During the last ten years, Uruguay has pursued public policies aimed at expanding the collective capacity to decide about forms of land use planning, shaping relationships with the environment, and access to public resources. The same impulse has generated specific policies of recognition and support for family farming as a key component of a rural future with greater justice and the preservation of the rural lifestyle to which we aspire. However, the design of this objective competes with another reality of agricultural modernization, determined by corporate agriculture and mining, where the emergence of large-scale capital does not leave much room for collective participation. This article presents the case of a small country, with agricultural potential, that initiated specific policies to support family farming and decentralization during the past decade, but those initiatives have to coexist with economic policies that still favor big business.