Household Responses,Regional Diversity and Contemporary Agrarian Reform in Russia

This article analyses divergent patterns of responses using survey data from rural households in three region of Russia. The purpose of this article is to explore how household responses to reform differ in geographically distinct regions. Second, the goal is to compare regional response patterns using a standardized set of reform dimensions: perceptions about winners and losers, responses to land reform opportunities, the structure of household income, and the use of economic assistance networks. The article concludes that factors other than geography and climate influence responses to reform.     

Social mobility in rural Russia, 1995–2003

Using panel survey data from three Russian villages, this article examines rural social mobility in post-communist Russia. The article finds that contemporary rural social mobility is different from that which existed during the Soviet period. During the Soviet period, rural social mobility was linked to changes in profession and the direction of mobility was primarily upward. In the post-Soviet period, rural mobility is linked to increasing income differentiation and inequality. In the post-communist period, both upward and downward social mobility have occurred. The article examines the characteristics of upwardly and downwardly mobile households. It then analyses the factors that affect mobility through regression analysis of human capital and behavioural models. The article concludes that household labour continues to have the single greatest causal effect on rural mobility.     

Russian agrarian reform and rural capitalism reconsidered

Since 1990, significant institutional and policy change has occurred in the Russian agrarian sector. A crucial question is whether these changes will facilitate rural capitalism and the emergence of a rural bourgeoisie. This article examines Russian domestic economic policies and international trade policies, arguing that macroeconomic policies are inherently detrimental to the agrarian sector, are undermining the prospects for capitalism and the rise of a rural bourgeoisie, and are hindering economic growth. Since the onset of agrarian reform, financial and material investments into agriculture have been slashed. Russia has also pursued an open trade policy which has witnessed an increase in food imports which pits higher priced domestic food against lower priced, better quality imports. As a consequence the agricultural sector is not fulfilling basic requirements for economic growth. Based on these trends, the article concludes that current prospects for the development of a rural bourgeoisie are not favourable.     

Maquila Workers in Mexico: The Prospects for Organization and International Solidarity

This article studies the changes in economic policy in the Netherlands and their effects on the coordinated market economy (CME). In order to gain insight into the development of the CME, the neo-corporatist literature and the concept of ‘policy learning’ are called upon. The article takes the analysis of Visser and Hemerijck on the changes in the Dutch labor market in the 1980s and 1990s as a starting point for the analysis of the development of the Dutch CME. The analysis includes a systematic review of macroeconomic developments. The frequent introduction of market-oriented solutions is related to a paradigm change in macroeconomic policy. ‘Policy learning’ explains the transition in priorities of economic policy in the Dutch corporatist economy. After a decade of increasing polarization in the 1970s, economic urgency increased and stimulated a regime change towards more market-oriented policy, creating a more liberal CME. In any CME, either new forms of coordination will develop, or market-based solutions will be sought. In the Netherlands, in various policy fields coordination was transferred to the market. Labor market reform was accompanied by supply-side reform and deregulation. The tension between global trends in economic ideas and their application in a CME was resolved by policy concertation (as institutionalized regular consultation between parties is often called) and learning, creating a more liberal business environment within the CME.     

From collectives to markets: Restructured agriculture‐industry linkages in rural China: Some micro‐level evidence

The article attempts to put together micro‐evidence for constructing an initial sketch of the emergent structure of linkages between agriculture and rural industry. It focuses mainly on three aspects : (i) the transfer of land from peasants to industrial and other enterprises, (ii) mechanisms and practices for absorbing peasant labour into the rural non‐farm sector, especially in the form of wage labour, and (iii) the forms and relative dimensions of various direct and indirect financial flows between rural enterprises and the agricultural sector. The article also offers some observations concerning the likely implications of the restructuring of rural economic relationships for rural (and agricultural) accumulation, for the efficiency of resource use, for equity and welfare in the rural sector, and for social processes in the countryside. The article provides a comparative perspective, whereby the post‐reform forms, pattern and nature of rural agriculture‐industry linkages are set against the lapsed context of the rural people's commune.     

Reflections on Peasant Adaptation in Rural Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: The Stolypin Agrarian Reforms

The Stolypin reforms in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century are usually understood as a revolutionary attempt to destroy the peasantry and peasant culture through legal coercion; in fact, they were a more moderate attempt to encourage change through voluntary procedures. In terms of both the numbers of peasants embracing them and their social impact, the reforms were also more successful than has traditionally been acknowledged. A key reason for their success was the synergistic relationship between the reform process and the deepening marketization of rural and urban economic environments in conjunction with the peasants' increasing willingness to adapt to and take advantage of the new opportunities these processes created. The reforms' positive outcomes contrast sharply with the results of current reforms in Russia and highlight the critical role of market supporting institutions in creating a supportive environment.     

