Some management objectives of the peasant farmer: An analysis of risk aversion in the choice of cropping pattern,Surat district,India

The basis of peasant farmers’ decision‐making is a critical factor in the formation of agricultural policy in developing countries. If farmers operate efficiently, implying that profits are maximised, then incomes can only be increased by introducing improved methods of production; if farmers do not act efficiently, it may be desirable to reallocate resources within traditional agriculture. Similarly, predictions of farmers’ responses to price changes and thus the impact on aggregate production and employment¹ are based on assumptions regarding farmers’ management objectives.

The primary aim of this paper is to examine empirically the cropping patterns chosen by a group of peasant farmers in Surat District, India, using a simple model of risk aversion. The data show that the observed behaviour corresponds very closely to the hypothesis that farmers allocate land to different crops by striking some balance between the competing criteria of (a) increasing income and (b) decreasing risk measured by income variability. The actual definition of risk is, in this case, the mean absolute deviation of income around its mean level. Secondly, the contrasting importance of risk and credit between irrigated and unirrigated farms is illustrated, and finally, some policy implications are discussed briefly.     

Angola: The politics of unsustainable development

Armed conflict facilitates corruption and Angola presents a dramatic case study of this process. This article explores why the political context represents the key impediment to sustainable development. Solve the political problems and the gates are open for the Angolan people to reap the benefits of an abundant natural resource base with a low population density. The country has been trying to undergo three transitions simultaneously, that from war to peace, from single-party rule to multiparty democracy and from a commandbased to a free-market economy. The article explores these processes and their effects on changing patterns of corruption.     

The Chinese peasant economy: Paradigm and myth

The Chinese Peasant Economy: Agricultural Development in Hopei and Shantung. 1890–1914. By Ramon H. Myers. Harvard: Harvard University Press and London: Oxford University Press, 1971. Pp. xix, 394. Index. £6.75.     

Uncertainty,risk, and wealth and income distribution in peasant agriculture

An ethical justification of the market system is that while generating inequality of income distribution it nevertheless provides an equal opportunity for people to improve their material well‐being (1, p. 169). It is argued that the market system creates a society of unequals, but that it is a fluid society in which, though all may not improve absolutely and relatively, the opportunity to do so is randomly distributed through the population. In terms of economic development, this implies that within a free market framework, the distribution of the gains from growth need not be biased towards any economic class. To use a cliche, one of the justifications of a competitive market system is that there is nothing inherent in its operation which makes ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’. The main barriers to economic and social mobility are thus treated as imperfections in the market—racial and ethnic discrimination, differential access to capital markets, traditional constraints on job choice, and so on.

Recently Michael Lipton has suggested an analytical framework for explaining the optimizing behaviour of peasant cultivators which challenges this sanguine view (2). His ‘survival algorithm’ implies that inherent in the market organization of economic society is a tendency for the benefits from economic development to be distributed systematically in favour of the wealthier groups in the society.

In the following section I shall summarize Lipton's hypothesis and demonstrate its implications for the distribution of wealth and income over time in the agricultural sector of developing countries. In Section III policy conclusions of the analysis are presented.     

Change in state power,international conditions and peasant producers: The case of Kenya

Arguments for food self‐sufficiency at the level of small‐scale farms invariably refer to the need for national self‐sufficiency. This article shows that state‐inspired attempts to impose self‐sufficiency upon specialised middle peasant producers in Kenya have had the effect of reducing the supply of marketed food and increasing food imports. A change in the character of presidential power has also inhibited food production by large‐scale farms and this, together with imported price shocks, has reduced the supply of food for commercialised peasants who produce for international markets. Only very specific political conditions make it possible for international and internal circuits of capital and exchange to be harmonised through the power of a nation state.     

Firm size and export behaviour: An Indian case study

In the context of Indian industry, this article argues that in the presence of capital market imperfections and sub‐optimal contractual arrangements, small firms face higher transaction or selling costs in the domestic market. One of the strategic responses by small firms towards overcoming the mobility barriers imposed by high transaction costs in the domestic market is to break into the competitive world market. Small firms that could realise a critical level of production efficiency and possible information externalities that arise through inter‐firm linkages might be the ones that could succeed in exports. The empirical observations derived from the analysis of firm level survey data provide reasonable support to the main arguments.     

State-local sales tax,spillover, and economic activity: examining county governments in the US

The reliance on sales taxation has increased in both states and counties. This study aggregated county-level data and empirically explored the associations between state-local sales taxes and economic activity by industry types in county governments for the period of 1990–2013. The results revealed negative associations of sales tax rates with economic activity, especially in the manufacturing industry. Further, the findings provided the spatial dependence of economic activity across counties as a form of possible spillover. This study suggests that policymakers should pay attention to how the manufacturing and retail industries respond to any changes in sales tax rates for business activity.     

Autonomous peasant struggles and left arts of government

I argue that self-organisation cannot account for how grassroots struggles can pursue transnational political change. I develop an account of some ‘left arts of government’ through which resistance is facilitated and organised without reintroducing oppressive and hierarchical forms of rule. I do so by focusing on the practices of autonomous peasant mobilisations. Land occupation movements facilitate the ability of people to engage in ongoing resistance on their own behalf. They organise resistance through horizontal communication and through transnational networks involving representative structures. Finally, peasant mobilisations engage with states and international institutions to solidify gains made.     

