Showing papers on "Poverty published in 1984"

The poverty of neorealism

Abstract: Almost six years ago, E. P. Thompson fixed his critical sights across the English Channel and let fly with a lengthy polemic entitled The Poverty of Theory. Thompson's immediate target was Louis Althusser. His strategic objective was to rebut the emergent Continental orthodoxy that Althusser championed: structural Marxism, a self-consciously scientific perspective aiming to employ Marxian categories within a structuralist framework to produce theoretical knowledge of the objective structures of capitalist reality. The charges Thompson hurled defy brief summary, but some key themes can be quickly recalled. Althusser and the structuralists, Thompson con-

The Poverty of `Development Economics'.

Abstract: In this revised and expanded version of a classic IEA text, first published in 1983, but revised and expanded in 1997, Professor Lal provides a robust critique of the statist model of development which denigrates both trade and open markets. He concludes that the demise of this dogma would be beneficial to the health of both the economics and the economies of developing countries. The history of the last twenty years has demonstrated the force of the Lal critique. The dogma in its old form has gone, as Professor Lal shows in a postscript that brings the original text up to date both in terms of statistics and in terms of the history of ideas. Nevertheless, as he warns, dirigiste tendencies have not disappeared, but are emerging in new guises.

Economic sources of homicide: reestimating the effects of poverty and inequality.

Abstract: A tradition of research has consistently found that poverty is a major economic source of homicide. Two studies have recently presented findings that call this research tradition into question. The studies are reviewed, and it is argued that these contradictory findings are the result of an incorrect specification of the relationship between poverty and the homicide rate. Revised estimates of the effect of poverty are reported which show that it is a significant positive predictor of the homicide rate for a sample of SMSAs (N=125) when the nonlinearform of the relationship is taken into account. That effect, however, appears to vary by the regional location of SMSAs, that is, whether they are in the South or non-South. The implications of the findings for economic and subcultural explanations of homicide are briefly discussed.

Approaches to participation in rural development

Abstract: The authors contrast, with examples, two interpretations of participation. The first involves "mobilizing" and the second "empowering" the poorer sections of the people to take independent, collective action to overcome poverty and improve their social status.

Just world beliefs and attitudes towards the poor.

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the demographic correlates of just world beliefs and their relationship to poverty. There were predictable differences in just world beliefs between people of different political opinions, faiths and occupations. Also just world beliefs were associated with negative attitudes towards the poor.

World food equation: interrelations among development, employment, and food consumption

Abstract: The problem of expanding food supply has been made more complex and more dependent on technological progress by the encroachment of a burgeoning population on a limited land area. Rapid growth in the rural labor force in the low-income developing countries not only increases the problem of providing adequate employment, particularly in the face of diminishing scope for expanding the land area, but also reduces the possibility of solving poverty problems simply by a redistribution of assets and income flows. Section II reviews past trends and current levels of food production, trade, and consumption. Section III discusses a controversial issue: the extent and seriousness of food deprivation. These sections lead to the same conclusion: the choice of development strategy is decisive in determining the level at which the food equation balances. An examination of contrasting development strategies and their implications for food production (Section IV) is followed by an exploration of the emerging consensus on the complex and difficult task of implementing a unimodal pattern of accelerated agricultural development, consistent with a high rate of growth in employment and food consumption. Interacting health-, nutrition-, and family-planning programs are viewed as important claimants of organizational and other resources. The review leadsmore » to the conclusion that reduction of malnutrition and related manifestations of poverty requires a set of interacting forces, characterized as a ring, that link nutritional need, generation of effective demand for food on the part of the poor, increased employment, a strategy of development that structures demand towards goods and services that have a high employment content, production of wage goods, and an emphasis on growth in agriculture. 183 references, 4 tables.« less

