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Maoism

Basic concepts  Marxism-Leninism  Anti-Revisionism  Three Worlds Theory  Social-imperialism  Mass line  People's war  New Democracy

Prominent Maoists  Mao Zedong  Prachanda  Bob Avakian  Zhang Chunqiao  José María Sison  Abimael Guzmán  Charu Majumdar  Jiang Qing  İbrahim Kaypakkaya  Pierre Mulele  Huey Newton  Jean-Paul Sartre

International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations Revolutionary Internationalist Movement

Parties by country  Afghanistan  Germany  India  Nepal  Peru  Philippines  Portugal  USA

Related topics  Communist Party of China  Cultural Revolution  Little Red Book  Naxalism

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The Three Worlds Theory is a theory developed by former Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong that suggests that the world is politically and economically divided into three worlds. Mao's theory differs significantly from the traditional ideal of "third world". Mao claimed that "the U.S. and the Soviet Union belong to the First World. The middle elements, such as Japan, Europe, Australia and Canada, belong to the Second World. We are the Third World." He argued that "the U.S. and the Soviet Union have a lot of atomic bombs, and they are richer. Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada, of the Second World, do not possess so many atomic bombs and are not so rich as the First World, but richer than the Third World."

According to Mao, the first world consists of the superpowers, the second world of the wealthy allies of the superpowers, and the third world of the nonaligned nations. It is notable for grouping the United States and Soviet Union together as exploiter nations. Former Communist Party General Secretary and Central Military Commission Chairman Deng Xiaoping brought this view to the world in his 1974 speech to the United Nations. It was used to justify Chinese alliances with right-wing reactionary governments during the late 1970s and 1980s.

Within the anti-revisionist political organizations and parties throughout the world, long debates and discussions around this theory caused major ideological disbelief to Maoist thought, generally signaling the end of its enjoyed popularity within international communist movement since 1968. Albanian Party of Labour, led by Enver Hoxha, held then a notable ideological critical alternative for a time, distanced both from Mao's Three Worlds Theory and USSR's Revisionism. Many political fractions following the debates on the theory among anti-revisionist parties allied with Communist Party of China found their way in the alliance with Hoxha's Albania.

See also

• Anti-Revisionism

v • d • e Economic classification of countries Developed country · Developing country · Least developed country · High income country · Newly industrialized country · Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Worlds Theory First World · Second World · Third World · Fourth World Lists of countries Economic freedom List of countries by economic freedom GDP per capita List of countries by GDP (nominal), (growth), (per capita) · List of countries by GDP (PPP), (per capita), (per hour) GNI per capita List of countries by GNI (nominal) per capita · List of countries by GNI (PPP) per capita Human Development Index List of countries by Human Development Index Human Poverty Index List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty

External links

• http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv10n1/mao.htm
• http://maoist.wikia.com/wiki/Three_Worlds_Theory (contains exchange above, also without exact attribution)
• http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ziliao/3602/3604/t18008.htm
• http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/deng-xiaoping/1974/04/10.htm
• http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/imp_ch4.htm

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 26 September 2008, at 03:05.

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