabilization was achieved through a reduction in the money supply and huge inflation as a consequence.

Urgent systemic changes included privatization. In foreign economic activity, the goal was to involve the national economy in the world economy. The results of “shock therapy” are more negative than positive;

2) the path of gradual evolutionary transformation of the economy, taken as a basis in China.

Already from the mid-1990s and the beginning of the recovery stage, countries with economies in transition demonstrated generally good indicators of economic development and market economies. GDP figures gradually went up. However, the unemployment rate remains high. Taking into account the different starting conditions and the different times at which the transformations began, their results turned out to be different. The greatest successes have been achieved by Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, and Slovakia.

In many countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the share of government spending in GDP is large: at least 30–50%. In the process of market reform, the standard of living of the population decreased and inequality in income distribution increased: approximately 1/5 of the population was able to raise their standard of living, and about 30% became poor. One group includes the former Soviet republics, which are now united in the CIS. Their economies demonstrate different rates of market transformation.

Developing countries

Developing countries - 132 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, characterized by low and middle income levels. Due to the great diversity of developing countries in the international economy, they are usually classified both geographically and according to various analytical criteria.

There are certain grounds for distinguishing yesterday's dependent and colonial countries, lagging behind in their economic and social development and conditionally united by the term “developing”, into a special group of states. These countries are home to 80% of the world's population, and the fate of this region will always significantly influence global processes.

The most important criteria for identifying developing countries are their special place in the system of economic and political relations, the level of economic development and specific features of reproduction and features of the socio-economic structure.

The first and most significant feature of developing countries is their place in the world economy and politics. Today they are part of the world capitalist system and are to a greater or lesser extent subject to the prevailing economic laws and global economic trends. While remaining a link in the world economy, these countries continue to experience a tendency towards deepening economic and political dependence on the economies of developed countries.

Developing countries are still major suppliers of raw materials and fuel to the world market, despite the fact that the share of developing countries in Western fuel imports has decreased somewhat in recent years. Being suppliers of raw materials, they depend on the import of finished products, so today the share of developing countries in world exports is only about 30%, including 21.4% in the supply of industrial products.

The economy of this group of countries is highly dependent on TNCs, as well as financially dependent. TNCs with the most advanced technology do not transfer it when creating joint ventures in developing countries, preferring to locate their branches there. At least 1/4 of foreign investments of TNCs are concentrated in developing countries. Private capital has now become the main element of foreign flows to developing countries. Foreign direct investment today accounts for more than half of all funds coming from private sources.

The level of economic development of developing countries can be characterized as economic backwardness from the most developed part of the world. The low level of development of the productive forces, the backwardness of the technical equipment of industry, agriculture and social infrastructure are the main features of the economy of these countries as a whole. The most characteristic sign of backwardness is the agrarian profile of the economy and the proportion of the population employed in agriculture. The industrial-agrarian profile of the economy is not typical for developing countries. It has developed only in the most developed countries of Latin America and several Asian countries. In the vast majority of countries, agricultural employment is still 2.5 times and sometimes 10 times higher than industrial employment. In this respect, many oil-producing countries are closer to developing countries than to developed ones.

Features of the socio-economic structure of developing countries are associated with the diversity of the economy. Developing countries are characterized by a significant range of forms of production: from patriarchal-communal and small-scale commodity production to monopolistic and cooperative. Economic ties between structures are limited. Ways of life are characterized by their system of values ​​and way of life of the population. The patriarchal structure is characteristic of agriculture. The private capitalist structure includes various forms of ownership and exists in trade and the service sector.

The emergence of the capitalist system has its own characteristics here. Firstly, it is often associated with the export of capital from more developed countries, and in an unprepared economy it has an “enclave” character.

Secondly, the capitalist structure, developing as a dependent system, cannot eliminate the multi-structure and even leads to its expansion. Thirdly, there is no consistent development of one form of ownership from another. For example, monopolistic property, most often represented by branches of TNCs, is not a product of the development of joint stock ownership, etc.

