Second World

What “Second World” means

“Second world” is an outdated geopolitical term originally used during the Cold War to describe the Soviet Union and its communist bloc allies. In that context, second-world countries were characterized by centrally planned economies and one-party political systems. The term largely fell out of use after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

Contemporary usage

More recently, “second world” has also been used—less formally—to describe countries that fall between the most developed (first world) and the least developed (third world) in terms of economic development and stability. These nations are often more developed than low-income countries but not as advanced as OECD-type economies. Investors and analysts commonly use the term “emerging markets” for countries in this in-between category.

Examples

• Cold War definition: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia), Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, parts of the Soviet Union and other communist states.
• Modern/relative definition: many countries in Latin and South America, Turkey, Thailand, South Africa, and others that exhibit intermediate development indicators.
• Hybrid cases: Some nations—China is the most cited example—display first-world characteristics in major cities (Beijing, Shanghai) while rural regions remain developing.

How classification can vary

Classification depends on the indicators used and can change over time. Geo-strategist Parag Khanna has argued that roughly 100 countries sit between first-world (OECD) and least-developed categories, and that different parts of a single country can belong to different categories simultaneously.

Key criteria for distinguishing worlds

Common measures used to assess where a country falls include:

• GDP per capita and overall economic output
• Unemployment and labor-market conditions
• Infant mortality and life expectancy
• Standards of living and infrastructure
• Income distribution and poverty rates

Debates and criticisms

• The three-world framework is blunt and can obscure within-country disparities. Urban-rural divides or regional inequalities often mean parts of a nation look first-world while others remain developing.
• Some economists argue that advanced economies can regress in terms of broad welfare measures. For example, MIT economist Peter Temin has suggested that a large portion of the U.S. population experiences conditions similar to developing nations due to low wages, high debt burdens, and limited upward mobility.

Conclusion

“Second world” began as a Cold War term for Soviet-aligned states but now sometimes denotes countries between fully developed and least-developed classifications. Because development is multidimensional and uneven within countries, any rigid three-part labeling—first, second, third world—has limited precision. Contemporary analysis more often relies on specific economic and social indicators or uses labels like “emerging markets” to capture nuance.