Economic Reform and Third-World Socialism: A Political Economy of Food Policy in Post-Revolutionary Societies

330 Pages·1992·31.185 MB·English

by  Peter Utting (auth.)

INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY SERIES
General Editor: Timothy M. Shaw, Professor of Political Science and
International Development Studies, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
The global political economy is in a profound crisis at levels of both production and
policy. This series provides overviews and case-studies of states and sectors, classes
and companies in the new international division of labour. These embrace political
economy as both focus and mode of analysis; they advance radical scholarship and
scenarios.
The series treats polity-economy dialectics at global, regional and national levels
and examines novel contradictions and coalitiqns between and within each. There
is a special emphasis on national bourgeoisies ~nd capitalisms, on newly industrial
or influential countries, and on novel strategies and technologies. The concentration
throughout is on uneven patterns of power and production, authority and distribu
tion, hegemony and reaction. Attention will be paid to redefinitions of class and
security, basic needs and self-reliance and the range of critical analysis will include
gender, population, resources, environment, militarization, food and finance. This
series constitutes a timely and distinctive response to the continuing intellectual and
existential world crisis.
Recent titles:
Robert Boardman
PESTICIDES IN WORLD AGRICULTURE
Inga Brandell (editor)
WORKERS IN THIRD-WORLD INDUSTRIALIZATION
Bonnie K. Campbell (editor)
POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL DEBT CRISIS
Bonnie K. Campbell and John Loxley (editors)
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN AFRICA
Jerker Carlsson and Timothy M. Shaw (editors)
NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZING COUNTRIES AND THE POLITICAL
ECONOMY OF SOUTH-SOUTH RELATIONS
David P. Forsythe (editor)
HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT
THE UNITED NATIONS IN THE WORLD POLITICAL ECONOMY
David Glover and Ken Kusterer
SMALL FARMERS, BIG BUSINESS
Steven Kendall Holloway
THE ALUMINIUM MULTINATIONALS AND THE BAUXITE CARTEL
Matthew Martin
THE CRUMBLING FA<;ADE OF AFRICAN DEBT NEGOTIATIONS
James H. Mittelman
OUT FROM UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Dennis C. Pirages and Christine Sylvester (editors)
TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
Garry Rodan
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SINGAPORE'S INDUSTRIALIZATION
Jorge Rodriguez Beruff, J. Peter Figueroa and J. Edward Greene (editors)
CONFLICT, PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN
Patricia Ruffin
CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM IN CUBA
Roger Southall (editor)
LABOUR AND UNIONS IN ASIA AND AFRICA
Peter Utting
ECONOMIC REFORM AND THIRD-WORLD SOCIALISM
Fiona Wilson
SWEATERS: GENDER, CLASS AND WORKSHOP-BASED INDUSTRY
IN MEXICO
David Wurfel and Bruce Burton (editors)
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF FOREIGN POLICY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Economic Reform and
Third-World Socialism
A Political Economy of Food Policy in
Post-Revolutionary Societies
Peter Utting
Research Consultant
United Nations Research Institute
for Social Development, Geneva
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-22097-7 ISBN 978-1-349-22095-3 ((eeBBooookk))
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22095-3
© United Nations Research Institute for Social Development 1992
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1992
ISBN 978-0-312-06807-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Utting, Peter.
Economic reform and third-world socialism: a political economy of
food policy in post-revolutionary societies/peter Utting.
p. cm.-(International political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-06807-3
1. Food supply-Government policy-Developing countries.
2. Agriculture and state-Developing countries. 3. Land reform
-Developing countries. 4. Developing countries-Economic policy.
5. Socialism-Developing countries. 6. Communism-Developing
countries. I. Title. II. Series.
HD9018.D44U88 1992
338.1'91724--dc20 91-24939
CIP
Contents
List of Tables and Maps viii
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
PART I ORTHODOXY AND REFORM IN SOCIALIST
COUNTRIES
1 What Can Be Learnt from Theory and the Experience
of the Soviet Union and China? 11
Introduction 11
Orthodox Socialist Development Strategy 12
Economic and Food Policy Reforms: Past and Present 17
Explaining the Reforms 24
The Specificity of the Dependent Transitional Society 38
PART II ECONOMIC AND FOOD POLICY REFORM
IN MOZAMBIQUE, VIETNAM AND CUBA
2 Mozambique 49
Introduction 49
Post-Revolutionary Food and Development Policy 51
Economic and Food Policy Reforms 56
Explaining the Reforms 62
Conclusion 78
3 Vietnam 83
Introduction 83
Post-Revolutionary Food and Development Policy 84
Economic and Food Policy Reforms 92
Explaining the Reforms 100
Conclusion 113
