[Marxism] What is a "developing country"?

[Aaron Aarons]

The expression "developing country" or its variants, especially 
the plural, is used by both bourgeois and Marxist writers as a 
label for certain countries and not others. (It wouldn't be 
useful, obviously, if it applied to ALL countries.)

While the question of which countries it applies to is perhaps 
important, I'm interested in first knowing what definition of 
the intransitive variant of the verb "develop" allows one to 
even begin to determine whether a particular country is a 
"developing country" or not.

  - Aaron

P.S. My belief, subject to change if persuaded, is that the 
expression "developing country" is a mindfuck used by bourgeois 
ideologues to naturalize -- to treat as axiomatic -- the idea 
that what the oppressed nations can do and need to do is 
"develop" in the sense of becoming more like the so-called 
"developed" countries. If I'm right, the expression should not 
be used, in its pseudo-descriptive sense, by Marxists or other 
anti-imperialists.

P.P.S. Technical note: Please, in replying to this or other 
posts, reproduce the Subject header EXACTLY! It's very hard, 
otherwise, to follow the discussion. (If you deliberately 
change the Subject header when replying to a post, please 
include in the body of your message the author AND Subject 
header (and maybe the date, too) of the post you're replying 
to.)

---------- The above without hard carriage returns: ----------

The expression "developing country" or its variants, especially the plural, is used by both bourgeois and Marxist writers as a label for certain countries and not others. (It wouldn't be useful, obviously, if it applied to ALL countries.)

While the question of which countries it applies to is perhaps important, I'm interested in first knowing what definition of the intransitive variant of the verb "develop" allows one to even begin to determine whether a particular country is a "developing country" or not.

 - Aaron

P.S. My belief, subject to change if persuaded, is that the expression "developing country" is a mindfuck used by bourgeois ideologues to naturalize -- to treat as axiomatic -- the idea that what the oppressed nations can do and need to do is "develop" in the sense of becoming more like the so-called "developed" countries. If I'm right, the expression should not be used, in its pseudo-descriptive sense, by Marxists or other anti-imperialists.

P.P.S. Technical note: Please, in replying to this or other posts, reproduce the Subject header EXACTLY! It's very hard, otherwise, to follow the discussion. (If you deliberately change the Subject header when replying to a post, please include in the body of your message the author AND Subject header (and maybe the date, too) of the post you're replying to.)