Deck 14: The Struggle for Economic Well-Being

Question 1

Countries in Eastern Europe that are converting from communist to free market economic systems are sometimes referred to as ______.

A) least developed countries (LDCs)
B) emerging economies
C) newly industrialized economies (NIEs)
D) conversion states

Answer 1

least developed countries (LDCs)

Question 2

The region of the world with the highest concentration of poor as measured by the percentage of the population living on $1.25 per day is ______.

A) East Asia
B) South Asia
C) the Middle East
D) sub-Saharan Africa

Answer 2

sub-Saharan Africa

Question 3

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) Over the past several decades virtually no progress has been made in eradicating global poverty.
B) Although poverty is still a serious problem, there is no denying that enormous progress has been made in terms of eradicating global poverty.
C) Over the past few decades, global poverty has gotten worse.
D) In terms of geography, poverty is distributed relatively evenly across the developing world.

Answer 3

Although poverty is still a serious problem, there is no denying that enormous progress has been made in terms of eradicating global poverty.

Question 4

Which of the following is often cited as a cause for poverty in the developing world?

A) the vagaries of geography and demography
B) overdependence on the export of raw materials such as coffee, tea, rubber, or copper, whose prices fluctuate more unpredictably than processed goods
C) the carryover effect of the colonial period by the Europeans
D) all of these

Question 5

Of the nearly 38 million people with HIV/AIDS worldwide, what region of the world has the largest number of cases?

A) East Asia
B) South Asia
C) the Middle East
D) sub-Saharan Africa

Question 6

Which of the following is incorrect?

A) The number of illiterate persons in the world has decreased in recent years.
B) Roughly 750 million adults and children worldwide cannot read.
C) Roughly a billion youth are failing to acquire basic literacy skills.
D) None of these.

Question 7

With regard to the growing concern about income inequality in the United States, which of the following is incorrect?

A) In 2015 the top 10% of earners took roughly half the country's overall income.
B) The wealthiest 0.1% of the population controls roughly 37% of the wealth.
C) In recent years, the earnings of Wall Street investors and corporate executives have stagnated.
D) Globalization, the decline of unions, and technological innovation have all contributed to an erosion of workers' wages.

Question 8

The United Nations organization that is in the business of making loans to countries for development purposes is ______.

A) the World Bank
B) the International Monetary Fund
C) the United Nations Development Program
D) the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

Question 9

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) The number of illiterate persons has fallen over the past decade.
B) The number of HIV/AIDs cases remains evenly distributed between the wealthier and poorer countries of the world.
C) Violent conflict is not inordinately concentrated in poor countries.
D) For the most part, poverty is no longer a significant problem in developed countries, including the United States.

Question 10

The term that denotes modern economic exploitation of developing countries as a carryover from nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonialism is ______.

A) neoimperialism
B) the second wave of imperialism
C) colonial continuity
D) exploitive modernization

Question 11

Demographic transition theory posits ______.

A) that massive movements of people from one region of the world to another are a major cause of poverty.
B) the Malthusian notion that wars are significant inhibitors of population growth.
C) that as societies economically grow and become more industrialized and more modern, population growth begins to subside.
D) that constant population pressure from the developing countries of the South will eventually overwhelm the developed North.

Question 12

A broad strategy for dealing with economic well-being that assumes public ownership of key economic and social services, private ownership of small businesses, and a free/open political system is called ______.

A) communism
B) democratic socialism
C) illiberal capitalism
D) liberal capitalism

Question 13

The poorest of the developing world's countries are known as _____________________.

Question 14

At a United Nations Summit in 2000, 189 governments adopted a set of development goals known as _________________________.

Question 15

The post-Mao economic model, which began in 1976, was instituted in China to achieve what are known as the ____________________________________.

Question 16

The specialized UN agency concerned with financial and exchange stability and the management of debt is the __________________________________.

Question 17

The practice of multinational corporations, owned and controlled by powerful forces in the developed North, taking unfair advantage of the poor, developing countries of the South is often referred to by some scholars as _____________________.

Question 18

In 2011 and 2012 an economic crisis hit Europe, and two countries in particular were at the center of that crisis. They were ________________ and _________________.

Question 19

Discuss several schools of thought that attempt to explain the persistence of poverty in the world.

Question 20

Discuss the state of poverty in the world today, including its geographic distribution, its scope and severity, and its impact on politics.

Question 21

The authors note a number of approaches to economic well-being: liberal capitalism and liberal democracy, egalitarian communism, illiberal capitalism, right-wing authoritarianism, and democratic socialism. In your judgment, which of these approaches offers the best hope for global economic improvement, and why?

Question 22

Assess the role the international community plays in dealing with the issues of poverty and economic well-being.

Question 23

Although state-based foreign aid from wealthier countries is important in the efforts to eradicate poverty, there are some limitations and/or problems with these programs. Write an essay that discusses some of these problems.

Question 24

Assess the Millennium Development Goals and what progress has been made toward their achievement.

Question 25

If you were to design a program to combat poverty in the developing world, what might it look like? Explain the elements in your design and why you chose them.