Showing papers in "Development and Change in 1991"

Rural‐Urban Relations, Household Income Diversification and Agricultural Productivity

Abstract: Does rising income from agriculture drive the growth of nonfarm activities, or does increased income from nonfarm activities spur the growth of agriculture? This paper looks at the role of nonfarm income in enabling smallholders to raise agricultural output and productivity. Based on data from a sample of farm households near Kutus town in the Kirinyaga district of Kenya, it examines these issues by looking at the use of resources for farm production, the risks attached to alternative ways of raising output and productivity, and the household's propensity to accept risk as a function of the extent to which it is able to draw on liquid assets or diversified sources of income. The authors argue that nonfarm income provides households with a form of insurance against the risks of farming, and thus enables them to adopt new production methods and raise output. They argue further that a key factor in creating opportunities for rural households to earn nonfarm income is the presence of vibrant small towns nearby.

Dilemmas of Development Discourse: The Crisis of Developmentalism and the Comparative Method

Abstract: Developmentalism, or the theory of linear progress, has taken several forms — evolutionism, modernization theory, development thinking — which correlate with different epochs of western hegemony. The comparative method serves as its underpinnings in theoretically incorporating non-western societies into the developmental paradigm. Developmentalism is universalist and ahistorical, teleological and ethnocentric. A discourse of power, it is presented and taken as a recipe for social change. The present crisis of developmentalism is both a crisis of development in the south and a crisis of modernism in the west. In the west, developmentalism is being challenged by new social movements and, in theoretical terms, by postmodernism; in the south, alternative development strategies test the limits of the developmental paradigm. Non-western concepts of modernization have also been developed. This discussion concludes with two queries, one concerning the passage from the bi-polar world of the Cold War to polycentrism, and one with respect to the deconstruction of the west as a prerequisite to the deconstruction of development. If ‘development’ itself has become a problem, and has sowed the seeds of discontent and ethnic conflict, a corrective to development can only come from other worldviews, other visions.

The Political Economy of Industrialization: A Comparison of Latin American and East Asian Newly Industrializing Countries

Abstract: The paper analyses the industrial performance of two East Asian (South Korea and Taiwan) and three Latin American (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico) newly industrializing countries. It argues that the better performance in East Asia is not due simply to differences in trade orientation or the degree of state intervention, but rather to the effectiveness of intervention. This is explained in terms of the relative autonomy of the state and the structuring of the state apparatus in the two regions. The historically determined class structure and the international context led to much greater state autonomy in East Asia than in Latin America. The last part of the paper shows a number of ways in which this greater relative autonomy has contributed to rapid industrial growth in East Asia in comparison with Latin America.

Foreign Aid after the Cold War

Abstract: Foreign aid as it is understood today has its origins in the Cold War. It is largely a product of the ideological confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that dominated international politics for forty-five years between 1945 and 1990. It began not as a programme to assist the long-term development of impoverished countries but as a programme to facilitate the short-term economic recovery of Western Europe after the end of the Second World War. The political motivation of what was called the Marshall Plan was to prevent the spread of communism to France and Italy (where the Communist Party was strong), to stabilize conditions in West Germany (and create an attractive alternative to the socio-economic system imposed in East Germany) and to reduce the appeal of socialist policies in the United Kingdom (where the Labour Party enjoyed considerable popularity).

The Dynamics of Work and Survival for the Urban Poor: A Gender Analysis of Panel Data from Madras

Abstract: This paper examines the functioning of the household economy and family labour supply over a five-year period among a panel sample of poor households in Madras using an event history methodology. The research focused on the key role women play in sustaining poor households despite constrained labour market choices. Women's earnings from daily self-employed work activities provided a substantial and steady component to total household income which tended to fluctuate with the earnings and family pool contribution of casually employed males. As economic stress events hit the family over time, women helped by increasing earnings, adding on secondary jobs, utilizing their earning status to obtain loans from a variety of sources, sacrificing their subsidized business loan for family debt repayment, and foregoing personal expenditures and leisure. At the same time women also managed the increasingly more difficult tasks of fulfilling basic needs of the household such as food, fuel and water collection, sanitation and childcare with less resources of time. Development policies must reflect the fact that women are central to individual family survival and as a whole they are key actors in the adjustment process to the crises in employment occurring in the local and national economy.