Cargos and conflict: The fiesta system and capitalist development in Eastern Peru

This article considers the fact of and reasons for pre‐ and post‐reform change in the structure of the fiesta system on a rural estate in the province of La Convención, and its effect on the development of a capitalist agriculture. In economic terms, this process involves a transformation of the fiesta from a context in which the landlord extracts rent from his tenants to one in which different peasant strata struggle for control over means of production acquired as a result of the agrarin reform. In politico‐ideological terms, the fiesta operates as an arena where contradictory, non‐religious, and class‐specific idioms of struggle are accepted or rejected by the protagonists.     

Rural studies in France

The article examines a number of criteria by which to categorise rural households into distinct socio‐economic classes. Based on the author's sample survey of 211 households in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, the study argues that an analysis of rural class structure must focus not only on access to the means of production and the extent of participation in the labour market but also on key structural features of domestic units such as household size, generational composition, and the division of labour by gender and age. Statistical tests strongly support the thesis that considerations of household structure sharpen and enrich the concept of class. The results also define and distinguish three main class types in the survey region ‐ commercial, subsistence, and landless households.     

Land reform and the Portuguese revolution∗

In spite of the fact that the Portuguese Land Reform has been a radical and far‐reaching one, it has received very little attention from British social scientists. This review article looks at three books published in Portugal since April 1974 which are essential reading for anyone interested in this subject. In understanding the development of the Land Reform and the Revolution as a whole it is important to recognise the different types of regional agrarian structure which exist in Portugal. This review pays particular attention to those parts of the three books which deal with these regional questions. The cleavage between those areas in which rural wage‐labourers predominate and those in which peasant farmers are in the majority goes a long way towards explaining both the advances and the defeats of the Portuguese Revolution.     

Agrarian class structure in Nicaragua in 1980: A new interpretation and some implications

The processing and analysis of a family rural survey which covered more than 50,000 families is used to reinterpret Nicaraguan agrarian class structure in 1980, the starting point of the agrarian reform. The author contrasts his results with those of a prior processing and the conclusions of other analysts. The article concludes by considering the implications of the work for present agrarian class structure and for social and economic policies in agriculture, particularly those affecting the middle peasantry.     

The politics of private farming in Russia

This article seeks to explore why private farming in Russia has fared so poorly even after private farming was designated the centrepiece of Russian land reform and political capital was invested in its success. The underlying causes for the lack of success extend beyond economic and social factors. While the entire agricultural sector has been adversely affected by reform policies undertaken since 1992, private farmers have been hurt the most because they were more vulnerable. Private farmers have not been successful in defending their interests because they are politically weak, a fact that led them to seek out urban alliances whose interests differ from private farmers, and because of intra‐rural divisions that have weakened the efforts by agrarians to defend their interests.     

俄罗斯工会改革的历史与现实：基于社会统合主义的分析

俄罗斯工会在苏联解体之后经历了由计划经济到市场经济的转变,最终形成了社会统合主义的 模式。本研究在梳理俄罗斯工会改革历史的基础上,根据统合主义理论分析了俄罗斯工会在与政府的关系、对 工人利益的代表性和自身行动能力 3 个方面的现实情况。研究认为,俄罗斯工会在改革初期复杂、动荡的政治 经济背景下所追求的自由主义模式受历史因素影响并不成功。改革的转机出现在统一俄罗斯党成立之后,俄罗 斯工会与政府关系迅速改善,并在执政党的同情和支持下提升了自身对工人利益的代表性和行动能力,特别是 运用法律武器的能力。但俄罗斯工会也面临着新就业形式和移民劳工增长的挑战,还需要进一步的改革以适应 劳动力市场的复杂变化。     

Rural employment and agrarian markets in transition: Nicaragua (1979–89)

The article deals with state intervention in agrarian produce markets and the rural labour market in post‐revolutionary Nicaragua. Basing itself in the debate about the Nicaraguan agrarian class structure, it analyses the development of the internal terms of trade, the rapid integration of the peasantry in the market and its positive response to recent liberalisation measures. The labour market seems to show developments contrary to economic logic. Detailed analysis concludes that labour demand declined more slowly than supply. However, only recently this led to higher real wages after a long period of deterioration. Further income differentiation also seems a possible unwanted outcome.     

