Someone please tell me what is a 2nd world country and who lives there?

Question

the USA and England are classed as 1st world and Africa 3rd so were and who sits in second place.

Answer 1

A very astute observation, Grasshopper! I have waited many long and arduous years for this question to be answered. You have done well, my child.

Answer 2

There is the old world (mostly Europe and some of the Middle East) and the new world (the United States and the Americas, basically countries that were considered "new" to Europeans in the 16th century). Anything not considered one of those two is considered 3rd world. The 2nd world would technically be the so-called "new world," if you consider them chronologically. The U.S. and Canada therefore, would be examples of part of the 2nd world, and Americans and Canadians live there.

Answer 3

The term "Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic.

For a list of countries that count as "Second World" please visit:
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/second_world.htm

The First, the Second, and the Third World.
When people talk about the poorest countries of the world, they often refer to them with the general term Third World, and they think everybody knows what they are talking about. But when you ask them if there is a Third World, what about a Second or a First World, you almost always get an evasive answer. Other people even try to use the terms as a ranking scheme for the state of development of countries, with the First world on top, followed by the Second world and so on, that's perfect - nonsense.

To close the gap of information you will find here explanations of the terms.

The use of the terms First, the Second, and the Third World is a rough, and it's safe to say, outdated model of the geopolitical world from the time of the cold war.
There is no official definition of the first, second, and the third world.

However the definitions below are widely supported.

Four Worlds
After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society:
1 - The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, the "First World".
2 - The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the "Second World".
3 - The remaining three-quarters of the world's population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the "Third World."
4 - The term "Fourth World", coined in the early 1970s by Shuswap Chief George Manuel, refers to widely unknown nations (cultural entities) of indigenous peoples, "First Nations" living within or across national state boundaries.

First there was the three worlds model
The origin of the terminology is unclear. In 1952 Alfred Sauvy, a French demographer, wrote an article in the French magazine L'Observateur which ended by comparing the Third World with the Third Estate: "ce Tiers Monde ignoré, exploité, méprisé comme le Tiers État" (this ignored Third World, exploited, scorned like the Third Estate). Other sources claim that Charles de Gaulle coined the term Third World, maybe de Gaulle only has quoted Sauvy. However...

__Definitions

The term "First World" refers to so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States after word war II, with more or less common political and economic interests: North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia.

"Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.

"Third World" are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The term Third World includes as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries as very rich (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and very poor (e.g., Mali) countries.

The term "Fourth World" first came into use in 1974 with the publication of Shuswap Chief George Manuel's: The fourth world : an Indian reality (amazon link to the book), the term refers to nations (cultural entities, ethnic groups) of indigenous peoples living within or across state boundaries (nation states).

For more information see Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World

Answer 4

First World countries may be defined as having developed market economies, Second World as having developed planned economies, and Third World as having developing economies that may follow either the market or (less often) the planned model, often characterized more by many features in common with feudalistic economies, than by either free-market or planned economies.

The above is how the media and economic markets classify countries. Originally, it referred to nations within the Soviet Union's sphere of influence (e.g. the Warsaw Pact countries, as well as farther-flung Soviet Allies such as Cuba and North Vietnam) as the Second World. Besides the Soviet Union proper, most of Eastern Europe was run by satellite governments working closely with Moscow. The term "Second world" may or may not also refer to Communist countries whose leadership were at odds with Moscow, i.e., Albania, the People's Republic of China and Yugoslavia.

Answer 5

Much of what once was the Soviet Union is referred to as second world. They are countries with planned economies. By the way, Africa is not a country, it is a continent.

Answer 6

I think that up until the collapse of the Communist regimes at the end of the 1980's, these countries were classed as the 2nd World as they had economic development but did not have private enterprise, democracy, etc.

Answer 7

First world are the technologically advanced countries like U. S. and Japan.

Third world are countries that subsist primarily on harvesting natural resources like minerals and agriculture, such as in Subsaharan Africa.

Second world is in between like Mexico and Veitnam, which are making the transition. They still have a large percentage of farmers, but they also have a significant amount of industrialization.

Answer 8

Second world applies to communist and ex-communist countries.

By the way, someone asked this only about 3 days ago. Did it not tell you before you posted the question that someone had already posted a similar one?

Answer 9

People are starting to think america is second world cause of ourloust education system , no national health care , and our laziness . Just the way you look at things I guess .

Answer 10

the commies, seriously, the Second World is Cold War term that was used to decribe the Communist nations, the correct (I suppose you'd call it that) term for 3rd world countries, nowadays, is the developing world

Answer 11

england and usa 1st ... really, if we all had a choice wont we move to a 2nd world country .. say fiji, singapore, sweden.