The Rural Labour Market in Zimbabwe

Abstract: Wage labour in Zimbabwe is most often associated with large commercial farms. The use of wage labour within ‘peasant’ agriculture has been rarely investigated and remains largely undocumented. In 1986/7, the author conducted research in Zimbabwe which was explicitly concerned with issues of rural economic differentiation and the wage labour supplied and hired by ‘peasant’ households. The data suggest that a dynamic labour market exists in rural Zimbabwe. Further, it was found that in addition to the many parttime rural wage workers, there is a group of people who depend upon wages for all or the bulk of their income. These people, who have been largely ignored by policymakers, cannot be defined as farmers at all.

Reflections on the Latin American Contribution to Development Theory

Abstract: During the last decade a series of essays by prominent development theorists were published in which it was argued that development theory was in crisis. In my view the First World bias of development theory has contributed to its shortcomings. This bias is evidenced by the failure of development theory seriously to examine and incorporate into its mainstream the theories emanating from the Third World. In this paper I deal with the Latin American contribution to development theory. While development theorists have given some attention to dependency studies and structuralism, far too little appreciation has been given to the writings on marginality and internal colonialism. However, the significance of the structuralist school for development thinking and practice has yet to be fully acknowledged. Furthermore, dependency theory has been much distorted and key dependency writers have been completely ignored, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. The following themes of the multi-stranded Latin American development school are examined: the debate on reform or revolution, the structuralist or centre-periphery paradigm, the analyses on internal colonialism and marginality, and the dependency studies. Wherever relevant the key differing positions within the Latin American school are presented. I then proceed to examine the shortcomings as well as the contemporary relevance of these Latin American theories of development and underdevelopment.

The Indonesian Family Planning Programme: A Success Story for Women?

Abstract: The Family Planning Program of Indonesia is constantly being hailed as a success story for its performance in reducing fertility rates in many parts of the country. This paper examines what this has meant for women taking womens rights to the control of their fertility as the necessary aim for all family planning programs and the safeguarding of their reproductive health as an obligation. In this paper the aims and methods of the program are examined separately in order to assess the extent and manner in which womens interests are acknowledged in its objectives and whether in its implementation the program takes into account the needs of women both as recipients and as family planning workers. The main conclusion of the paper is that the priorities style of implementation and service delivery of the program do not provide women with the means of regulating their fertility autonomously through access to freely chosen contraceptives and related services. In addition the paper concludes that the safeguarding and improvement of womens reproductive health is not among the concerns of the program either in principle or in practice. (authors)

Growth of Rural Industries in Post‐reform China: Patterns, Determinants and Consequences

Abstract: The first question addressed by this paper relates to the very high growth rates achieved by China's rural industries during the post-reform period. While growth rates have undoubtedly been extremely high, they can only be put in a proper perspective when growth in different components of the sector (i.e. township- and village-owned and privately owned industries) is examined separately and compared with performance before the reforms. In this regard, an important finding of the paper is that as far as township and village industries are concerned, growth rates in the post-reform period do not represent a sudden break from the rates of the earlier period — particularly the 1970s. It is mainly in the emergence and growth of private enterprises that the growth experience of the 1980s differs substantially from that of the 1970s. The sharp decline in the growth of all rural industries in 1989 does not appear to mark a reversal in their growth environment, but the beginning of a period of consolidation and rationalization; and, contrary to popular notion, private enterprises are not the worst sufferers in this process. Finally, the paper looks at regional imbalance. Historically, rural industries in China have been concentrated more in the eastern provinces along the coast, and this regional concentration has increased during the post-reform period of high growth.