4 Cuba 117
Introduction 117
Post-Revolutionary Food and Development Policy 119
Economic and Food Policy Reforms 124
Explaining the Reforms 134
Conclusion 146
v
vi Contents
PART III ECONOMIC AND FOOD POLICY REFORM
IN NICARAGUA
Introduction 153
5 Post-Revolutionary Food and Development Policy 155
Basic Development Principles and Goals 157
Agrarian Reform 159
Cheap Food Policy 165
Agricultural Modernization and Agroindustrialization 168
6 Economic and Food Policy Reforms 172
Dealing with the Peasant Question 173
Altering the Domestic Terms of Trade 175
Liberalizing Trade 177
From Basic Needs to Selective Provisioning 179
Altering the Accumulation/Consumption Balance 183
Redefining 'Mixed Economy' 184
Economic Stabilization and Adjustment: 1988 and 1989 185
7 The Nature of the Crisis 193
Early Post-Revolutionary Performance 193
Economic Decline 194
Decline in the Levels of Living 198
The Political and Military Threat 199
Crisis and Transition 201
Reinsertion and Realignment in the World System 202
The Transformation of Social Relations and Structures
of Income and Wealth 207
The Rapid and 'Rational' Development of the
Productive Forces 213
8 The Changing Balance of Social Forces, Participation
and the Policy Process 226
Introduction 226
State-Society Relations 226
The Emergence of the Peasantry as a Dominant Social
Force 229
The Working Class: A New Alliance and a Specific
rade-off 235
The Urban Informal Sector and the CDS: Declining
Participation in the Policy Process 241
The Bureaucracy: Inter- and Intra-Institutional
Tensions 245
Conclusion 246
Contents vii
PART IV THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF
ECONOMIC AND FOOD POLICY REFORM
IN DEPENDENT TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES
9 The Third World Experience in Comparative
Perspective 253
Introduction 253
The Content of the Reforms 253
The Crisis of the State 256
Social Change and Contradictions 262
Social Structure, Civil Society and Participation 276
Conclusion 283
Bibliography 289
Index 306
List of Tables and Maps
Tables
1.1 Levels of technological development in agriculture,
1984 42
1.2 Structure of production 42
1.3 Basic needs: nutrition and infant mortality, 1985 42
1.4 National, agricultural, urban and economically-active
population (EAP), 1980 43
2.1 Changes in the composition of imports, 1976, 1978,
1981-84 55
2.2 Indices of cereals and food production, 1976-83 64
2.3 Registered marketing of selected crops, 1975-85 66
2.4 Sources of marketed grain, 1982 66
2.5 Visible trade deficit and import coverage, 1976-82 66
2.6 Agriculture, fish and forestry exports 67
2.7 Index of agro-industrial and light industrial
production, 1973, 1980, 1982 67
3.1 Population and number of co-operator families in
North Vietnam 85
3.2 Legal ownership, area and use of land in North
Vietnam 85
3.3 Production levels of selected agricultural inputs and
consumer goods in North Vietnam, 1960, 1965, 1975 88
3.4 Staples production and state procurement levels in
North Vietnam 89
3.5 National and per capita cereals production indices
(SRV), 1974-83 101
3.6 Staples output and per capita availability from
domestic production in North Vietnam 101
3.7 Employment structure in the SRV, 1980 113
4.1 Marketed production of selected food crops,
1958-75 122
4.2 The adult monthly ration, 1983 124
4.3 Retail price increases for selected food products,
1981 128
4.4 Gross investment (GI) ratio, 1971-83 129
viii
List of Tables and Maps ix
4.5 Official average annual growth rates of gross social
product (GSP) 1962-85 137
4.6 Changes in the composition of the labour force by
sector, 1970--79 138
4.7 Composition of agricultural labour force, 1970--81 141
5.1 The land reform process 161
5.2 Rural class structure in Nicaragua, 1984 162
5.3 Trends in food imports, 1978--84 166
6.1 Land redistribution in Nicaragua, 1981-86 174
6.2 Evolution of agricultural price index and terms of
trade, 1980--87 176
6.3 Evolution of relative prices: agricultural products
versus basic manufactures, 1978--87 176
6.4 Maize and beans: costs of production, official and
open market prices, 1986 177
6.5 Fixed investment, 1980--86 184
7.1 Gross domestic product in Central America, annual
growth rate, 1980--86 194
7.2 Trends in agricultural production (1974-78,
1980/81-1985/86) 195
7.3 Per capita food consumption levels, 1976--78,
1980--86 195
7.4 Annual increase in the retail price index, 1982-86 196
7.5 Evolution of trade deficit, 1974-77, 1980--86 196
7.6 Evolution of state procurement levels of grains,
coffee and milk, 1980--87 197
7.7 Structure of economically-active population, 1980--85 198
7.8 Direct economic cost of the war, 1980--85 204
7.9 Share of total government expenditure accounted for
by defence, health, education expenditures and fiscal
deficit, 1980--82, 1983--85 205
7.10 Evolution of large-scale private production,
1982/83--1986/87 208
7.11 Alternative interpretations of rural social structure,
1978--80 219
7.12 Evolution of public- and private-sector consumption,
1978--85 222
7.13 Evolution of state and private investment, 1980--82,
1983--85 222
7.14 Evolution of state-sector agricultural production,
1982-87 223