The New American Poverty

Abstract: SPEECH The New American Poverty* Michael Harrington** Poverty in America is an issue with growing visibility. Both its gravity and the attention focused on it will increase during this decade. True, there has always been poverty in America. Fundamental transformations in Ameri- can life, however, have changed the national landscape so much that I feel it appropriate to speak of the new American poverty. What are these changes? They are many, but they include the broadening of poverty; the popular disillusion with the social welfare policy developed in the United States from the time of Franklin Roosevelt through the administration of Lyn- don Johnson; the internationalization of the economy and forces of produc- tion; and the complex technological revolution rapidly transforming work patterns throughout the world. The new poverty will be a policy issue of the first order for the rest of the decade, and probably for the rest of the century. Though some may accuse me of being wildly optimistic, I am willing to hazard that this second term of the Reagan presidency marks the beginning of the end of the conservative era in American politics. I believe that we are on the eve of a new period of social change. I say this because I am absolutely convinced that Ronald Reagan has not solved any of the fundamental problems of the American economy. The finan- cial crisis that threatened the Reagan administration in 1981-1983 will re- emerge in 1985-1986. Supply side economics is a total failure, and this will become apparent. Americans will be forced to face up to the issue of poverty in a way they have not done since the 1960's. Within this context of a certain pessimism and a certain optimism, let me approach the theme of the new poverty in three different ways. First, I want to discuss what I mean by the new poverty. Second, I want to look at the causes of the new poverty. Third, I want to put forth some ideas about a new program to combat the new poverty. * This speech is an edited version of the keynote address which was presented at the conference, Poverty, Justice & Equality: New Directions for Public Policy, held at the University of California, Los Angeles on September 15, 1984. Selected responses to this address are also included. Due to the expository nature of this address, the sources referred to by the orators are not footnoted. ** Professor of Political Science at Queens College, New York and co-chairperson of Demo- cratic Socialists of America. His book, THE OTHER AMERICA (1962) is considered by many to have been a major impetus for Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. His most recent book is THE NEW AMERICAN POVERTY (1984).

Cities, Poverty, and Development: Urbanization in the Third World

Abstract: Gilbert and Gugler have produced a volume that explains and interprets the Third World urbanization process. The book's subject is vital in that approximately 80 percent of humanity resides in parts of the globe often discounted as \"out there\"-that is, they live in the South. Although the proportion of the population living in urban places in these underdeveloped areas is half that of the North, the pace of growth of such cities surpasses that in countries in the northern world by a factor of four or five. Indeed, the rankings of city sizes are increasingly dominated by southern examples. The world city is not just epitomized by such places as London, New York, and Toronto; Mexico City, Beijing, and Sao Paulo also must be considered. This second edition of Gties, Poverty and Development is much more than a slightly revised version of an outdated text; it is a sophisticated, synthetic account of the rapid transformation taking place in Third World urban centres. It makes most of the standard texts on the city and urbanization appear naive in that the Third World city is much more than a mere mirror of the First World's urbanization process. Southern cities are \"shaped\" by quite different forces. They are new and occupied by people caught up in the transition between peasant and proletariat, between lives shaped by cultural wholes in rural areas and lives pursued in autonomous, individualistic urban places, often charac­ terized by alienation and poverty. The Third World city is dominated by lacks: lack of economic growth, lack of social services, lack of infras­ tructure, and lack of development. These cities are located within Third World nations which were peripheralized and underdeveloped in the past at the hands of imperialism and colonialism, and today they continue to be peripheral parts of the global economy because of trade and the workings of the economic system. In an introduction and eight subsequent chapters the reader learns more about the unevenness of the First and Third worlds and how urbanization is differentiated in a world system. The book also considers the pattern and causes of disparities, the migration system