The promotion of non-traditional agricultural exports in Honduras: issues of equity, environment and natural resource management

Abstract: A recent trend in development in Central America is the promotion of non-traditional agricultural exports as a means of revitalizing economic growth and increasing income among the region's small producers. Using an approach which integrates environmental concerns into political-economic analysis, this article examines the impact of this strategy on regional inequality and environmental degradation. The article begins with a synopsis of efforts to further non-traditional exports in Central America since the Second World War. Then, in order to demonstrate the complex articulation among social, economic and environmental factors, the investigation focuses on the impact of non-traditional exports on southern Honduras. Analysis concentrates on the most important of several non-traditional exports being encouraged — shrimp mariculture in coastal areas along the Gulf of Fonseca. The study demonstrates the systemic interconnections among the dynamics of agricultural development, associated patterns of capitalist accumulation, rural impoverishment and serious problems of environmental degradation. The article illustrates how larger international and national forces affected people and the national environment and how local people, in turn, are attempting to affect those powers. Finally, the Honduran case is related to policy concerns regarding effective environmental management. First we were evicted from our land … now they are throwing us out of the sea. Where will we go? (Honduran peasant and artisanal fisherman, La Tribuna, 26 May 1988)

Gifts and Rights: Cautionary Notes on Community Self‐help in Thailand

Abstract: A pervasive assumption in the critical literature and practice of development has been that capitalism and state-building has undermined relatively autonomous village communities in which there were equalizing institutions of mutual help or gift-giving. These assumptions tend to retain the dualisms of modernization theories by reversing them. The author argues that we should instead challenge these dualisms, and look for complexity and contradictions within both the past and the present. He then draws on a study in Thailand to show how the ‘village’ was a product of state-building, and how in the past the idiom of ‘helping’ constituted relations of domination and extraction as well as more egalitarian relations of mutual help. The use of the language of the gift confers power on the giver; since the 1930s, state officials have appropriated and transformed the language of ‘helping’ to coerce villagers into working on ‘development’ projects. Until the 1970s, villagers described ‘development’ as coerced serf labour, but since then, they have struggled with mixed results to redefine development as their right to participate in the national and global product. The author finishes by arguing that, in the context of the current global crisis of accumulation, we should reclaim rural development as a democratic right, opposing neoliberal attempts to redefine it as a gift which government and development agencies can discontinue at their will.

Communal Forest Management: The Honduran Resin Tappers

Abstract: Natural resource tenure and economic feasibility of resource-based activities are two of the most important issues in the current debate around environmental degradation and rural poverty. While many analyses have blamed the ‘tragedy of the commons’ and government mismanagement for environmental destruction, this paper provides a case study of resin tapping in Honduras which formulates the hypotheses that common property regimes can be successful and that economic liberalization policies may be detrimental to community-level resource schemes. Over half of the 6000 farmer-resin tappers in Honduras are organized into forty-six co-operatives that market the tree sap, wood and other forest products. These activities combine the twin goals of community-based forest preservation and income generation. Established legally in 1974, the tapping groups have expanded to include a variety of organizational and technical arrangements. The two co-operatives of Villa Santa and San Juan de Ojojona demonstrate contrasting histories, ecological endowments and economic outcomes. Currently the Honduran resin tappers are facing problems over their access to forest resources, the fluctuating profitability of extractive activities and the stability of the co-operative organization. These three issues are relevant to a variety of community-based environmental activities, and the lessons of the Honduran experience can be applied to analyse the processes of environmental degradation and community response elsewhere in the Third World.

Gainers and Losers: A Note on Land and Occupational Mobility in a South Indian Village, 1977–85

Abstract: This paper examines evidence on changes in the pattern of land-ownership and in household occupations based on a longitudinal study of a village in the relatively advanced agricultural region of Tamil Nadu, India. The question motivating the paper is whether the occurrence of mobility moderates the high levels of inequality observed in the region. The matrix approach is used to examine mobility. Matrices of occupations and land-holdings are constructed for the eighty-three panel households, spanning a period of eight years, to indicate the degree and direction of mobility. The investigation suggests that agricultural modernization within the existing structural framework has provided restricted opportunities for occupational change and has not mitigated the extreme polarization in the distribution of land.

