Politics Shaping Urban Poverty's Welfare

In the late 1960s, at the height of the Brazilian military dictatorship, the population of Rio de Janeiro increased exponentially, mostly as a result of a wave of migration from poor rural areas. The vast majority of the new inhabitants of the Cidade
Maravilhosa settled in the hills that overlook the city, where the shantytowns, or favelas, that they established still stand, and continue to expand. Like thousands of cities across the developing world, Rio de Janeiro has two different worlds: the "asphalt" where the upper classes live, and the "hills" where poor favelados strive to make a living. Today, 22 percent of Rio de Janeiro's inhabitants, more than 1.4 million people, inhabit the city's 763 favelas, where the typical resident lives in poverty with little access to government services For many of these favelados, who dreamed that democratization would provide opportunities to be heard by the authorities and improve their wellbeing, the promise of citizenship and democracy has been delivered mostly in the form of rampant clientelism.