Effects of Non- colonialism, Colonialism and Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism.

Consequences of imperialism on third World countries 

The nature of imperialism is as profound as its history is chequered. But imperialism cannot be comprehended as a general phenomenon, but only in relation to the stages of development of societies. This is the basic reason why the past, present and future of Third World Countries and the industrialised countries cannot be fully understood without the proper understanding of the role of imperialism in their history. This relation encompasses the processes of the expansion of capital, inequality, domination and exploitation which are fundamental variables of imperialism.

capitalism is used to indicate the passage of capitalism from its earlier stage of more or less free competition to one in which giant firms, trusts and cartels dominate the market. The expansion of production tends to go hand in hand with a rising organic composition of capital. Increase in the organic composition of capital in turn goes hand in hand with the concentration of capital, that is, with monopolisation in production. As a branch of production becomes more mechanised, it becomes difficult for new entrepreneur to enter that branch of production because of the cost of investing in machines to remain competitive with those who are already in the line of production. It is because of such factors that a rising organic composition of capital leads to monopolistic capitalism -a form of capitalism in which the economy is dominated by a few large enterprises who controls the market and make it extremely difficult for new entrepreneurs to break into their lineo f production .

Relationship between Capitalism and Imperialism

Uneven development and wretched conditions of the masses are the fundamental and inevitable conditions and premises of the capitalist  mode of production. The relationship between capitalism and imperialism was aptly captured in the work of Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, published in 1966;  where he posited that, the Third World countries would not make a  formal march towards economic independence until neo-colonialism  was vanquished. 

In addition, since the early days of capitalism, the imperialist relationship between the centre represented by the Advanced Capitalist  Countries (ACC) and the periphery represented by the (Third World countries) is that, the centre is in a position to dominate the periphery by  virtue of its superior power, while this relationship did little to stimulate economic growth and development in the Third World countries. The capitalist mode of production therefore, generated a momentous long run expansion of productivity and economic output at the centre but could not do the same in Third World countries. 

It is against this background that the major classical writers on imperialism such as Hobson, Lenin, and Schumpeter seem to agree that the impetus for imperialism comes from economic interests, and that imperialism is related to the process of capitalist accumulation but they differ on the precise nature of relationship between capitalist  accumulation and imperialism. 

As long as capitalism remains what it is, surplus capital will never be utilised for the purpose of increasing those profits by exporting capital  abroad to the backward countries. In these backward countries, profits  usually are high, for capital is scarce, the price of land is relatively low,  wages are low, and raw materials are cheap. The possibility of exporting  capital is created by the entry of numerous backward countries into international capitalist intercourse. The necessity of exporting capital 

Characteristics Of The Third World Countries

The concept of DEVELOPMENT.

By third world, we mean the countries if Latin America, Asia and Africa. These are countries that have been incorporated into the international capitalist system through an external choice and design. These nations have a uniform history of colonial experience and were victims of imperialist adventure of the West in the 18th and 19th century.

The patterns of state formation in these countries was such that diverse ethnic nationalities were forcefully integrated for the purpose of administrative convenience of the exploiters. Nigeria is example. 

The third world countries covers the largest part of the earth's surface with a population that is two-third of the world. The third world country is not a monolithic term. Some countries have gone beyond the rhetoric of development to actualize their potentials. 

THE Third World, from the liberal perspective.

This concept is used by the bourgeoisie or the liberal theorists to refer to underdevelopment as countries whose economies are generally characterized by extremely low standard of living.

FROM the Marxist perspective, the radical scholars, they see no wisdom in the division if the globe into groups or countries based on economic potential as well as level of development and attainment. Instead, they use terms such as 'satellite' and periphery to describe the exploited countries.

The Orthodox perspective.

This perspective is projected by the west and their agents i.e the Breton Woods institutions.

Several names have been devised by scholars to explain this phenomenon - Washington consensus, economism and development merchant system.

In the orthodox perspective, development is conceived as an improvement in the terms of trade,  increase in GDP, low inflation, low interest rates liberalization of the economy. 

The Alternative Perspective.

There is an alternative perspective which conceives development as human development, people's empowerment, political participation, poverty reduction and economic freedom. Free and quality education, sound social services and protection of the vulnerable people are also pointers of development according to this school.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT.

Various theories have been advanced by sociologists, economists, political scientists to explain development from the liberal

The perspective of sociologists to the issue of underdevelopment is the faulty assumption that the new nations of Third World countries will follow the same path as that taken by Western European nations, and the theoretical paradigms developed to explain the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Western Europe was imported wholesale into the study of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The first mixture of these theoretical postulation was the evolutionary taxonomy of Traditionalism and Modernism. 

Scholars sought to identify series of evolutionary universal which demarcates stages of social evolution and an example of a theory of social evolution was the theory of social Darwinism, which was essentially occasioned by the expansion of empires in Europe.

Herbert Spencer defined evolution as a change from a state of relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a state of relatively definite, coherent heterogeneity.

This theory involves some opposition. The problems are:

- The first concerns a simple sequence of stages which all nations must pass.
- The second problem concern a mechanism which shifts a society from one evolutionary stage to another.

In other words, what essentially is this mechanism that has the ability to move a country from one stage to another?

The major problems with this theory are:

- Can all forms of social change be conceptualised as variations on a differentiation, re-integration process?
- How is the viability of institutionalized solutions to the problems arising from a given level of structural differentiation to be explained?

