Social and Political Education

The Urban and the Rural Poor in Brazil

The political orientations between the urban poor and the rural poor in Brazil are different in many ways. In this case, the political orientations are addressed in terms of integrated set of beliefs and attitudes of the poor Brazilians living in the rural areas and urban areas. The characteristics of political orientations inn Brazil are demonstrations, social movements, involvements of people in political aspects like vying for any post in the government or in the local organizations, and distribution of resources like land, social amenities like education, medical care and financial institutions. This study will be guided by a thesis statement stated as; the political structure in Brazil adversely affects the rural poor more than the urban poor. This study will address the activities that the poor people living in rural and urban areas in Brazil undertake that are politically oriented. In doing this, the comparison and contrast of the political orientations of the urban poor to that or the rural poor in Brazil will be analyzed (Schlosser & Kersting, 2003).

In Brazil, the political structure demonstrates a democratic Federal Republic with a government system which is well organized liker that of the United Sates of America. After the abolishment of monarchy in Brazil the first constitution established a presidential system that comprises of executive, judiciary, and legislature powers. Presently, there are 26 states in Brazil and one federal district. The structure of government in each and every state represents the ruling of the central government.  Since the time Brazil attained independence, there have been a lot of political and social issues that have led to imbalance in development. In this case, there is advancement in terms of development in urban areas than the case in rural areas. As a result of this, the urban poor are able to get information through reading the newspapers or listening to radios on what is going on within the government. This knowledge has made them to get involved in political issues than the case in rural areas (Hodne, 2004).

One way that indicates how the rural poor are affected by the structure of the government is the aspect of land distribution. The concept of land owning in Brazil is an indication of prosperity and social class. Notably, Brazil government is said to be among the governments in the world that have ever distributed land unevenly. This is because 20% of the rich people in this country own 90% of the total amount of land in Brazil. In this case, the rural poor people who have no land in Brazil are heavily affected by the structure of government. This is because the poorest 40% own only 1% of land. This has made the rural poor to avoid engaging in political activities as they do not have power or authority. According to Handelman (2008), the challenge that faces the developing country is equal distribution of resources between the rich and the poor. The Brazilian case is a good example of this challenge especially in the year 2003 when 1,000 landless rural poor marched 112 miles in Brasilia supporting the government for planning to settle landless families (Handelman, 2008).

It is true that the rural poor are more affected by the government structure as the rural poverty is twice as high as urban poverty. This indicates that even though the urban poor are also affected they are better positioned in terms of wealth and property possessions. There political movements among the rural poor in Brazil like the Landless Workers Movement that tries to fight for the rights of the rural poor in Brazil. Additionally, in terms of education there is a great difference between the quality of education in rural and urban areas. The urban poor even though they are not able to attend the best schools in urban areas, they attend other schools which are better off as compared to those of the rural areas. In this case, the thesis of this study is supported by information that indicates that the rural poor are adversely affected as they receive very low quality education as compared to the urban poor.  In this case, the urban poor are capable of being more informed than the rural poor as their teachers are more qualified than those in rural areas (Weyland, 1996).

The social amenities provided by the government in the rural areas are wanting. In this case, since the people living in rural areas in Brazil are the poorest in the country, they are not provided with adequate and quality medical care as what is provided in the urban areas. The political structure in Brazil has forgotten the rural poor by not providing the required social amenities to the people. The urban poor even though are not able to afford the best quality medical care they are provided with more quality care than those in rural areas. When developments are being initiated in the urban areas, even the urban poor get some of the advantages as they are somehow recognized by the government. This is because the rural poor in Brazil are landless and their salaries are too little to sustain them (Schlosser & Kersting, 2003).

Most of the peasants in the rural areas are denied access to basic rights. These rights include ownership of land and other properties which have made the rural poor to continue to be poor despite their efforts.  Many of the urban poor live in slums where there are inadequate services available to them making them join cheap labor or the informal sector. Despite these problems the rural poor are more affected by lack of services and are not even able to join cheap labor or informal sector in the rural areas. This has made most of the rural poor to loose trust in the government as they feel that the government is discriminating by assisting only the elites and leaving out the poor (Hodne, 2004).

There are similarities in the way the rural and urban poor are affected by the political structure in Brazil. On this basis, the two groups of people are given less consideration by the government in terms of equality in wealth distribution, provision of social amenities like education, medical care, water and electricity. In urban areas, the poor people live in the slums where the services provided are wanting. In this case, they attend low quality schools as they cannot afford the private schools in urban areas. The same case applies to the rural poor who are denied rights to ownership of properties. Additionally, they are not provided with services like medical care, water, and electricity among others. In this case, this has identified that; both the rural and the urban poor are affected by the political structure of Brazil (Handelman, 2008).

In winding up, despite the similarities in the levels of the way the rural and the urban poor are affected by the political structures of Brazil, the rural poor are adversely affected than the urban poor. This study has indicated that, there is discrimination of the poor and especially the rural poor in Brazil. The ruling of Brazil is wholly directed by the views of the elites and hence leaving the poor with a lot of problems. This study has indicated that the poverty level in rural areas is twice that of urban areas. It is recommended that the Brazilian government should provide the landless families with lands and grant them rights to own properties.