Deck 6: The Politics of the Rural and Urban Poor

Question 1

Which of the following Third World areas is the most urbanized?

A) North Africa
B) Latin America and the Caribbean
C) East Asia
D) Sub-Saharan Africa
E) South Central Asia

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The urban population in the developing world

A) has been growing slowly but is no longer increasing very fast.
B) represents a higher percentage of the total Third World population than in economically developed countries.
C) represents a larger percentage of the total population in South-Central Asia than in Latin America.
D) will soon account for more than half of the Third World's entire population.
E) has slowed down dramatically as potential migrants learn of high urban crime rates.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which Third World farmers are generally the poorest members of rural society?

A) The kulaks
B) Tenant farmers
C) Landless peasants
D) Indentured servants
E) Member of minority ethnic groups

Answer 3

C

Question 4

A survey of slum-dwellers in two African and two South American countries revealed that,although the majority in all four locations claimed to have no interest in politics,

A) a large portion of them could name their national president and mayor, while many could even name the president of another country in the region.
B) about half of them had participated in political rallies during the previous five years.
C) most of them belonged to a political party.
D) they were generally familiar with the major issues of the last presidential election.
E) many had been interested in politics, but lost interest after they were prevented from voting.

Question 5

In order to secure more government services,poor urban neighborhoods in Latin American cities like Lima and Mexico City

A) often riot as a means of expressing their demands.
B) often establish links with powerful political leaders or parties that can help them.
C) contact leading Catholic clergymen.
D) turn to crime.
E) establish links with national and foreign NGOs.

Question 6

On average,what portion of the Third World's population is rural?

A) More than half
B) About 40 percent
C) Less than 10 percent
D) Most of the population in Latin America but far less in Asia
E) Most of the population of Latin America but far less in Africa

Question 7

What are sites-and-services programs?

A) Programs which provide medical and educational services to the urban poor
B) Programs which land speculators introduce to dupe the poor
C) Medical centers that serve the urban and rural poor
D) Government programs that sell the urban poor a parcel of land with basic services
E) Programs that provide cheap electricity to public housing projects

Question 8

Which of the following areas had the lowest percentage of its population who were victims of violent crime in recent years?

A) Western Europe
B) Africa
C) Asia
D) South America
E) North America

Question 9

How did Karl Marx view the peasants' political outlook?

A) He felt that they lacked sufficient solidarity and class consciousness
B) He correctly viewed them as an important player in Third World revolutions
C) He felt that European peasants were inherently conservative but that peasants in Asia could before a revolutionary force
D) He was impressed by their loyalty to the country
E) He felt that with the help of outside organizers they could become revolutionaries

Question 10

Why are Third World peasants generally dependent on the services of outsiders?

A) Most of them need technical assistance on how to grow their crops
B) They usually want to send their children to religious schools outside of their communities
C) They are frequently barred from traveling outside their villages
D) They need people who can link them to the outside world, including the economy, the Church, the government bureaucracy, and the like
E) They generally live outside the law

Question 11

What are the most important collective political goals of urban migrants?

A) Food and jobs
B) Housing and public services (water, electricity etc.)
C) Documents legalizing their status and property rights
D) Housing and medical care
E) Schools and public services

Question 12

In which of the following countries did the United States implement a far-reaching and successful agrarian reform?

A) Germany
B) Haiti
C) Mexico
D) Japan
E) Indonesia

Question 13

Which of the following types of housing is most likely to be available to the urban poor?

A) Housing built by U.S. foreign aid
B) Apartment complexes built by labor unions
C) Public housing built by the government
D) Housing donated by organized religions
E) Spontaneous (self-built) housing

Question 14

What has usually been the effect of imposing government price controls on basic foods?

A) It serves as a disincentive to rural production of those foods
B) It raises the price of non-basic foods
C) It frequently leads to urban rioting
D) It allows the government to collect more taxes in the countryside
E) It helps stimulate food production in times of drought or other natural disasters

Question 15

The typical political effect of government agrarian reform programs is to

A) increase the possibility that peasants will vote for socialist candidates.
B) weaken the peasants' links to organized religion.
C) reduce the likelihood of peasant unrest and increase political stability.
D) reduce the likelihood of peasant unrest but increase the chances of urban rioting.
E) increase the chances that peasants will form unions.

Question 16

In poor urban or rural neighborhoods,clientelism involves

A) neighborhood medical clinics taking on paid clients.
B) a reciprocal relationship in which a powerful political figure does favors for poor clients in return for their votes and support.
C) a system in which politically connected lawyers sign up poor clients who need their help in dealing with the local government bureaucracy.
D) a system in which poor peasant clients pay their landlords (the patrons) to get better plots of land.
E) a system common to rural areas in which the landlord plays off the peasants on his land in a divide and rule strategy.

Question 17

According to Eric Wolf and others,what has been the initial effect of the transformation of rural economies from feudal or other pre-capitalist relations to rural capitalism?