Market responsiveness of peasant cultivators: Some evidence from prewar India

This study attempts to analyse the responsiveness of Indian farmers to changes in profitability with reference to non‐food crops, such as groundnuts, cotton, jute and sugarcane, over the period 1900–39. Various types of adjustment and expectations models have been used. The generalized distributed lag models have been formulated and some special forms have been applied to study the behaviour of farmers. Both ordinary least‐squares and two‐stage‐least‐squares estimates have been carried out. In the distributed‐lag analysis, short‐run and long‐run price coefficients and elasticities have been computed and compared with some of the other studies on the subject. The emerging conclusion from this study is that farmer s seem to respond to changes in profitability, expansion of irrigation facilities, varietal improvements and qualitative factors in the case of all the crops.     

Mine smartness and the community voice in mine-risk education: lessons from Afghanistan and Angola

Mine-risk education programmes will fall short of their intended impact for as long as they fail to take into account local responses—knowledge, logic and everyday practices—to mine threats. Community information, systematically collected through household and institutional surveys, can help to define and understand endogenous ‘mine smartness’. The same evidence provides insight into the impact of mine-risk education, including its unintended consequences. Using six criteria of mine smartness, ciet carried out evaluations of mine-risk education in Afghanistan (1997) and Angola (1999). The first clear lesson to be drawn from these evaluations is that people in mine-affected areas do generate their own broadly effective means of facing the daily threat of mines. The second lesson is that people take risks for reasons that make sense to them: ‘education’ that landmines are dangerous probably adds little value for them. The third lesson is that mine-risk education that does not take into account these first two lessons can cause harm. The evaluations produced evidence of unintended risk-taking by people exposed to mine-risk education programmes.     

The response of peasant farmers to price incentives: The use and misuse of profit functions

The article is set in the context of evaluating the debate between the free‐marketeers [Schultz et al] and the institutionalists [Myrdal et al]. It surveys the literature on the application of profit functions to agricultural production in LDCs. In particular it provides a critical review of the literature which focuses on the inadequacy of economic theory, the problems of econometric specification, data limitations, and the contradictory nature of the econometric results. Overall, it is argued that the profit function is inappropriate on theoretical grounds and that most of the economic applications do not support the model. The article concludes with suggestions for future work which should take account of the role of class, power, and interlinkages in an historical context. Social and institutional factors, it is argued, are important in determining the behaviour of peasant farmers.     

Transition strategy,corporate exploitation,and state capture: An empirical analysis of the former Soviet states

It is difficult to find, at a glance, a clear connection between corruption and the reform processes in the states of the former Soviet Union (FSU). The key to untangling this issue is to look at the peculiarities of their transition strategies and economic crisis compared with those of Central and East European countries. This paper aims to unravel the complex ties between the transition process and corruption in the FSU states through theoretical and empirical analyses of the impact of multiple factors. These factors include the extent of decentralization of the government–enterprise relationship and the degree of state intervention in corporate management as well as the impact of economic distress that have been affecting the frequency and degree of corporate exploitation and state capture. In this manner, our study aims to complement earlier achievements in this field.     

Pathway to resilience: hands and hearts for peasant livelihoods and fair relations between humans and nature

Abstract

Peasants and rural communities are on the front lines of most climate catastrophes taking place nowadays worldwide; at the same time, we have been the ones taking care of our common planet over generations. This article begins with a brief overview of the current situation of land use in the world today and links it to climate issues. It then describes some of the solutions to climate threats being negotiated between national governments and the private sector. It then highlights solutions that communities are already implementing and concludes with the reasons why systemic change is needed in order to achieve agrarian and climate justice.     

Organizational theory and structure: An analysis of three perspectives

This article examines three contemporary organizational theories as they relate to organization structure. The three approaches selected are: social systems delimitation, organization learning, and organizational theory as metaphors. Each view represents a different approach to issues concerning the direction of organization theory and design. It will be argued that, in many respects, the future development of organizational theory will, to a large extent, build upon these approaches and the issues they pose for organization design.     

Macroeconomic conditions and political instability: An empirical analysis

This article uses statistical methods to examine the relationship between two key macroeconomic indicators—inflation and economic growth—and four measures of political instability—peaceful unrest, violent unrest, coups d’etat, and changes of government. Using a panel research design and fixed effects regression analysis, I examine first whether contemporaneous relationships exist between these two groups of variables and then the direction of causality between them. Peaceful unrest clearly produces higher inflation and slower growth. Oddly, coups d’etat seem to producelower inflation, and there is some evidence that reverse causation may operate here as well—that high inflation mayreduce the likelihood of coups. Slow economic growth is associated with higher levels of violent unrest and a higher likelihood of coups and changes of government, but the direction of causality in these relationships is not clear. These findings, taken together, suggest that the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and political instability runs primarily from the latter to the former, raising doubts about the widely held view that poor economic conditions generally produce unrest and instability. Mark J. Gasiorowski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University. He is currently working on a project focusing on the relationship between democracy and macroeconomic conditions.