There are a number of rich and poor countries in the world and their richness or poverty is ascertained by the wealth that draws a prominent line between rich and poor countries. A country becomes rich or poor, is decided by various domestic and international factors. These factors are social, economic and political at domestic level while on international level certain other factors play significant role behind the richness or poverty of nations. This paper intends to discuss why some countries are rich and others are poor along with examining the factors that are responsible behind richness or poverty at domestic as well as international level.
The economic disparity is clearly visible in different parts of the world and not all countries across the world are same. There are various factors that contribute towards prosperity of the country. Availability of natural resources is one of the major factors that increase internal well being of the nation. Natural resources such as oil, minerals, Availability of water, ample agriculture production, availability of metals, rainfall etc. help in maintaining internal prosperity and provide scope for economical development. Arab countries have huge amount of oil that is the main reason for prosperity of Arab nations.
Population of the country determines various factors that contribute towards economic growth of the country. Higher population density shows that higher natural resources are require for survival of population; whereas low population density result in low consumption of necessary resources. On the other hand higher population means country has huge manpower that is required for production of industrial goods. Countries with low population density enjoys ample natural resources and more managed infrastructure as compare to countries with high population such as China and India where huge population struggle to get even food for daily consumption.
Social factors play very important role in the economy of a country. It has been observed that social conditions and structure of rich and poor countries are substantially different. In rich countries women are usually a significant part of whole system while in poor countries women do not play larger roles at social level. They do not have much say in policy makings and their talent remains unutilized. In Middle East and African countries, women are not as empowered as they are in western world where they have larger roles in society and almost every other area (Ross). They participate in policy making and have their strong intervention in corporate sector where their talent is utilized and they contribute in the development of the society as well in the development of the country.
Legal system and bureaucracy also play very significant role in the richness or poverty of countries. A transparent, impartial and competent bureaucracy is very essential requirement to development. It has been observed that in rich countries bureaucracy is competent, impartial and less or incorrupt while in poor countries bureaucracy is incompetent, corrupt and favors fraudsters. The same role plays the judicial system of a country in richness or poverty of a country. Legal system must be competent, impartial and transparent in order to progress and move ahead (Ross).
All the way through the history it can easily be observed that government policies are a key to economic wellbeing of the nation. Good politicians always consider policies according to their effect on overall population of the country. Unrealistic and poorly formed policies hamper economic growth of the country. Politics is directly related with the economic wellbeing of the country because it is the central point that govern all economic process. Britain was very prosperous and ruled various countries in the history but today America is the super power of the world. America got independence from the Britain and after independence American government formed various policies that resulted in making country a super power. Politics and prosperity are very much related to each other.
Government of rich countries adopted effective strategy to manage internal and external factors. They emphasizes on free trade or trade with some restrictions and industrialization. This helped in not only generating employment but increasing overall wealth of the nation along with improving living standards of the citizens. This process of modernization develops economy of the country and increase the wealth of the nation. During the past countries that emphasized on closed economy may have gained shot term success but they were unable to achieve the growth noticed by open economy countries.
Government plays a major role in forming policies that capitalize of strengths of the country and improve on weaknesses of the nation. England used to be a very rich with huge reserve of gold, country were involved in purchasing textile and other goods in exchange of gold. On the other America very rapidly created industries to produce goods, cash crops, machineries and technology within their own country because of good government. African Americans played a major role in agriculture and industrial production. They were cheap labor at that and use to work in very poor conditions. Countries such as China and India are now capitalizing on their cheap labors; these countries are developing because favorable government policies are able to attract companies across the world to invest.
Several international factors play significant role behind richness or poverty of countries. Country’s economic ties, economic policies, international relations and treaties play very significant role in making a country rich or poor. If a country has good international ties, policies and treaties with other nations in her favors, it will be a rich country. On the other hand, if a country fails in making ties, treaties and trade policies in its favor, there are maximum chances that the country will be a poor country.
Export and import policies, trade benefits and deficits, and attracting foreign money are tool of being wealthy for nations and if a country succeeds in bring all these factors in its favor, the country will be a rich country. On the other hand if a country is not able to manage export import policies in its favor and fails in attracting foreign money, there are chances that the country will be a poor country. Foreign treaties and ties also pave the way for richness. If there are treaties and ties, it helps countries in developing and thus becoming rich while in absence of treaties and ties, a country cannot be rich.
Having observed the succinct view of above mentioned subject, it can be concluded that there are various domestic and international factors that play significant role in the richness or poverty of a country. It is inevitable to strengthen both domestic and international factors in order to be rich and failing to doing so results in poverty of a country.
Works Cited
Ross, Michael L. "Oil, Islam, and Women." American Political Science Review (February 2008): 107-123.
