The Contemporary Consequences of the Gap

Throughout the settled history of mankind, riches and poverty have existed as the twin fates not only of individuals, but also of societies whether defined as tribes or organised as states. But whilst the differences of well-being among the individuals or the families in a country have, for centuries, posed problems for analysis and public policy, the differences of living standards among the various regions of the world have not been taken up as a major issue either of international policy or of economic thought until recent times. It is only in the last two decades that the difference of prosperity between the rich and the poor countries, now called the gap, has attracted increasing attention of both the policy makers and the thinkers. Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that the gap which is the concern of international economics and politics par excellence nowadays was hardly noticed during the century before the Second World War although it was there for anybody who had an eye for it. This paper, after referring to the change of world political and intellectual attitude towards the difference in living standards between the rich and the poor regions, will attempt to review the main consequences that the large or increasing gap, or the awareness of it, has on international relations — political and economic — and on the development problems and prospects of the poor countries.