Almost every country has the urban-rural gap, but due to history, economy and polity etc. this gulf in developed countries pale in comparison with developing counties’. Reasons for the urban-rural gap in many less-developed countries abound, but historically dual economy and political system stand out and measures could certainly be taken to narrow this gap.
Long-term existence of dual economic system appears to make the chasm between urban and rural areas. Historically, some industrialized countries’ colonial rule and economic robbery badly damaged economies of undeveloped colonies. Although those colonies subsequently gained independence, they still had to face ailing economy colonists left. In order to fight widespread poverty, some of them, such as China, devised the dual economic system to give priority to developing the industry in cities. In fact, subsequent economic miracle of Chinese cities is achieved at expense of rural capital, labor, land and raw material. The dual economic system might result in a great disparity between cities and countryside in developing countries.
Additionally, the partition of urban-rural policy in less-developed countries seems to be another contributor to this inequality. For instance, China's hook – household registration – system has divided the nation into rural and urban populations since the 1950s. In the past, it binds farmers to their farmland and traps them in agriculture to support towns. Today, although farmers can migrate into cities to find jobs, but rural hukou means they are not entitled to many services of cities, such as education, social security, since the hukou is inherited. Thus, unreasonable state policies only exploiting labour and resources but no channeling back equal income and investment into the rural are doomed to widen the rural-urban gulf.
There are several ways in which the gap could be reduced. For economy, developing countries should drive the industry to nurture agriculture and push cities to support countryside in general. Not only should the government reform rural finance to help migrant workers have stable life in cities, such as buying or renting accommodations, setting up small businesses, but also support farmers who remain in the countryside to improve productions and efficiency, such as purchasing new equipment for farming, building new facilities for crops or farms.
As for policies, less-developed states should adopt bold political reforms to allow farmers to share the fruits of development: abolishing the partition of urban-rural policy, expanding health insurance and welfare, regulating household registration, improving village governance by strengthening village elections etc.
