Manufacturing Poverty: Pro‐Poor Policies as Elite Strategy in Postcolonial States

ABSTRACT This article develops the concept of “manufacturing poverty” to explain how pro‐poor policies in the Global South function less as instruments of emancipation than as strategies of elite legitimation. Using an interpretive qualitative approach and secondary sources from Scopus and Web of Science, the study identifies three interrelated dimensions of poverty fabrication. First, global structures: neoliberal ideology, mediated through international financial institutions, frames poverty reduction within market logics that reinforce dependency. Second, domestic mechanisms: ruling elites selectively appropriate these frameworks, transforming poverty into a political resource through patronage and clientelism. Third, populist programs: welfare initiatives such as cash transfers or social cards, while symbolically pro‐poor, entrench dependency and electoral loyalty rather than structural transformation. The article contributes theoretically by reframing poverty policy as a technology of rule and normatively by urging post‐neoliberal, post‐capitalist alternatives that prioritize redistribution, dignity, and autonomy.