Agriculture and economic development

Abstract: This book describes the interactions between agriculture and economic development in developing countries. The authors first consider the different structure and organization of agriculture in developed and developing countries and some features of traditional agriculture and peasant farmer behavior. Agriculture provides the economy with food and raw materials. A growing agricultural sector produces a growing economy a labor force for industry and a source of capital for investment elsewhere. The authors examine the interchangeabilty of products land and labor surpluses as well as different systems of land tenure; they also critically evaluate dual economy models and the role of surplus agricultural labor. The issue of efficiency in agricultural resource use is examined in the contexts of poverty risk uncertainty and farm size. Modern agricultural technology is analyzed in terms of its impact and barriers to its adoption. The authors examine the effects of incentives and prices on production. Institutional constraints to agricultural development--such as land ownership--are discussed. Sensible pricing policies and restructuring agricultural markets are recommended for developing economies. The authors also analyze the relationship between population size and food supply and agricultures place in international trade. Finally micro and macro planning for agriculture are considered including the merits of the Soviet "tribute" model and the Chinese model; input-output analysis for agricultural planning; and cost-benefit analysis for project evaluation. (authors modified)

Industrial Development and Labor Absorption: A Reinterpretation

Abstract: Experts on national development agree that the ultimate justification for their work is the attainment of a better standard of living by the populations of impoverished countries. Although strategies to achieve this goal vary widely and although most current research focuses on aggregate economic measures such as gross national product growth, the basic expectation is that structural development processes will translate into significant improvements in the living conditions of the majority (Hirschman, 1958; Myint, 1964; Furtado, 1971). One of the few points of agreement in the area of development is that poverty is a direct result of unemployment or underemployment and, hence, that overcoming poverty requires the mass incorporation of the working-age population into modern industrial employment (Myrdal, 1957; Cardoso, 1969). An expert of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) makes the point as follows:

Employment, income distribution and economic growth in seven small open economies

Abstract: Resurgent interest has been manifested among development economists in trickle-down, ie, the view that the more rapid the rate of economic growth, the more rapid the improvement in employment and income distribution' Throughout this paper, the term 'income distribution' will refer to the location and dispersion of the pattern of incomes, ie, to 'absolute incomes and poverty' and to 'relative income inequality' Empirical evidence supports trickle-down in some cases, but the evidence is contrary to trickle-down in others The evidence from my own study of six countries' experiences2 is summarised in Tables i and 2

Two subjective definitions of poverty: Results from the Wisconsin basis needs study

Abstract: We test two hypotheses about the relationship between age and reported difficulty paying bills or buying things the family needs, such as food, clothing, medicine, and medical care. The affluence-trajectory hypothesis follows from age-group differences ...

The Paradox of Women's Poverty: Wage-Earning Women and Economic Transformation

Abstract: Two recent developments have contributed significantly to the growth of women's poverty in the United States. First, more women than ever before must depend exclusively on their own earnings or on welfare payments as the major source of support for themselves and their families. The number of women heading households with children under eighteen doubled between 1970 and 1980. By 1981 close to one-fifth of all families with minor children were headed by women, who were more than three times as likely to have incomes below the poverty line than were their male counterparts.' Second, most available new jobs offer workers little chance to climb out of poverty. The vast majority of these positions are in the rapidly expanding service sector of the economy and are occupied primarily by women. This article examines the relationship between the increase in the number of women who must enter paid employment and the growth of the service sector. Although these developments are responses to some-

Population and Poverty in the Developing World

Abstract: The association between poverty and rapid population growth in developing countries is examined. Analysis of current demographic data revealed a shift in the association between low income and high fertility and mortality rates. It is noted that the effects of rapid population growth upon the poor operate at the national level by influencing factor and product prices and the per capita availability of investment resources. Theories of the relation between family size and family members' health and educational and income status are reviewed. Population policy is assessed emphasizing the importance of the delivery of family planning services to the poor. Illustrative projections of population growth into the 21st century are based on a set of assumptions regarding the future course of growth and poverty alleviation and the future family planning policies of developing countries.

