Natural resources and the persistence of rural poverty in America: A Weberian perspective on the role of power, domination, and natural resource bureaucracy

Abstract

This article explores the role of power theories of natural resources and the persistence of rural poverty. In particular, it examines the role of large‐scale interest groups that can dominate public natural resource bureaucracies and become one cause of rural poverty. Both the degree of domination and the forms of domination of natural resource agencies are examined. Through a comparative analysis of numerous agencies, interest groups, and resource bases, it is concluded that domination of agency policy is common in twentieth‐century America with some exceptions and that this domination is one cause of the creation and persistence of rural poverty in twentieth‐century America. Power theories of natural resources and the persistence of rural poverty must, however, be seen in interaction with other causes such as sociological theories of labor immobility.