The social structure of society reflects the diversity of the economy. The communal type dominates in social relations, civil society is just being formed. Developing countries are characterized by poverty, overpopulation, and high unemployment.

The economic role of the state in developing countries is very large and, along with traditional functions, includes: the exercise of national sovereignty over natural resources; control over foreign financial assistance in order to use it for the implementation of projects provided for in the social and economic development programs of the state; agrarian transformations associated with an increase in agricultural production, the creation of cooperatives, etc.; training of national personnel.

There is a classification of developing countries depending on the level of economic development, measured by GDP per capita:

1) countries with high per capita incomes comparable to incomes in developed countries (Brunei, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Singapore);

2) countries with average GDP per capita (Libya, Uruguay, Tunisia, etc.);

3) poor countries of the world. This group includes most countries in tropical Africa, countries in South Asia and Oceania, and a number of countries in Latin America.

Another classification of developing countries is related to the level of development of capitalism as an economic structure. From this point of view, the following groups of developing countries can be distinguished:

1) these are states where state, foreign and local capital predominates. The economic activity of the state is state capitalist in content. In these countries, the involvement of foreign capital in local capital is high. These countries include Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, as well as a number of small countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

2) the second group of states is the largest. Their peculiarity is that here capitalism is represented by “enclaves”, and sometimes very isolated ones. This group includes countries such as India, Pakistan, countries of the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, North Africa, and some countries of Southeast Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia).

3) the third group is the least developed countries of the world, approximately 30 countries with a population of about 15% of the population of the developing world. The capitalist structure exists in them in the form of fragments. These capitalist "enclaves" are mainly represented by foreign capital. 2/3 of the least developed countries are in Africa. Natural connections predominate in the pre-capitalist sector. Almost all areas of employment are traditional structures. The only driving force of development in most of them is the state. The share of the manufacturing industry in GDP is no more than 10%, GDP per capita is no more than $300, and the literacy rate is no more than 20% of the adult population. These countries have little chance of improving their situation on their own, relying only on internal forces.

Source - World Economy: textbook / E.G. Guzhva, M.I. Lesnaya, A.V. Kondratyev, A.N. Egorov; SPbGASU. – St. Petersburg, 2009. – 116 p.

CAR, Paraguay, Nepal, Bhutan). Moreover, very often geographical factors affect the level of its socio-economic development. Some states occupy an entire continent (), while others are located on a small island or group of islands (, etc.).

These are the most developed countries in the world in terms of their economic, scientific and technical potential. They differ from each other in the features of their development and economic power, but they are all united by a very high level of development and the role they play in.

This group of countries includes six states from the famous G7. Among them, the United States ranks first in terms of economic potential.

These countries have reached a high level of development, but each of them, unlike the main capitalist countries, has a much narrower specialization in the world economy. At the same time, they send up to half of their products to the foreign market. The economy of these states has a large share of the non-productive sector (banking, provision of various types of services, tourism business, etc.).

1.3. Countries of “settler capitalism”: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel.

The first four countries are former colonies of Great Britain. Capitalist relations arose in them as a result of the economic activities of immigrants from Europe. But unlike the United States, which at one time was also a settler colony, its development had some peculiarities.

Despite the high level of development, these states retain the agricultural and raw materials specialization that developed in them during the colonial period. But such specialization in the international division of labor differs significantly from such specialization in developing countries, since it is combined with a highly developed domestic economy.

Israel is a small state formed by immigrants after the Second World War in the territory of Palestine (which was a mandate of the League of Nations under British rule after the First World War).

Canada is one of the “Big Seven” economically highly developed countries, but in terms of the type and characteristics of the development of its economy, it belongs specifically to this group.

The second group in this typology includes:

2. Countries with an average level of capitalist development. There are few such countries. They differ from the states included in the first group both in history and in the level of their socio-economic development. Among them, subtypes can also be distinguished:

2.1. A country that has achieved political independence and an average level of economic development under the dominance of the capitalist system: Ireland.

