At the beginning of the Twenty-First Century, approximately half of the Mexican population suffers from poverty, according to official estimates. This book argues that the traditional governmental approach to poverty is misleading regarding its definition and the necessary policy actions to overcome it. It challenges the governmental approach, by applying for the first time concerning the Mexican case a conception of poverty as relative deprivation using the sociological notion of citizenship as an indicator to define ''normal'' standards of living, and taking it as a benchmark to measure poverty. The book describes poverty by social class, family status, education, gender and age, exposing particular social divisions in Mexican society and its causes. It analyses the failure of anti-poverty policies in Mexico, and proposes guidelines for alternative policy making. This book should be especially useful to academics, students and policy makers looking for more answers on the problem, as well as, for the general public looking forward to participating on an informed discussion about poverty.