<P> The Second World is the former industrial socialist states (formally the Eastern Bloc) largely encompassing territories under the influence of the Soviet Union . Following World War II, there were 19 communist states, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, only five socialist states remained: China, North Korea, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam . Along with "First World" and "Third World", the term was used to divide the states of Earth into three broad categories . </P> <P> The concept of "Second World" was a construct of the Cold War and the term is still largely used to describe former communist countries that are between poverty and prosperity, many of which are now capitalist states . Subsequently the actual meaning of the terms "First World", "Second World" and "Third World" changed from being based on political ideology to an economic definition . The three - world theory has been criticized as crude and relatively outdated for its nominal ordering (1; 2; 3) and sociologists have instead used the words "developed", "developing", and "underdeveloped" as replacement terms for global stratification--nevertheless, the three - world theory is still popular in contemporary literature and media . This might also cause semantic variation of the term between describing a region's political entities and its people . </P>

Is there such thing as second world countries