A) It has improved and solidified the peasants' ties to big landowners
B) As peasants become more wealthy, it has made them more conservative
C) It has sometimes led to rural unrest and even peasant revolutions
D) It has increased tensions between the rural and urban poor
E) It has increased alliances between urban labor unions and the peasantry

Question 18

According to the "the culture of poverty" theory,which of the following is true of the urban poor?

A) They lack solidarity, organization, and long-term goals.
B) Their limited educations prevents them from becoming cultured
C) The urban and rural poor share a common culture
D) Their long-term poverty forms a natural bond between the urban and rural poor
E) None of the above

Question 19

In recent years donors of foreign aid to less developed countries

A) have reduced their assistance to rural areas.
B) have encouraged rural peasants to migrate to cities where it is easier for foreign aid donors to provide them with housing, schools, and medical assistance.
C) have decided to largely abandon their aid to urban centers and to concentrate their efforts on helping mechanized farming.
D) have decided to better integrate their urban and rural aid programs.
E) have increasingly recognized the importance of offering aid to Third World, peasant, food producers.

Question 20

In general,Third World peasants tend to be politically

A) sympathetic to communist organizers.
B) anarchist.
C) liberal.
D) conservative regarding political or economic change.
E) radical.

Question 21

Usually 20th-century revolutions drew most of their support from the urban poor.

Question 22

Under China's "iron rice bowl" policy,workers were essentially guaranteed their jobs for life.

Question 23

Critics of clientelism claim that

A) it radicalizes the urban poor.
B) it creates unrealistic expectations.
C) it is a method used by government to maintain existing power relationships.
D) the patron and client frequently don't understand each other's motives.
E) it robs the poor of ambition.

Question 24

One argument for agrarian reform is that it reduces the number of peasants who are forced to leave their land and who then clear jungles and rainforests to create new farms.

Question 25

The urban poor are more militant and radical than originally imagined by social scientists.

Question 26

Modernization of agriculture and the transition from a semi-feudal to a capitalist economy in the countryside has normally raised the peasants' standard of living and makes them more conservative.

Question 27

The urban poor

A) were the most important actors in most 20th century revolutions.
B) usually took the lead in most 20th century revolutions.
C) only support revolutions that have religious overtones.
D) usually abandon revolutionary movements when the going gets tough.
E) usually are not major figures in revolutionary movements, but sometimes play an important or leading role.

Question 28

For most of the Third World's urban poor,individual political activity seems to be a more effective means of pursuing their needs than collective behavior.

Question 29

The urban population of developing countries account for over half of those living in absolute poverty.

Question 30

James Scott noted that peasants often engage in unobtrusive "forms of everyday resistance" such as theft and foot dragging.

Question 31

Most governments in the less developed countries impose price controls on food in order to guarantee farmers a minimum price for their crops and thereby guarantee production.

Question 32

The greatest challenge that Third World governments will likely face among the urban poor in the coming decades is

A) rising crime and drug usage.
B) radical political movements.
C) religious fundamentalism.
D) alliances of the urban and rural poor.
E) tensions between the urban lower and middle classes.

Question 33

Which Third World region has the most equal distribution of rural,agricultural land?

A) South America
B) The Middle East
C) East Asia
D) Sub-Saharan Africa
E) North Africa

Question 34

In parts of Latin America,the urban poor have to worry about "government crime" such as drug trafficking and murder by corrupt police officers.

Question 35

The rate of urban crime may be less influenced by the absolute rate of poverty in the cities than by the degree of economic inequality.

Question 36

Third World public housing programs have provided most of the homes for the urban poor.

Question 37

The "floating population" in China's major cities refers to the many migrants from the countryside who are forced to live on floating barges because they can't afford rents on land.

Question 38

Peasants have sometimes been defenders of the status quo and,at other times have been revolutionaries,depending on whether the existing economic system meets their material needs as they see them.

Question 39

Large and powerful rural landlords in the Third World

A) now exert little power at the local or national level.
B) have generally lost a lot of their power in national government.
C) never had as much political power as historians claimed.
D) are more powerful than ever due to rising food prices on the world market.
E) continue to lead reform-oriented political parties.

Question 40

Chile's cities are home to a larger percentage of the total population than is Ethiopia's.

Question 41

What do advocates see as the major political and economic benefits of agrarian reform? Briefly present the argument(s)of those opposed to agrarian reform.

Question 42

Compare the nature,success,and limitations of the following types of agrarian reform: agrarian reforms initiated under U.S.pressure in East Asia; and revolutionary agrarian reform in countries such as China and Vietnam.

Question 43

Discuss the major needs of urban migrants when they make their move to the city.What affect do at least some of those needs have on the political system?

Question 44

Discuss the conflicting images of the politics of the urban poor as described by scholars and journalists.

Question 45

Discuss the Third World's rural,class structures in terms of the various types of peasants,their major concerns,and their relationship with rural landlords.