Economic Dualism and The Third World

Abstract

This paper attempts to evaluate the mutual contradiction inherent in human societies. Inevitably,
poverty and opulence tend to co-exist within same space and time at all levels of social strata. This
phenomenon is often reinforced by the upper hierarchy within societies. We also attempt to seek for
paradigms that could reverse the status quo. Economic dualism entails the mutual and often
antagonistic coexistence of two or more exclusive entities of economic processes in a given space. It
could take the form of wealthy, industrialized nations coexisting with weak, agrarian economies of the
Third World countries, or rich and affluent individuals coexisting side by side with poor,
malnourished masses of people. The paradigm argued that the different set of conditions of
‘superiority’ and ‘inferiority’ is a deliberate one. This co-existence is lopsided and not merely
transitional.