VOCABULARY. Classification of Countries

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SPEAKING

Classification of Countries

Since the break-up of the Soviet block at the end of the 1980s, the so-called transition economies have faced the task of moving from a centrally-planned system of resource allocation towards a more market-oriented approach. This has proved a challenging and difficult period for the countries concerned, both those that were part of the Soviet Union and other countries in Eastern Europe that were allies and trading partners.

To outside observes, it has sometimes been difficult to know how to classify these countries. In the days of the Cold War, there seemed to be three groupings in the word. There was a group of industrial market economies that had reached a high level of “development” – this was the “First World”. Then there was the Soviet block, which comprised the countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. There shared a history that overlapped with countries in Western Europe, but had taken such a different path since 1917. This was the “Second World”. And then there was the rest – the “Third World”, most of which had remained undeveloped.

The collapse of the Second World led to classification problems. The term “Third world” no longer made sense.

At present the countries of the world are usually classified into three major groups: advanced economies, developing countries and countries in the transition.

B. Translate the text from Russian into English.

Экономика стран переходного периода характеризуется рядом закономерностей, независимо от уровня их развития. Переход к рыночной экономике сопровождается неизбежными трудностями как для экономики страны, так и для ее населения. Наблюдается очень резкий спад промышленного производства, ведущий к безработице.

В этих условиях государство должно взять курс на активную стабилизацию: проведение умеренно жесткой финансовой политики, обуздание инфляции экономическими методами, выборочная поддержка наиболее перспективных отраслей экономики.

Study the interview with Denis MacShane, a British Member of Parliament for the Labor Party.

Interviewer:	Denis MacShane, do you agree with the people who say that manufacturing industry will inevitably decline in what we call the industrialized countries?
Denis Macshane:	I think manufacturing will change, convert itself. There are many new products that have to be invented to serve new needs, and they can be made in the advanced countries because in fact the technology of production means you need very little labour input. I'm holding in my hand a simple pen that British Airways gives away to its passengers. It is made in Switzerland, a pen, a low-tech product, made in Switzerland, with the highest labor costs in the entire world, and British Airways, a British company, having to pay in low value pounds, is buying from Switzerland a manufactured product. Now what's going on here? It seems to me that the Swiss - and they also manage to do it with their watches, the famous Swatch - have stumbled on a new secret, which is how to make low-tech products, sell them profitably, but actually make them in a country where in theory there should be no more manufacturing, and if you look at any of the successful economies of the 1990s, they all have a strong manufacturing component.
Interviewer:	Which countries are you thinking of?
Denis Macshane:	I'm thinking of the dynamic Asian economies, all based on manufacturing. I'm thinking indeed of the United States which now has created for example a new computer, high-tech computer industry, its car industry is coming right back in America. America is a giant manufacturing economy, which is why it is still the richest nation in the world, so I am extremely dubious of the theorists who say that manufacturing has no future in the advanced industrialized countries.

Act out the interview of MacShane with Mr Brown, Daily News correspondent. Use the questions of the latter for reference.

1. Why do you think that manufacturing has a future?

2. Why do you think that manufacturing has a future in the advanced countries?

3. Why, however, is this manufacturing unlikely to solve the problem of unemployment?

4. What do you mean by “in theory there should be no more manufacturing in Switzerland?” (It is this theory that makes many people argue that manufacturing must move to “less-developed” countries.)

5. Why do you say it is surprising for a British company to be buying Swiss goods?

6. What is the reason you give for the United States still being the richest nation in the world?

Discuss the following issues

1. What kind of system is traditional economy? What areas of the world are they primarily found nowadays? The basic economic questions What, How and For whom in these economies are based on tradition, aren’t they?

2. Who are the basic economic questions answered in command economies by? Why are they called planned economies? What is the role of individuals in this type of economies?

3. What economy is the opposite to command economy? What is the core idea of this type of economy? What are the examples of countries with market economy?

4. All major economies in the world are mixed ones, aren’t they? What are mixed economies characterized by?

5. Are there any purely capitalist or socialist states in the world?

Summarize the information from the Unit and be ready to speak on Economic Systems. Use the following prompts as a plan.

1. The definition of an economic system. Its interaction with a political system.

2. Three basic economic questions.

3. Basic kinds of economic systems.

4. The responsibilities of the state in managing the society.

5. The main task of transition economies.

6. The type of the economic systems Great Britain / the USA / Belarus belong to.

collapse n – обвал, падение, крах

command economy – командная экономика

fluctuate v – колебаться, быть неустойчивым

fluctuation n – колебание, неустойчивость

household n – домохозяйство

impose v – облагать, налагать

incentive n – стимул

involvement n – вовлечение, затруднительное положение

market economy – рыночная экономика

mixed economy – смешанная экономика

overlap v – частично совпадать, частично покрывать

own v – владеть

owner n – собственник

ownership n – право собственности

restriction n – ограничение

suppress v – сдерживать, подавлять, запрещать

traditional economy – традиционная экономика

transition economy – переходная экономика

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