Article entitled Quem são as 62 pessoas cuja riqueza equivale à de metade do mundo (Who are the 62 people whose wealth amounts to half the world), available on the website <http: />, reports that the richest 1% of the world already owns as much wealth as the rest of the world population and that the 62 richest people in the world have so much money and property as half of the world's population. The disparity of wealth between the inhabitants of the planet is also observed between the countries. 14 countries among 196 have 50.7% of world Gross Domestic Product- GDP (US$ 74.91 trillion). According to the Almanaque Abril 2015 (Almanac April 2015) these 14 countries are wealthy core capitalist countries (US, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Austria and New Zealand). We live, therefore, in a world whose hallmark is the excessive concentration of wealth in few hands and in a few countries. This feature is inherent in capitalism. It is proven that economic progress alone is not sufficient to ensure social progress.

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FACTORS CONDITIONING THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
Fernando Alcoforado *
Article entitled Quem são as 62 pessoas cuja riqueza equivale à de metade do mundo
(Who are the 62 people whose wealth amounts to half the world), available on the
website <http://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/2016/01/quem-sao-as-62-pessoas-cuja-
riqueza-equivale-a-de-metade-do-mundo.html>, reports that the richest 1% of the world
already owns as much wealth as the rest of the world population and that the 62 richest
people in the world have so much money and property as half of the world's population.
The disparity of wealth between the inhabitants of the planet is also observed between
the countries. 14 countries among 196 have 50.7% of world Gross Domestic Product-
GDP (US$ 74.91 trillion). According to the Almanaque Abril 2015 (Almanac April
2015) these 14 countries are wealthy core capitalist countries (US, Japan, Germany,
France, UK, Italy, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway,
Belgium, Austria and New Zealand).
We live, therefore, in a world whose hallmark is the excessive concentration of wealth
in few hands and in a few countries. This feature is inherent in capitalism. It is proven
that economic progress alone is not sufficient to ensure social progress. Analysis of
Executive Summary of Social Progress Index 2014 authored by Michael E. Porter and
Scott Stern with Michael Green, available on the website
<http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/system/resources/W1siZiIsIjIwMTQvMDgv
MjEvMDEvNTcvMDYvMTYzL1NQSV8yMDE0X0VYRUNVVElWRV9TVU1NQVJ
ZX0ZpbmFsX1BPUlQucGRmIl1d/SPI-2014-EXECUTIVE-SUMMARY_Final-
PORT.pdf>, reveals that some of the world's major economies did not fare as well in
social progress ranking, such as Germany (12th place), the United Kingdom (13th),
Japan (14th), the United States (16th) and France (20th).
The Executive Summary of Social Progress Index 2014 defines social progress as the
ability of a society meeting the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the basic
components that enable citizens and communities to improve and maintain the quality
of life and create the conditions so that all people reach their full potential. From this
definition, the Executive Summary inferred the three dimensions of the Model of Social
Progress Index: 1) Basic Human Needs (nutrition and basic medical care, water and
sanitation, housing, personal safety); 2) Wellness Essentials (access to basic knowledge,
access to information and communication, health and wellness, sustainability of
ecosystems); and 3) Opportunities (individual rights, freedoms and individual choice,
tolerance and inclusion, access to higher education).
The 10 countries with the highest Social Progress Index in 2015 are, in order, the
following: 1) Norway; 2) Sweden; 3) Switzerland; 4) Iceland; 5) New Zealand; 6)
Canada; 7) Finland; 8) Denmark; 9) Netherlands; and, 10) Australia [See article Os 10
países onde se vive melhor independentemente do seu PIB (The 10 countries where
people live better independently of their GDP) available on the website
<http://www.greenme.com.br/viver/costume-e-sociedade/1693-os-10-paises-onde-se-
vive-melhor-independentemente-do-seu-pib>]. It can be seen that among the 10
countries with the highest social progress, five are countries in Scandinavian social
democracy. The Social Progress Index allows us for the first time, to evaluate the
efficacy with which the economic success of a country is transformed into social
progress, and vice versa. The Executive Summary Social Progress Index 2014 shows
that economic development alone is not sufficient to ensure social progress.

