No, Greece is not a “third-world country”—but Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland are.
The term “third-world country” originally had nothing whatsoever to do with how “developed” a country supposedly was. Instead, the French demographer Alfred Sauvy originally coined the terms “first world,” “second world,” and “third world” in 1952 to describe the three major alliance groups that emerged during the Cold War.
Thus, the term “first world” originally referred to the western capitalist nations formally allied with the United States. The term “second world” originally referred to eastern communist nations formally allied with the Soviet Union. The term “third world” referred to countries that were not allied with the United States or the Soviet Union that instead chose to remain neutral.
Greece joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952—the same year in which Sauvy coined the term “third world.” Therefore, by Sauvy’s definition, Greece is a first-world country. Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland, however, never joined NATO, nor did they ever join any other formal alliance with the United States or the Soviet Union. These three European countries all chose to remain formally neutral. Therefore, they are all third-world countries according to Sauvy’s original definition.
ABOVE: Map from Wikimedia Commons showing the three major alliance groups of the Cold War as they existed between May and August 1975. The “first world” is shown in blue; the “second world” is shown in red; and the “third world” is shown in green.
It’s weird how the Tito-Stalin split got Yugoslavia classified as third world where the Sino-Soviet split didn’t for China. This typology was ridiculous from rather early on.
Yugoslavia under Tito was actively ‘unaligned’. China, not so much. Mao was very pro-Stalinist in his thinking regarding spreading Communism.
Right, but post Secret Speech, the USSR wasn’t Stalinist, and the PRC and USSR weren’t aligned after Stalin’s death and the Sino-Soviet Split, engaging in border scuffles and proxy wars with one another.
And the Cold War ended about the same time, leaving China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba as a harder communist community. The terms then began their shift in meaning to a more economic connotation.
Most historians would disagree that the Cold War ended at about the same time as the Sino-Soviet Split, considering the latter occurred over a decade from the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties, and the USSR dissolved in 1991.
Unless for some reason you do not view the Vietnam War or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as being part of the Cold War — which would be a fringe interpretation — your statement does not make chronological sense.
The terms actually came to haunt him, because France withdrew from NATO in 1959. When France returned in 1966 he received an honorary doctorate at the university of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
France never fully withdrew from NATO, but took its military out of the integrated command structure. When it re-integrated in 2009, it did not need to reapply for admission. In the interim it supported NATO ventures and supported the US during the Cuban crisis.
Interesting that Iran and Turkey are blue in the map. These two countries in blue separate the red Communist countries from the Middle East. That strikes me as a clever piece of geopolitics by the western allies.
What an unfortunate turn of events, that Iran’s relations with the west are no longer favourable. McKinder’s heartland thesis would suggest that these two countries are important, geopolitically.
Right now, they are turning towards China and Russia, and away from the West. I consider that a failure of Western strategy in the region.
Whoever commands the world island (the Eurasian continent), could in theory build up an alliance powerful enough to dominate the world.
It won’t happen tomorrow, but I think neglecting this region could be strategically unwise for the world’s leaders.
This region is still to settle geographically and geostrategically. The west must consider the instability and the betrayal of some countries which are composed by a number of ethnicities and must make a step forward to create new countries in the boundaries of the unfaithful ones which will comprise these enthicities and support them to become west’s faithful and reliable allies.
As arrogant as terms like first-world, third-world can be (it is even worse now with the Global North vs. the Global South), as trolling as questions like these can be, these terms today mean overall economic development and industrialization. So Greece is not a third-world country not because of a list done in the early ’50s, but because its citizens enjoy a relatively high standard of living (the HDI will agree).
Now, there are some people which might find joy to the fact that Greece had a financial crisis and its overall economy shrank. Usually, the anti-Greeks will be from the Balkans or Turkey (I don’t know of anti-Greek feelings in West Europe). And this is when the situation becomes comic. Greece is still more developed than the neighbouring countries, but the uneducated keyboard warriors don’t need this piece of information. For them, if Greece does badly in any field, it is a good day. The result are anonymous trolling questions like these.
To the point..from your first word to the last.
Upvoted moreover one would be silly even if to ask whether a EU member is a 3rd world country.
The original meaning of the term was very different from its present usage, but I get the sense that the underlying message of this article is that hierarchies are evil and that high-performing countries should be lowered and low-performing countries should be elevated for the sake of equality.
I’m kind of tired of this meme – the meanings of words change, or have definitions added. 3rd world now means, for the vast majority of people, a ‘developing economy’ (in even more modern parlance).
Hey Spencer, do You happen to have an answer on Quora or an article on Your website which discusses Greek democracy? I wonder specifically why does democracy get ascribed to the Ancient Greece? Whilst the practice of the majority of members in a certain group voting on a matter seems so simple and omnipresent in all cultures and even in our childhoods as a meaning of settling the matter.
I will be publishing an article about ancient Athenian “democracy” and its supposed connections to modern “democracy” shortly.
It is because Democracy was applied for the first time in Greece. I think by Pericles in Athens. The word “Democracy” stems from the Greek words “Δήμος» demos meaning the people, and “κράτος» kratos, meaning state, power etc. Thus democracy means power to the people.
Sweden and Finland are no longer “third world” in this acception since they joined the EU which is first world
Third world = The so called “non aligned“ countries. Greece was part of the western alliance.thus the “First World”.
Third world countries are designated as such due primarily to their economic status. For example, most, if not all African countries are third world status along with some central American countries.
These nations have bad kleptocratic or corrupt governme ts where money and Investments don’t reach lower levels of society. Furthermore, they have been victims of globalisation or from Chinese exploitation.
Greece is a poor country because it has a large debt. I wouldn’t put it in the category of third world status. However, it was a mistake to include them in the EU.
I would definitely include Switzerland and Finland as first world countries. This is largely an economic term.
Insulting and baseless. Greece ,even during it’s financial crisis -which has completed its cycle- was rich and continues to be.
Switzerland is definitively a third world country.. Or did I miss something? *sarcasm off*
Still is in my book. Makers of chocolate , usury and cuckoo clocks are still without civilization and thus “developing”.
Thanks, Spencer. Well presented. I always thought it has to do with industrial and non-industrial countries. Now I understand fully what is meant by developing countries.