NDLI: The Politics of Urban Bias: Rural Threats and the Dual Dilemma of Political Survival

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Pierskalla, Jan H.
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Urban bias in government policy is a common phenomenon in many developing countries. Bates (1981) has famously argued that the wish to industrialize, paired with the political clout of urban residents, results in distinctly anti-rural policies. Empirically, however, the strength of urban bias varies substantially across countries and over time. This paper explains this variation by developing an argument about a countervailing force to urban bias: the threat of a rural insurgency. The direction of urban and rural bias is a function of the political threat that geographically distinct groups pose to the survival of the central government. When the rural periphery lacks collective action capacity, urban bias emerges, but if there exists a credible threat of rural violence, urban bias is diminished. I test this proposition and competing explanations using data on net taxation in the agricultural sector, covering up to 55 low- and middle-income countries from 1955 to 2007. The results show a strong relationship between past territorial conflict (which proxies for credible rural threats) and lower levels of urban bias in the developing world. The findings are robust to alternative model specifications, measures, and sensitivity analyses.
Starting Page	286
Ending Page	307
Page Count	22
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00393606
Journal	Studies in Comparative International Development
Volume Number	51
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	19366167
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2015-07-26
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Urban bias Political economy Agricultural policy Rural insurgency Social Sciences
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Sociology and Political Science Political Science and International Relations Development

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Deadly Politics: Elections, Medical Spending, and Mortality

The Political Economy of Private Sector Development in Communist China: Evidence from Zhejiang Province

Worlds Apart: Social Policy Regimes in Latin America

Counter-insurgency governance in the Sahel

Urban insurgency in the twenty-first century: smaller militaries and increased conflict in cities

Policy Traps: Consumer Subsidies in Post-Crisis Argentina

The Politics of Urban Violence: Challenges for Development in the Global South

International Migration and Home Country Politics

The Nepali State and the Dynamics of the Maoist Insurgency

The Politics of Urban Bias: Rural Threats and the Dual Dilemma of Political Survival

Similar Documents

Deadly Politics: Elections, Medical Spending, and Mortality

The Political Economy of Private Sector Development in Communist China: Evidence from Zhejiang Province

Worlds Apart: Social Policy Regimes in Latin America

Counter-insurgency governance in the Sahel

Urban insurgency in the twenty-first century: smaller militaries and increased conflict in cities

Policy Traps: Consumer Subsidies in Post-Crisis Argentina

The Politics of Urban Violence: Challenges for Development in the Global South

International Migration and Home Country Politics

The Nepali State and the Dynamics of the Maoist Insurgency

The Politics of Urban Bias: Rural Threats and the Dual Dilemma of Political Survival