‘Urban bias’ and rural poverty: A Latin American perspective
探讨拉丁美洲的“城市偏向”理论，分析城市利益主导如何影响农村贫困，并以墨西哥和巴西的粮食与能源政策为例，指出国际经济和农村分化削弱了该理论的适用性。
Despite evidence that the urban sector benefits disproportionately from the public allocation of resources, there has been little discussion of theories of ‘urban bias’ in Latin America. This is attributed to Latin America's economic dependency, in which the dominance of urban interests is seen as an outcome, rather than a cause, of under development in both rural and urban sectors. After examining the origins of urban dominance in the region, and the ‘theory of sectoral clashes’ proposed by Mamalakis, the paper focuses on recent food and energy policy in Mexico and Brazil. Although these policies provide evidence of the influence of large‐scale capital in urban and rural areas, the greater differentiation of the rural sector in Latin America and the constraints imposed by the international economy weaken the case for ‘urban bias’ as formulated by Lipton.