The role of the peasant in China's development plans

This paper endeavors to show the importance of history for any study in the social and political sciences. Following theorist and Nobel laureate Douglass C. North, it attempts to show how the past and the present are connected through the continuity of a society's institutions even when those formal institutions undergo a radical change, that is, revolution. To that end I will be comparing two agricultural societies – Russia and China – beginning with their Imperial periods – to show how their attitudes towards their peasantry have endured through the upheaval of both revolutions and the potential impact on development. The impact of the Russian revolution on China will also be examined.     

The revenue implications of the Uganda and Tanzania plans 1

A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830–1920. By Hugh Tinker for the Institute of Race Relations, London, New York, Bombay: Oxford University Press. 1974. Pp. xvi + 432, maps, diagrams and illustrations. £5.75.

Modernization in South‐East Asia. Edited by Hans‐Dieter Evers. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. Pp. xix + 249. £7–25.

Protest Movements in Rural Java. By Sartono Kartodirdjo. London, New York, Singapore, etc.: Oxford University Press, 1973. Pp. xv + 229, maps, price not indicated.

Economic Prospects of Bangladesh. By Austin Robinson. London: Overseas Development Institute Ltd., 1973. Pp. vii + 59: £1.50.

Disaster in Bangladesh: Health Crises in a Developing Nation. Edited by Lincoln C. Chen. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. Pp. xxviii + 290, figures, tables, glossary, index; £4.25 (cloth); £2.70 (paper).

Socialisms and Development. By Rene Dumont with Marcel Mazoyer. London, Andre Deutsch, 1973. Pp. 352. £3.50.

Economic Growth and Development in West Malaysia, 1947–1970. By David Lim. London: Oxford University Press, 1974. Pp. xvi + 346. £9.95.

Land and Family in Pisticci. By J. Davis. London: The Athlone Press, and New York: Humanities Press, 1973. Pp. x + 200, maps, diagrams. £3–50.

The Green Revolution in West Pakistan: Implications of Technological Change. By Leslie Nulty. New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall, 1972. Pp. xxi + 150. £5.25.

Taxing a Peasant Society: The Example of Graduated Taxes in East Africa. By Kenneth Davey. London: Charles Knight and Co. Ltd., 1974. Pp. 226. £2.50.

Regional Development Banks: The Asian, African and Inter‐American Development Banks. By John White. New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall, 1972. Pp. vii + 204. £5.25.

Human Fertility in India: social components and policy perspectives, by David G. Mandelbaum. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1974. Pp. ix + 132. $6.00 and £3.00.     

The role of the public sector in reducing regional income disparity in Indian plans

This paper is confined to an investigation into the role of the four Five Year Plans in regional development of the Indian Union. Section 1 of the paper is devoted to the weight given to the objective of ‘regional balance’ in these Plans; Section II outlines the ‘model frame’ used to measure the regional concentration, or dispersion, of economic activities and the redistributive features of the Plan measures; Section III deals with the computational sequence of the model; Section IV is confined to data processing; and Section V to analysing the findings. The main substantive conclusions are that the Public Sector investment activities in India over the period 1950–66 have contributed to reducing the spatial income disparity in the country.