Question

what is the most important attribute to compare countries?

Answer 1

The most important attributes while comparing development of different countries are per capita income.

Answer 2

The reason for comparing countries is to know the areas where one is lacking.

• Comparisons between stronger countries and weaker countries can give a clear route to address the areas where the weaker one is lacking.
• Economic growth criteria like GDP, Per capita, Balance of Payment issues are the important attributes to compare. But there are other important issues which are also obtained from such comparisons.
• It is also the easiest way to see through the problems in the country.
• For eg: We take India and China. We know that China is the most populous country in the world. India is the second most populous country in the world. But a few years back, China announced a family planning policy to address its rising population. It was able to control the population to a great extent whereas India was not able to control its population in spite of introducing family planning measures.
• Similarly, Once India greatly relied on America and Russia for Arms and Ammunitions. But after seeing the sustainable measures taken by its neighbouring countries, India also opted to manufacture all the required Arms and Ammunitions for its defence purpose.
• Sustainable Development is a concept arrived at from the comparative analysis. Once African countries were very much vulnerable towards drought and food crisis. But they started cultivating crops on Shifting methods according to their climatic conditions.

Comparison should be done in a healthy relationship. It should not glorify one by deteriorating others.