Answer to Question #199911 in Political Science for Emmanuel Egbuagha

Question

Discuss

1.1 the meaning and implications of stereotyping

1 2 The concepts “North”, “South”, and “Third World”

1.3 The strengths and weaknesses of using economic indicators, the Human Development Index (HDI), and the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) to measure development

Answer 1

1.1) Stereotypes refer to the generalization of individual attributes or features of a given group. Therefore, stereotyping is a cognitive process as it involves linking a given characteristic with a group, but also it can involve, lead to or serve to validate an affective reaction towards people from other groups (Rieger, 2019).

The implication of stereotyping is that it may result into harm to the members of the community in the world. When given sects of people are considered inferior, they are denied their rights to job opportunities, access to education, housing and safety (Dhobi, 2021). The overall effect of stereotyping is the negative image that shapes the views that minority has of them hence hindering them to exploit their potential. Stereotyping may also lead to conflict as a result of discrimination of a group in the society in terms of resource sharing.

1.2) The concept North refers to the developed countries that emerged during the 1970s. The countries falling under the Northern divide were economically powerful and were those in Europe such as Canada, USA and Australia. The South on the other hand was countries that were below the North in terms of economic development but tried much to cope up with the pace of the North in industrial development. The North and South have no much difference but political powers created the divide between them ( Perez, 2019).

Third World is a concept used to classify poor countries or those that are in the process of developing. Countries falling here have high poverty rates, economic and political instability with mortality rates on the rise (Behera, 2019).

1.3) The strengths of economic indicators, HDI and U5MR in measuring development is that they allow us to use figures for comparing different countries. Countries can be ranked in an attempt to fairly allocate aid assistance. They give an idea about what the country is like economically socially and environmentally. U5MR measures an end result of development process rather than an input ( Nourry, 2008).

The weaknesses of using HDI is that it gives wide divergence within countries, HDI reflects long term changes hence may not respond to short term crisis and higher GNI per capita may not show widespread inequality within countries. Economic indicators do not take any account of people’s quality of life which is important in social terms.