New markets,old struggles: Large and small farmers in the export agriculture of coastal Peru

Although the output of high-value crops in Peru has increased during the era of ‘globalization’, producers still tend to contextualize this development in relation to the 1969 agrarian reform. Considered here is how large and small farmers in the Cañete region perceive the changes that have occurred in agriculture since a generation ago, with particular reference to market competition and the implications of the new economic conditions for environmental sustainability. Despite the fact that farmers located at each end of the rural hierarchy experience the economic impact of globalization differently, small cultivators exporting their produce to the international market being particularly vulnerable to its laissez faire regime, they nevertheless share a common belief in the importance of agriculture for the well-being of the nation. The latter, it is suggested, is a discourse that reproduces much of the ideology associated historically with the agrarian and foundation myths.     

户籍制度改革的经济学分析及路径探索

户籍制度关系到公民个人的基本权利以及劳动力资源的有效配置。中国城乡分隔的户籍制度是农村剩余劳动力不能及时转移到城镇从而造成农业劳动生产率低下的重要原因。自改革开放以来,中国一直在进行户籍制度改革,但进展并不顺利,这与人们的一些认识误区有关。为此,本研究对户籍制度改革进行经济学分析,进而对改革路径进行探索。研究认为:城镇化是基于利益的驱动,户籍制度并不是限制城镇规模有效的政策工具;农民工进城会在城镇劳动市场创造对自己的需求从而实现充分就业,是为劳动力市场萨伊定律;户籍制度改革的关键是实现一个人所作贡献所在地与接受公共服务所在地的统一,本质上体现了地方政府接受纳税与提供公共服务的统一;户籍制度改革必须由中央政府主导并将户籍制度法律化。     

结构性变动对劳动生产率的影响：模型与实证

结构性改革的重点是通过经济结构变动、调整和优化,在市场配置的基础上充分促进劳动力流动,让低效率部门劳动力充分向高效率部门流动,从而激发劳动者的生产积极性,促进劳动生产率增长。因此,理论上两部门结构性效率差异模型分析了高效率部门和低效率部门之间劳动力流动对于激发劳动者积极性、提升劳动生产率的影响。在此基础上,使用1978-2017年城乡结构、产业结构、所有制结构、区域结构等年度时间序列数据,分析各自对于劳动生产率变动的影响。计量结果表明,在各种结构性变动因素影响劳动生产率的作用中,按照大小顺序依次是城市化、区域经济适度均衡并允许有条件区域加快发展、市场化和产业结构优化。因此,要通过有效促进城镇化、发达区域经济适度领先发展、市场化和产业结构高度化,来提高劳动生产率。     

Aspects of social differentiation in rural England,c. 1580–1660

The article attempts to identify and account for changes in local social relations which accompanied economic and social‐structural change in early‐modern England. An overview of recent findings is provided to highlight both the enduring characteristics of rural society in the period and the elements of change. Next it is argued that the aspects of change can be interpreted as a process of incorporation with economic, administrative and cultural dimensions which had the ultimate effect of promoting integration nationally, but differentiation locally. Particular illustration of this general argument is given in an examination of change in the Essex village of Terling.     

Poverty and Adaptation in Rural Russia

Survey data are used to identify different levels of poverty emerging in the adaptation of rural households to the new Russian market economy. Three levels of poverty are described: the absolutely deprived, the deprived and the relatively deprived. Comparisons of the adaptation strategies of these different types of households are made with respect to (a) different sources of income; (b) access to physical capital; (c) household production and sales; (d) subjective quality of life and psychological well-being; and (e) overall income differentiation. Findings include the over-representation of husband and wife families with children and the lower representation of the elderly among the rural poor.     

Prospects for village self‐governance in China

This article explores the changes in village self‐governance in the reform period. It reflects upon the potential of village self‐governance to contribute towards a broader democratisation process in China. It begins by reviewing rural governance in the pre‐reform period, drawing attention to the factors stimulating change. It then examines the newly emerging system of village self‐governance, focussing on the village committees, village assemblies and village representative assemblies. How this new system is implemented forms the subject of the third section. Finally the article considers the potential contribution of village self‐governance towards democratisation.     

From Communism to Capitalism? Russia's Agrarian Relations in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

The introduction to this collection discusses Russia's agrarian relations in a historical and contemporary context, placing questions of current economic development firmly within the political economy issues that were relevant in the early twentieth century in Russia. The analysis focuses on the question of peasant adaptation and resistance. The concept of resistance is discussed comparatively and as it pertains to contemporary Russia. Survey data from 800 households in five regions are used to explore rural adaptation according to economic strata. Specifically, data are presented on business income, total landholdings and total household income in order to address the issue of who adapted. Statistical analysis is presented to explore the relationship between household affluence and the use of social networks, and between household affluence and household satisfaction.