[Book review] Third World Politics:An Introduction by Christopher Clapham

Abstract

"Clapham wrote this book in the Cold War period. In this era, third world states were proxies and “spheres of influence” of either the Western capitalist bloc led by the United States or the Eastern socialist bloc led by the Soviet Union. The Cold War lasted roughly between 1949 and 1989. This was known as the bipolar-era. Throughout this period almost all the third world states witnessed crises of governance. What Clapham presented, cannot be appreciated without taking this historical context into consideration. What draws attention is the title of the book ‘third world politics’. In its first chapter Clapham asserts that ‘the phrase third world is generally taken, and is taken here, to include the Americas south of the United states; the whole of Africa; Asia apart from the soviet Union, China and Japan; and the Oceanic Islands apart from the Australia and New Zealand’. In his categorization he did not appeal to the geographical classifications for in one way or another, he argues ‘it might suggest that the third world might be formed as the result of the cultural characteristics of its people, yet there are no similarities between the indigenous cultures’ (p.3). He has classified them because they have ‘common circumstances’. Additionally, it is stated that the phrase ‘third world’ is chosen because of its meaninglessness for the reason that the third world politics can only make a sense in a single world. Third world states have got their common circumstances, he argues, as a consequence of the process of imperialism; since 15th century, ‘the process has brought them together in many respects as a single society, economy and political system’. Hence, what distinguishes the third world states from the rest is the fact that they are non-western cultures. Then he sheds some light on the effects of imperialism and colonialization: ‘both the territorial states and the societies were artificial’ in doing so ‘bureaucratic organization becomes directly responsible for the political management of the state’."(pg 77)