What is the difference between economic and social underdevelopment?.
There are many distinct differences between social and economic underdevelopment. Social underdevelopment refers to such factors as low education rates and high rates of illiteracy. Some of the factors that are used to measure social development are life expectancy and adult literacy rates. These factors represent many of the most important challenges facing third world countries in their effort toward modernization.
In contrast economic underdevelopment refers to the economic factors which results in poverty in third world countries. Some of these factors as seen on the national level include low per-capita income, as expressed by low GDP per capita, highly unequal distribution of income, poor infrastructure, lack of availability of modern technologies, and low consumption of efficient energy sources. At the individual level the effects of economic underdevelopment are poverty, unemployment, lack of adequate housing and poor health due to lack of available healthcare and poor nutrition.
While social and economic underdevelopment may have unique problems associated with them, each entity is required in order for a nation to achieve modernization. The social factors that can be improved, such as education, will pave the way for elimination of many of the economic factors that plague many of the third world nations. .
To what extent is there a relationship between democratization and ethnic conflict?.
While democracy is no doubt more difficult to enable and maintain in a multi-ethnic society, it is by no means impossible. Studies have shown, however; that democracy has the best chance for rooting and survival in countries that are ethnically homogenous such as Japan, Iceland, and Finland, and also in countries that have become a melting pot with a variety immigrants from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds from many different regions.
