The focus of this paper is on the problems faced by the rural poor of Latin America in gaining access to public programs or services whose avowed purpose is to achieve a redistribution of wealth and income, or at least to provide the rural poor with a service structure that will provide opportunities for increasing their relative share of the national wealth. Our particular concern is to examine, on the basis of existing literature and a case study, the constraints facing the rural poor in gaining such access and, to a lesser extent, the effects of such constraints on their perceptions and behavior.
