As of the structural perspective, the poor manifest certain patterns of behaviour which are not internally generated as a result of their unique values but their actions are influenced by external factors as a result of their occupying an unfavourable position in a restrictive social structure. Thus, the poor behave differently not because they have adopted the dominant values but they do not have the opportunity to realize these values through the socially sanctional avenues. The life courses and chances of people are usually determined by the social forces and circumstances that surround them. Economic growth, labour market opportunities, educational facilities in a country provides a framework in which the standards of living as well as the social relations of people are always created and recreated (Bradshaw, 2006:9 & 10). The structures that are inherent in the society including the organisation of social relations such as race, gender, class and power determines the destiny of people. In other words, it is the failure of the structures in the society that causes poverty among people (Chaim, 1983).
In reinforcement of the above argument, failures resulting from government policies and programmes can also result in poverty through cuts in government spending and welfare programmes as well as inefficiencies and corruption in the administration. For instance, the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme as a condition for loans and repayment by the International Monetary Fund in most developing countries resulted in cutbacks in vital social services, education and health and thus pushing more people in poverty. Chinake (1997:41) believed that the structural adjustment programmes
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worsened poverty in many African countries including Zimbabwe. The structural theory sees poverty as resulting from capitalism. In a capitalist economy, profit is the main motivation for production. A capitalist wage labour market produces poverty in order for it to operate efficiently through exploitation. A large number of the poor are usually not employed on a full time basis and also the use of capital intensive methods of production such as the use of machines and technology causes joblessness and as a result the poor end up experiencing periodic unemployment and therefore creating a poll of excess labour. This makes it possible for the capitalist to enjoy higher profits by way of reducing wages of the labourers at the expense of the poor. In order to explain the dynamics of poverty, there is the need to go beyond the level of the individual and community agents and focus on political action. MacGregor (1981) in his book “Politics of Poverty” argued that, policies to combat poverty are the products of political decisions. Poverty is seen as a result of political failure. Poverty is also seen as resulting from the biases in the structure of the society in the form of social exclusion and disadvantage. These biases usually tend to work against people such as those with learning disabilities, the disabled as well as those older people making them to be vulnerable in the society. Vulnerability is a result of discrimination. In explaining poverty by the use of the structural approach, it helps to address factors in the society that perpetuates poverty by not changing the poor themselves but rather changing the situation of the poor by way of correcting the restrictive social structures that perpetuates poverty. This helps in analysing deprivation by looking at the broader view of the mechanisms and institutions in the society that causes poverty rather than concentrating on the individual (Bradshaw, 2006:9-11).
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Therefore, an exploration of the individualistic, cultural and structural perspectives of poverty is very important to efforts aimed at reducing poverty in the sense that, these theories provide a framework for legislators in the field of development. The individualistic theory helps to inform policy makers on poverty that giving the poor a better chance in competition with others does not help in eradicating poverty but rather it improves the individual prospects. These strategies will only reduce poverty in so far as it has a collective impact rather than focusing on the relative positions of individuals and therefore the need to focus on policies that aims at reducing poverty on a collective basis. The structural aspect of poverty helps to address the issue of economic growth and development being taken as a poverty reduction strategy (Ruth, 2004). Economic growth is often perceived to lead to improvement in the living standards of people but an analysis of the structural perspective has revealed that, it has rather pushed people into poverty through displacement of work of people in a changing economy making people to be unemployed. Economic growth is not a guarantee of human development. Meaning that promotion of economic growth is sometimes done at the expense of inequality. For growth to promote equality, there is the need to reduce poverty and create employment, it has to be an inclusive growth rather than just an economic growth. Thus, the conclusion that can be drawn from the theories of poverty in so far as development is concerned is that they explain the causes of poverty rather than finding practical solutions to reduce poverty.
However, they provide a framework upon which poverty reduction strategies may be built in that it addresses poverty from different perspectives and one’s perspective of poverty determines the kind of strategies used in alleviating it (World Bank, 2000). Having looked
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at different concepts and theories of poverty there is need to provide a discussion on poverty in Zimbabwe so as to have an overview of the study area.