First World

The economically developed, industrialized, capitalist nations of the world (typically Western Europe, North America, Japan, and other wealthy democracies), often framed in postcolonial theory as the historical colonizers and the locus of global economic power in contrast to the “Third World” or postcolonial nations.

Claims that use this term

• Shared problems across frontiers enable dialogue between postcolonial and First World contexts.
• Colonial capitalism produces the same public-private split it creates in the First World
• First World subjects’ belief in postindustrial society distorts political practice.