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Brazil, for example, is the 42nd country in Social Progress Index despite having a GDP
among the 10 largest in the world. Brazil is the 74th country regarding the Basic Human
Needs, is the 30th in Wellness Essentials and is 32th in the dimension Opportunities. It
has become increasingly evident that the Brazil development model falls short of the
point of view of social progress. A society like Brazil who fails to ensure the basic
needs of its population, to equip citizens so that they can improve their quality of life,
generating erosion of the environment and limits opportunities of its citizens is not a
success story. Brazil's situation at the moment is quite serious because the failure in
social progress is in addition to failure in economic progress with generating economic
stagnation of widespread corporate bankruptcy and mass unemployment. The lack of
social progress in Brazil results in the lack of social inclusion, public discontent and
social instability.
From a doctoral dissertation Os Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento do Estado da
Bahia (Determining Factors of Development of the State of the Bahia) that we
defended at the University of Barcelona (http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944),
we stated that in the design of development policies of a country, it is necessary that the
internal and external determining factors of economic and social development are
identified and then characterize those that impel and restrain. In this same thesis we
affirm that an economic and social development policy will be effective only to the
extent that she is able to use the most of internal and external factors that impel the
development and inhibits or neutralize internal and external factors that limit the
development of a country. The internal and external determining factors of economic
and social development that impel and inhibit the development are located at three
levels: 1) in the economy; 2) in society; 3) in the territory. All successful countries on
the path of economic and social development were able to establish a proper synergy
among economy, society and territory.
The drivers factors of the development within the economy relate to: 1) the availability
of capital as a production factor; 2) existence of internal and external demand for
products or services; 3) presence of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs interested in
investing; 4) existence of a competitive industrial structure; 5) presence of a competitive
business environment that contributes to the innovation of products and processes; and,
6) the existence of a favorable macroeconomic situation. The total or partial absence or
non-use of any of these factors may constrain economic and social development of a
country. One of the characteristics of the peripheral and semi-peripheral capitalist
countries is the lack of many of these factors, especially the capital as a production
factor and the existence of an unfavorable macroeconomic situation. The lack of capital
and the existence of chronic deficits in the external accounts make countries become
increasingly dependent on external capital and funding of international organizations,
such as Brazil.
The drivers factors of the development within the society relate to: 1) the availability of
human resources and knowledge resources as factors of production; 2) presence of
internal entrepreneurs interested in investing; 3) the existence of the internal market for
products or services; 4) availability of social infrastructure (education, health and
sanitation); and, 5) the existence of institutions of civil society organizations active,
trade unions active and strong progressive political parties. The total or partial absence
or non-use of any of these factors can cause them to establish themselves as constraint
to economic and social development of a country or a region. One of the characteristics
of the peripheral and semi-peripheral capitalist countries is the lack of many of these

3. 3
factors, particularly skilled human resources and knowledge resources, and the lack of
an internal market with large numbers of consumers. The lack of proper knowledge
resources generates technological dependence in the face of the need to acquire them
abroad and the lack of a large domestic market creates dependence on external markets
for the placement of certain products such as Brazil. In turn, the social development of a
country depends on the ability of the institutions of organized civil society, the trade
unions and progressive political parties of pressuring those who hold political and
economic power to meet social demands.
The drivers factors of the development within the territory relate to: 1) the availability
of natural physical resources or built by man as factors of production; 2) the
availability of economic infrastructure (energy, transport and communications); 3) the
existence of local or cities as poles of growth and development well distributed
geographically; and, 4) the existence of endogenous development potential in all
regions of the country. The total or partial absence or non-use of any of these factors
can cause them to establish themselves as constraint to economic and social
development of a country or a region.
To be successful in implementing their development policies, governments need to
make the existing drivers of development factors in each of the three above mentioned
plans (economy, society and territory) are widely used in promoting economic and
social development and the restrictive factors are eliminated or neutralized. This means
that the most appropriate synergy between existing factors of the economy, society and
the territory is crucial for achieving the necessary economic and social development.
* Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012) and
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015).