Traditional and Modernisation theories as variants of evolutionary theory. The assumption underlying these theories is that all societies were alike at one stage or the other, meaning that they were initially traditional, and they will eventually passed through the same set of changes that have happened in the West and become modern.

In Rostow's stages of economic growth, he asserted that all societies pass through a single, unique sequence of stages. His analysis centers on the need to increase the rate of capital investment in a society to a point where growth becomes automatic. He emphasized the need to stimulate the appearance of an entrepreneural elite which will lead the development process.

The Marxian theory revolves around the role of bourgeoisie in a supposed transition from feudalism to capitalism in the countries of the Third World.

Characteristics and features of The Third World, that differentiate from first world 

- Hunger. One of the basic needs of life is food. So the countries with a lack of it are characterized as third world countries.
- Malnutrition
- Illiteracy
- High maternal death. High mortality rate
- High infant mortality
- Massive unemployment
- Decadent public institutions
- Weak state capacity. The failure of the state has made people resort to other institutions. 
- Low patriotism. 
- Corruption
- Low capacity for capital accumulation. In the fight against corruption, a lot of money has been recovered, but no 
- Vulnerability to the forces of globalization
- Dependence on aids.
- Arena of competition for resources

MULTILATERAL TRADE LIBERALISATION AND THE INTER TS OF DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Trade liberalization in developing countries and developed country in gauging the interests of the developed countries in trade liberalization by the developing countries, it is necessary to assess how liberalization would affect the volume and the pattern of developed country exports. This question will be considered in regard to trade with the newly-industrializing countries (NU) which account for the overwhelming share of the developed countries' manufactured imports from the developing countries, which provide the largest markets for their manufacturing industries, and which have been exhorted by the developed countries to liberalize their trade. The NlCs protect their manufacturing industries by the use of tariffs and inactive import restrictions. Quantitative restrictions came into greater use after in conjunction with the increased inward orientation of a number of the NlCs and, again, after 1979 in attempting to cope with their increased debt burden. Import restrictions are applied even in outward-oriented NICs, with the exception of Hong Kong and Singapore, although these have much more limited scope and are administered in a more liberal fashion that in inward-oriented NICs. Several years ago, an OECD report expressed the fear that a newly industrializing country "may find itself moving into surplus on current account when in fact the availability of external capital and the possibilities for its profitable use would have permitted higher levels of domestic activity and consumption." (OECD, 1979, p.57). This fear has not been realised and no newly-industrializing country has accumulated excessive foreign exchange reserves. These countries have few possibilities, therefore, to draw on their foreign exchange reserves while, under present conditions, most NlCs may not increase their foreign debt. It follows that reductions in trade barriers by the NlCs could not give rise to higher imports unless their exports are simultaneously increased. Excluding such a possibility for the time being, the relevant issue is how the composition of imports would be affected. This will be considered first for manufactured goods alone. The NlCs use import restrictions to save foreign exchange as well as to protect their domestic industry. They limit the imports of non-durable consumer goods that are produced locally, but demand for variety and for luxury goods creates demand for imports. The NlCs also protect their incipient industries producing intermediate goods (iron and steel, chemicals, and other semi manufactures) and relatively simple engineering products (electrical and non-electrical machinery and transport equipment). As a result of the application of protectionist measures, the share of consumer goods and intermediate products in the imports of the developing countries from the developed countries declined in recent years whereas the share of machinery and machine tools used in their manufacture, which dominate the engineering goods category, increased to a considerable extent. Correspondingly, the liberalization of trade by the NlCs would lead to increases in the imports of nondurable consumer goods, intermediate products, and simple engineering goods and to a decline in the imports of sophisticated machinery and machine tools necessary for their domestic production.

 This conclusion needs to be qualified by reference to cases where NlCs have made a push into technologically-advanced products. Examples are personal aircraft and simple computers in Brazil. It is such instances that have evoked the ire of U.S. exporters who have seen markets closing to them. But the vociferous complaints should not mask the fact that these commodities are few in number, so that their existence does not introduce a major modification in the argument. One needs to consider, however, possible changes in the importation of primary commodities. Since these commodities are rarely protected by the NICs, their imports would decline, and the importation of manufactured goods - largely from the developed countries - correspondingly increase, following reductions in protection. 

Reductions in primary product imports by the NlCs would adversely affect the developed countries as well as the less developed countries (LDCs), since some of these commodities are exported by developed countries and others by LDCs. But, in the latter case, too, there would be a decline in the export earnings of the developed countries,, owing to reduced purchases of their products by the adversely-affected LDCs. Thus, ultimately, any increases in the manufactured exports of the developed countries to the NlCs would be offset by reductions elsewhere, so long as the export receipts of the NlCs remained unchanged. 

Next, consider the case where the NlCs expand their exports, so as to obtain foreign exchange for increasing their imports upon the liberalization of trade. This is indeed the expected consequence of trade liberalization that reduces the bias of the system of incentives against exports. For one thing, the cost of domestically produced inputs will decline; for another thing, the exchange rate will tend to depreciate in order to equilibrate the balance of payments following the liberalization of imports. 

Part of the increase in the exports of a particular newly-industrializing country would find markets in other NlCs as they liberalize their own trade. This will not improve, however, the net foreign exchange position of the developing countries, taken together. At the same time, increased imports from the developed countries will have to be paid for by higher exports to them. Thus, while trade liberalization will change the pattern of the NlCs imports from the developed countries, increases in these imports would necessitate a corresponding rise in exports.