In the wake of the war, the Congress submitted, and the States ratified, the Thirteenth. Amendment (making slavery illegal), the Fourteenth Amendment. (defining and granting broad rights of national citizenship), and the. Fifteenth Amendment (forbidding racial discrimination in elec-. tions). The Fourteenth Amendment was the most controversial and. far-reaching of the three ââReconstruction Amendments.ââ.
A key element in calculating the HDI is life expectancy at birth. The life expectancy factor helps to determine how long the average citizen lives, how healthy she can remain during her life and how much she can contribute in her working life.
The average HDI increased by 41 percent overall and 60 percent for the lower quartile of developing countries since 1970. The rapid development of the BRIC countries from 1980 to 2011 is reflected in HDI increases of 70 percent for China, 59 percent for India and 30.8 percent for Brazil.