Underdevelopment

Underdevelopment is the state of an organism or of an organisation (e.g. a country) that has not reached its maturity.

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It is often used for economic underdevelopment, and then means poverty, including lack of access to health care, to drinkable water, to food, to education and housing.

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The concept of economic underdevelopment was popularised from the late 1960s by Andre Gunder Frank who studied the effects of imperialism in Latin America. The argument was that that rich or industrialised countries blocked or deformed the development of poor or agrarian countries, by means of policies and interventions intended to protect their global power and superior position in world trade.

Related Topics:
Andre Gunder Frank - Imperialism - Latin America - World trade

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The United Nations also distinguishes between developed nations and less developed countries.

Related Topics:
United Nations - Developed nation - Less developed countries

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The term underdevelopment however raises the question of what criteria can be validly used to assess development. In the mid-1990s, a new word arose to express a wider point of view, including the human and social elements, and to avoid this classification: maldevelopment.

Related Topics:
1990s - Maldevelopment

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