Developed Countries

Those countries of America, Asia, Oceania, and Europe notable for their high per capita gross national product, average life expectancy, low infant mortality, high average level of education (approximately fourteen years of instruction per employed person), high labor productivity and great wealth. These countries enjoy ownership of the majority of the world’s inventions, patents and scientific discoveries; investment in scientific research, as well as high levels of spending on computer technology for the structure of accumulation; wide distribution of durable goods and paid services in the structure of family consumption. Corporations predominate in the socioeconomic structure of the d.c., especially the huge multinational corporations that control the markets. This group is not homogeneous. In some instances, alongside the most advanced nations we find less developed ones, for example Greece. In 1960 the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development was founded with headquarters in Paris. This is an intergovernmental organization of twenty-four member states, mostly European, which coordinates economic cooperation. Since 1975 there have been annual meetings of the heads of the governments of the seven wealthiest states: France, the United States, England, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada (since 1977 the representative of the European Common Market has attended and, since 1995, with certain restrictions, the president of Russia). Since 1996, Asian-European meetings have been held by the leaders of fifteen Western European states and ten Asian states, such as Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.