Poverty Alleviation Programmes In Rural India: An Assessment

Abstract: The Planning Commission estimated a sharp reduction of poverty during the early 1980s, which it attributed largely to the poverty alleviation strategy followed during the Sixth Plan. Specifically, it was claimed that the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was responsible for a substantial reduction in rural poverty. This claim is critically evaluated here. Drawing upon the results of an applied general equilibrium model, selected anti-poverty interventions are compared from a macro perspective. Noting the incentive and information-related problems, some key issues in designing anti-poverty interventions are addressed. Section I reviews changes in rural poverty at the all-India level. Section II explores the relationship between rural poverty, agricultural production and (consumer) prices. Distinguishing between transitory and persistent poverty, alternative measures of persistent poverty are presented in Section III. A case is then made for an interventionist anti-poverty strategy, followed by a brief review (Section IV) of salient features and selected performance indicators of poverty alleviation programmes launched/implemented during the Sixth Plan period. Section V investigates whether these programmes — especially the IRDP — played a significant role in alleviating poverty. Section VI discusses selected anti-poverty interventions and possible design-related reforms; concluding observations are offered in the final section.

Comments on Alex de Waal's ‘Re‐assessment of Entitlement Theory in the Light of Recent Famines in Africa’

Abstract: Alex de Waal attempts to build his account of recent famines in Africa (de Waal, 1990) on the foundations of a critique of Amartya Sen's entitlement theory - henceforth, Entitlement Theory (ET). The core of the paper is thus composed of two parts - one critical and the other constructive. The constructive part, or at least the motivation behind it, is eminently useful, but the critical part, I am afraid, is rather off the mark. I shall argue that not only are his criticisms hard to accept, they are also not necessary for building his constructive part.

Regional Disparities, Industry and Government Policy in Japan

Abstract: This paper examines the time path of regional per capita income disparities in Japan during the last three decades, and analyses the determinants of this path, including government policies. Regional disparities have been quite common in most countries, and the problem has proven to be relatively intractable, though varying in intensity across time and across countries. The Japanese case is instructive in that the country has experienced several stages of the problem in a relatively brief period, and has managed to limit spatial polarization to a certain degree. This paper identifies links between broad growth policy orientations with resultant changes in regional income disparities, and suggests their policy implications for both mature and developing economies.

Illicit Drug Production and Supply-side Drugs Policy in Asia and South America

Abstract: This paper examines the feasibility of current policies of supply limitation as an instrument for the control of dangerous drugs (principally South American cocaine and Asian heroin). The structure of production and distribution is examined, and revenue estimates are made. A range of supply-side policy options are evaluated by means of a simple game-theory approach. In all cases, it is concluded that supply-side policies are likely to prove ineffectual as a means of drug control.

Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe: Its Genesis, Adjustment Process, and Impact on Developing Countries

Abstract: Increasing strains on self-sufficiency within the block of East European command economies resulted in the dramatic decision to change over to an economic system largely based on market forces. The painfulness of the ensuing transformation process will be mitigated somewhat by supportive economic policies of the West, including the European Community which is itself aiming at complete economic integration by the end of 1992. The consequences for the developing countries of these far-reaching policy changes in East and West are likely to be negative, at least in the immediate future. This is true for the volume of development assistance given by East and West, as well as for the export prospects of developing countries. Favourable effects might at best be expected in the longer run.