The current level of economic development and political independence were achieved at the cost of an extremely difficult national struggle against imperialism. Until recently, Finland also belonged to this subtype. However, at present this country has entered the group of “Economically highly developed countries”.

In the past, these states played an important role in world history. Spain and Portugal created huge colonial empires during the feudal era, but later lost all their possessions.

Despite well-known successes in the development of industry and the service sector, in terms of the level of development these countries generally lag behind economically highly developed countries.

The third group includes:

3. Economically less developed countries(developing countries).

This is the largest and most diverse group of countries. For the most part, these are former colonial and dependent countries that, having gained political independence, became economically dependent on the countries that were previously their mother countries.

The countries of this group have many things in common, including development problems, as well as internal and external difficulties associated with the low level of economic and social development, lack of financial resources, lack of experience in running a capitalist commodity economy, lack of qualified personnel, strong economic dependence, huge external debt, etc. The situation is aggravated by civil wars and interethnic conflicts. In the international division of labor, they occupy far from the best positions, being mainly suppliers of raw materials and agricultural products to economically developed countries.

In addition, in all countries of this type, due to rapid population growth, the social situation of large masses of residents is deteriorating, an excess of labor resources is emerging, demographic, food and other problems are especially acute.

But despite the common features, the countries of this group are very different from each other (and there are only about 150 of them). Therefore, the following subtypes are distinguished:

3.2.2. Countries of large-enclave development of capitalism:
, Chile, Iran, Iraq (developed with a massive invasion of foreign capital associated with the export exploitation of large mineral deposits on the territory of these states).

Let us note that the countries of the world included in the first and second groups of the typology presented above are the industrially developed countries of the world. The third group included all developing countries.

This typology was created when the world was bipolar (divided into capitalist and socialist), and characterized only non-socialist countries of the world.

Nowadays, when the world is turning from bipolar to unipolar, new typologies of countries around the world are being created or the old ones are being supplemented and modified (as is the typology of Moscow State University scientists presented to readers).

Other typologies have also been created, as noted earlier. As a generalizing, synthetic indicator, they often use the gross domestic or national product (GDP or GNP) per capita indicator. This is, for example, the well-known typological classification of developing countries and territories (authors: B.M. Bolotin, V.L. Sheinis), distinguishing “echelons” (upper, intermediate and lower) and seven groups of countries (from countries of moderately developed capitalism to the least developed ).

Scientists from the Geographical Faculty of Moscow State University (A.S. Fetisov, V.S. Tikunov) have developed a slightly different approach to the classification of non-socialist countries of the world - an evaluative-typological one. They performed a multivariate statistical analysis of data for 120 countries based on many indicators reflecting the level of socio-economic and political development of society. They identified seven groups of countries with a level of development from very high (USA, Canada, Sweden, Japan) to very low (Somalia, Ethiopia, Chad, Niger, Mali, Afghanistan, Haiti and others).

Famous geographer Ya.G. Mashbitz identified types of countries in the “developing world” based on industrialization trends. The first group in his classification included countries where large and relatively diverse industrial production was developed (Mexico, India, etc.); the second - industrial countries of medium potential with significant development of raw materials and processing industries (Venezuela, Peru, Indonesia, Egypt, Malaysia, etc.); the third - small states and territories that take advantage of their economic and geographical position (Singapore, Panama, the Bahamas, etc.); the fourth - oil exporting countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.). And the fifth group included the least industrialized countries with limited development prospects (i.e., the least developed countries: Haiti, Mali, Chad, Mozambique, Nepal, Bhutan, Somalia, etc.).

In some economic-geographical typologies among countries of the developing world distinguish a group of “newly industrialized countries” (NICs). These most often include Singapore, Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea. In recent years, “second wave NIS” have been added to this group - Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and some other countries. The economy of these countries is characterized by high rates of industrialization, export orientation of industrial production (especially products of knowledge-intensive industries), and their active participation in the international division of labor.

Attempts to typologically differentiate the countries of the world have been made by geographers, economists, and other specialists. You will learn more about the characteristics of various typologies of states in further courses.