Understanding Third World Politics

While trends in inequality in the Third World do not follow any regional
pattern, overall inequality has increased over the last 30 years, particularly
because of increases in countries with large populations, such as China. The
scale of the problem in developing countries is illustrated by a comparison
of the percentage shares of income of the poorest and richest 20 per cent of
the population in countries with the highest and lowest levels of inequality.
The countries with the lowest inequality are not the richest in the world and
those with the highest levels are not always the poorest. But none of the
countries with low inequality is in the Third World.
Table 10.1 suggests that if inequality is a source of political instability,
Third World countries are faced with a serious problem; but that relative
equality can be associated with instability, too, though evidently mainly in
countries in transition from communism to democracy.
A commonsense view suggests that if there are profound inequalities
there will be resentment and discontent with a system of decision-making
that is unable to redress the imbalance or is controlled by those intent on
preserving the status quo. Maldistribution of income is likely to be a strong
predictor of political violence, not least because it will be felt more strongly
among the urban poor who are more able to mobilize collectively.
There is some evidence supporting a relationship between political insta-
bility in poor countries and material inequality, such as in land-holdings
(Rueschmeyer et al., 1992). Studies have found the poorest countries with
unequal land distribution are less stable than countries that have inequalities

236 Understanding Third World Politics

Table 10.1 Inequalities of income and consumption: percentage shares

of income and consumption, poorest and richest 20 per cent of population,

high and low income countries

Low income Lowest Highest High income Lowest Highest
20% 20% 20% 20%

Bolivia 1.9 61.8 Austria 10.4 33.3
Honduras 1.6 61.8 Belarus 11.4 33.3
Paraguay 1.9 60.7 Bulgaria 10.1 36.8
Sierra Leone 1.1 63.4 Czech Rep. 10.3 35.9
Brazil 2.6 63.0 Finland 10.0 35.8
Central African Rep. 2.0 65.0 Hungary 10.0 34.4
Guinea-Bissau 2.1 58.9 Japan 10.6 35.7
Nicaragua 2.3 63.6 Slovak Rep. 11.9 31.4

SOURCE: Data taken from latest available survey year, World Bank (2001),
table 2.8, pp. 70–2.