Pressure Groups, Public Policy and Agricultural Development: A Study of Divergent Outcomes

Ghana and Kenya constitute two of the most prominent cases of the agricultural development in colonial Africa. In the one case, producer interests became paramount in the colonial period; in the other, the interests of producers were sacrificed to those of other sectors. This paper examines the divergent patterns of growth of commercial agriculture in Ghana and Kenya and tries to account for the contrasting outcomes of the process of agrarian development

Some Conventional Orthodoxies in the Study of Agrarian Change

The purpose of this paper is critically to review two major approaches to the analysis of agrarian societies and to do so in light of evidence taken from Africa. The first approach posits the existence of “natural” societies; the second, of “peasant” societies. Both approaches attribute psychological and institutional characteristics to these societies. When subject to exogenous shocks of intrusive political and economic forces, these attributes then generate characteristic patterns of change. The existence of such “precapitalist” societies is thus often invoked to account for patterns of change in contemporary rural societies. On the basis of African materials, this paper argues that these approaches are overly cultural. They are overly economist, undervaluing the importance of the state. Many of the so-called precapitalist features of these societies are themselves arguably products of their encounter with agents of capitalism. Moreover, many result from the efforts of states to secure domination and control over rural populations

A Simulation Study of a Crisis in Southern Africa

African and African American StudiesGovernmen

Patterns of Market Intervention in Agrarian Africa

This paper summarizes recent interpretations of government behavior toward agriculture in Africa and seeks to assess their credibility through empirical testing. With respect to food crops, governments are seen as intervening on behalf of urban interests. For cash crops, they are viewed as manipulating prices in order to tax, both so as to collect public revenues and so as to redistribute purchasing power to the consumers of imports. Ideological preferences also influence government behavior

Rural Development in Kasumpa Village, Zambia

For many rural dwellers in Zambia, as well as elsewhere in Africa, the movement toward independence represented an attempted movement toward a higher standard of living. The displacement of the colonial authorities and the installation of an African government represented a shift from a public order whose primary interest was the maintenance of law and order in the rural areas to a government which had come to power by promising to fulfill the demands of the indigenous peoples that they be made better off. As a result of the commitments made in the bid for power, out of a regard for its future fate at the polls, and because of its genuine regard for the welfare of its citizens, the new Zambian government, like other governments in Africa, initiated programs designed to upgrade the standard of living of its basically rural constituents. Utilizing the revenues generated by the prosperous mining industry, the government constructed, staffed, and provisioned schools; hospitals, and clinics in the rural areas at a rate unprecedented in the history of the territory. And, of greater relevance to this study, it initiated programs designed to enhance the cash-earning opportunities of the villagers. Toward this end, the new government sponsored the growth of farming cooperatives and the formation of peasant farms in the rural areas, seeking thereby to share the benefits of independence by increasing the incomes of its rural citizens

Ethnic Competition and Modernization in Contemporary Africa

Geertz, Melson and Wolpe, Huntington and others have argued that modernization promotes potentially disintegrative forces in developing areas, and, in particular, often gives rise to powerful ethnic groupings. In this article, we elaborate this hypothesis in the context of the developing nations of black Africa. In so doing, we also attempt to demonstrate the relevance and usefulness to political scientists of the extensive work on modernization in Africa produced by students of related disciplines, and to draw from these studies evidence for our principal assertion: that in contemporary Africa, modernization and ethnic competition can and do co-vary

Trade-union membership in the copperbelt of Zambia : a test of some hypotheses

Cover title"1801"--handwritten on cover. -- Series statement handwritten on coverIncludes bibliographical reference

People in Villages: Micro-Level Studies in Political Economy

Recent micro-level studies of rural communities in the developing areas address themselves to three basic issues: (1) What are the major external forces that determine the welfare of persons residing in rural areas? (2) How do peasants respond to these forces? (3) What ethical evaluations are to be made of the outcome of the encounter between peasant communities and the forces intruding upon them from their environment? By addressing these questions, and by formulating and utilizing explicit models of peasant behavior, these studies provide a coherent approach to the study of the developing areas.Governmen

Some Conventional Orthodoxies in the Study of Agrarian Change

The paper presents a critical review of two major approaches to the analysis of agrarian societies in light of evidence taken from the scholarly literature on Africa. The first approach posits the existence of “natural” societies; the second, of “peasant” societies. The existence of such “precapitalist” societies is often invoked to account for patterns of change in contemporary rural societies. The author argues that these approaches are overly culturally and economically determined, and that they undervalue the importance of the state. Many of the so-called precapitalist features of these societies are themselves found to be products of the societies' encounter with agents of capitalism. Moreover, many result from the efforts of states to secure domination and control over rural populations.African and African American StudiesGovernmen

Lessons from History, or the Perfidy of English Exceptionalism and the Significance of Historical France

Theories of development are derived from readings of history. Modern historical research challenges many of the basic beliefs about how economies develop. More specifically, recent research suggests that the lessons drawn from the history of industrialization in England are highly misleading. The article thus challenges the empirical foundations for much of classical and Marxian development theory.African and African American StudiesGovernmen