The Transformation of the Production and Retail of Building Materials for Low-Income Housing in Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract: This paper examines the changes which have occurred in the low-income settlements in Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city, in connection with the production and retail of building materials. The analysis is conducted via the articulation of modes of housing production concept. Prior to the implementation of settlement upgrading in Mombasa, funded by the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development, there existed a distinct mode of low-income housing production and consumption in the town. The typical low-income housing in Mombasa is the swahili house which had its own market both for the supply of traditional building materials as well as tenancy arrangements. With the commencement of the provision of low-income housing based on international aid agencies' planning orthodoxy, the swahili housing scene has undergone a tremendous transformation. The proscription of the use of traditional (indigenous) materials in housing construction has resulted in raising the cost of housing beyond the majority of the urban poor. In addition, it has adversely affected small-scale retail outlets which specialized in the supply of these materials. This process has gone hand in hand with the prescription that only industrially manufactured materials are to be used in low-income settlements. The popularization of the use of industrially manufactured materials has also resulted in the emergence of middlemen in the supply of these materials to the low-income settlements. This development too has meant that the cost of building materials has to rise, in some cases by over five times, from the production points to the construction sites. The fundis (traditional artisans) have also found themselves in a precarious situation because they have either to get extra training in handling the ‘new’ materials and ‘modern’ housing plans or be marginalized to mere repair works. The paper concludes that the articulation between the traditional and the modern modes of housing production in Mombasa has been to the benefit of the latter. It is, however, pointed out that the process of commercialization of low-income settlements had commenced earlier than the involvement of international aid agencies, and therefore state intervention in this sector merely speeded up this process and increased its magnitude. It is argued that for state intervention to benefit the intended group, it must build upon the pre-existing organizational structures as blind intervention would be costly, if not counterproductive, and may exacerbate the problem, as the Mombasa situation reveals.

Elites, the Rural Masses and Land in Paraguay: The Subordination of the Rural Masses to the Ruling Class

Abstract: Despite the fact that rural ownership and tenure relationships were very unfavourable to the majority when President Stroessner came to power, there was little or no peasant rebellion during his regime, and the rural masses were unable to force the government to improve their situation. This paper explains the lack of resistance by the rural poor in terms of the effectiveness of the repressive regime, which kept the poor quiet and either eliminated or discouraged capable young leaders who might have organized a defence of the rights of the rural population. Agricultural colonization has also served as a safety valve, reducing the tensions among the rural poor which might otherwise have led to more radical reforms that would have been against the interests of the landowning elite. A further explanation of the weak resistance is to be found in the lack of unity among the rural poor. Opposed interests have thwarted their adequate organization and the appearance of large and successful rural social movements. The paper begins by providing some historical background.

Welfare Consequences of Green Revolution Technology: Changes in Bangladeshi Food Production and Diet

Abstract: The Poirier kinked exponential method as used by Boyce (1986) is adopted to examine changes in the Bangladeshi crop sector in the 1947-84 period using aggregate time series data. This is claimed to be a superior approach to earlier ones and it is the first time that non-cereal food crops have been given extensive consideration. Growth rates in output of major crops as well as commodity groups are estimated for various sub-periods with special emphasis on the changes in the period following the Green Revolution. The paper identifies a comparative 'crowding out' of non-cereal crop production as well as other food sources, e.g. fisheries, following the Green Revolution. On the whole, increased cereal production has been absorbed by rising population with per capita availability remaining roughly constant. The availability per capita of pulses, fruits and spices has fallen markedly in the post-Green Revolution period and on average per capita availability of vegetables has fallen. Furthermore, per capita protein content (both vegetable and animal) of theBangladeshi diet has declined. The average Bangladeshi diet now appears to be less varied and balanced and a priori less nutritious with adverse welfare implications. Expansion of rice and wheat production has been at the expense of other sources of food such as pulses, fruit, vegetables and fish.

New Perspectives for Modernization in Central America

Abstract: The purpose of this chapter is to challenge the view that the crisis of the 1980s has greatly set back the process of modernising Central America’s economic and political structures and that, in consequence, the outlook for the 1990s is bleak.1 Instead, we argue that the outlook for modernization in the 1990s may well be brighter than at any time in the post-war period.