Women, Children, and Poverty: Public Policies and Female-Headed Families in Industrialized Countries

Abstract: Single-parent, female-headed families are at risk of poverty and are causing concern in all advanced industrialized countries. A committee set up by the British government in the early 1970s to study the problems of these families issued a well-publicized report in July 1974.1 Although the recommendations made in the report have not yet been carried out, discussion continues about the need for more concerted attention to this problem. The Commission of the European Communities launched a major effort in the late 1970s aimed at assessing the extent of poverty and the composition and characteristics of the poor in member countries. Its report, issued in 1981, states that the incidence of poverty in much of the Community is "above or far above average" in households with a female head, one-parent families with more than one child (overwhelmingly female-headed), and households with a head, whether aged or not, who is not in the labor force.2

The political economy of the urban ghetto

Abstract: The income of blacks in most northern industrial states today is lower relative to the income of whites than in 1949.""Fusfeld and Bates examine the forces that have led to this state of affairs and find that these economic relationships are the product of a complex pattern of historical development and change in which black-white economic relation-ships play a major part, along with pat-terns of industrial, agricultural, and technological change and urban develop-ment. They argue that today's urban racial ghettos are the result of the same forces that created modern Amer-ica and that one of the by-products of American affluence is a ghettoized racial underclass. These two themes, they state, are es-sential for an understanding of the prob-lem and for the formulation of policy. Poverty is not simply the result of poor education, skills, and work habits but one outcome of the structure and func-tioning of the economy. Solutions re-quire more than policies that seek to change people: they await a recognition that basic economic relationships must be changed.

Woman-Headed Households and Poverty: Insights from Kenya

Abstract: Over the past four decades the number of households headed by women has increased worldwide. The great majority of these households are impoverished. Scholars have characterized poor woman-headed households as an expression of social pathology, as the outcome of cultural diffusion, as a survival strategy of the poor in capitalist economies, and, in the United States, as a legacy of black slavery.' Underlying these characterizations are value judgments about woman-headed households and the forces that shape them. Recognizing woman-headed households as a social form is inherently value laden for Western scholars because it calls into question basic Western assumptions about "natural" (and universal) forms for family structure and gender relations.2

Comparable Worth: Toward Theory and Practice in the United States.

Abstract: Poverty among women in the United States has become more acute, more visible, and more widespread as women's economic responsibility for themselves and their children has increased. This impoverishment is associated with the dramatic rise of single-parent, female-headed households with children. But it is not confined to single mothers with young children. All female-headed households are more likely to be poor. While the rate of poverty among families headed by white males decreased by 51 percent between 1960 and 1981, the number of persons in poor femaleheaded families increased by 54 percent. Among female-headed families with children under eighteen, 68 percent of the black family members were poor, 67 percent of Hispanics, and 43 percent of whites.' Increased economic responsibility does not inevitably mean the pauperization of women. The question is, Why are added economic obligations pushing women, and their families, into poverty? Answering that question forces us to look at two closely related social practices: the

Dublin, the Deposed Capital: A Social and Economic History, 1860-1914

Abstract: This is a comprehensive study of the problems which the city of Dublin faced between the famine and World War One. The decline of the city's traditional industries and the rising proportion of casual labourers in the population gave rise to intense poverty which resulted in excessively high death-rates and a housing crisis. These problems were compounded by the migration of the middle-classes to the suburbs where they established autonomous self-governing townships which failed to contribute to city taxes. The alienation of the Protestant middle-class and the growing political dominance by lower middle-class Catholics - many of them slum landlords - who attributed all social and economic ills to the Act of Union, weakened the resolve to tackle the city's major ills. However it seems doubtful whether the problems of the Dublin labouring class could have been resolved within the accepted limitations of state intervention as they existed prior to World war One. The work draws on a wealth of sources to examine topics such as choice of marriage partners, occupational continuity between father and son, the background of tenement families and the corporation tenants, and the role of contemporary charitable institutions - topics hitherto relatively neglected in Irish historical research.