Peasants in Power: The Political Economy of Development and Genocide in Rwanda

282 Pages·2013·4.31 MB·English

by  Philip Verwimp (auth.)

Philip Verwimp
Peasants in Power
The Political Economy of Development
and Genocide in Rwanda
Peasants in Power
Philip Verwimp
Peasants in Power
The Political Economy of Development
and Genocide in Rwanda
123
Philip Verwimp
Solvay Brussels Schoolof Economicsand Management
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Brussels
Belgium
ISBN 978-94-007-6433-0 ISBN 978-94-007-6434-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6434-7
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013935771
(cid:2)SpringerScience+BusinessMediaDordrecht2013;Chapter6:(cid:2)BlackwellPublishingLtd2011
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionor
informationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief
excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the
purposeofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthe
work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of
theCopyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must
always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the
CopyrightClearanceCenter.ViolationsareliabletoprosecutionundertherespectiveCopyrightLaw.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexempt
fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of
publication,neithertheauthorsnortheeditorsnorthepublishercanacceptanylegalresponsibilityfor
anyerrorsoromissionsthatmaybemade.Thepublishermakesnowarranty,expressorimplied,with
respecttothematerialcontainedherein.
Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Advance Praise for Peasants in Power
‘‘ThisbookwillmakeamajorimpactnotonlyonthescholarshipoftheRwandan
genocidebutalsoonourknowledgeofagrariansocietiesandtheirsusceptibilityin
timesofeconomiccrisistostateorelitemanipulation,particularlythosesocieties
that are densely-populated, smallholder-dominated, and ethnically divided. It is a
striking intervention on a topic of global concern that is not likely to diminish in
the future, given current trends of population growth, resource exhaustion,
ecological crisis, ethnopolitical polarization, and proliferation of weaponry.’’
BenKiernan,A.WhtineyGriswold,ProfessorofHistory,professorofinternational
and areas studies, and founding director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale
University,authorofBloodandSoil
‘‘Rather than an act of inter-ethnic madness, this books shows how the Rwandan
genocide emanated directly from the development path the country had chosen
after independence. Verwimp’s argument brings genocide into the study of
development in the same way that Barrington Moore’s integrated democracy into
it.Indeedinasensehehasprovideduswithanew‘‘pathintothemodernworld.’’
James A. Robinson, Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University, co-
author of Why Nations Fail and the Economic Origins of Dictatorship and
Democracy
‘‘For everyone willing to understand how apparently kind and calm people can
suddenly lead their society to a nightmarish descent into chaos and genocidal
killings, reading ‘‘Peasants in Power’’ will be an invaluable step. The author has
workedformorethantenyearsontheissueandisnowaworldexpertinthefield.’’
Jean-Philippe Platteau, Professor of Development Economics in Namur and at the
CentrefortheStudyofAfricanEconomies,OxfordUniversity,authorofInstitutions,
SocialNormsandEconomicDevelopment
‘‘PhilipVerwimp’sdeeplyresearchedbookisanimportantadditiontothegrowing
body of literature on the Rwandan genocide addressing its complex dynamics of
violence. Verwimp explores the entanglement between the developmental state,
theinstitutionsoftheregimeandordinaryRwandans‘‘inthehills’’.Heshowshow
the emergence of specific moral ‘reference frames’ is intricately linked to the
political and economic set-up. The book deserves a wide reading among scholars
and practitioners interested in African politics, economics, and genocide more
generally.’’
Anna-MariaBrandstetter,Ph.d.inAnthropologyandSeniorResearcherattheCenter
forAfricanStudies,JohannesGutenbergUniversity,Mainz,authorofDieRhetorik
vonReinheit,GewaltandGemeinschaft:BürgerkriegandGenozidinRwanda
‘‘To be ruled is to be kept an eye on, inspected, spied on, regulated,
indoctrinated, sermonized, listed and checked off, estimated,
appraised, censured, ordered about… To be ruled is at every
operation, transaction, movement, to be noted, registered, counted,
priced, admonished, prevented, reformed, redressed, corrected’’.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, quoted in
Guérin D., Anarchism: From Theory to Practice,
Translated by Mary Klopper,
New York, Monthly Review Press, 1970
Preface
Over the past 15 years I have published a dozen scientific articles on the political
economy of development and genocide in Rwanda. I would not have found the
energytodothatiftheeventIwasstudyingwouldnothavehadthemagnitudethat
it did. When I first heard about the genocide I was blown away by its horror, its
speed and its sheer complexity. What had happened in that small country in
Central Africa seemed incomprehensible. Were humans really capable of doing
this to one another on the eve of the twenty-first century?
I was fortunate to be able to channel my energy, curiosity, incomprehension,
and thrust for understanding in a doctoral program and dissertation in economics.
At the time, we speak of 1998, this was not straightforward. Doctoral Schools in
Economics in the late 1990s were known for their unified approach to teaching
economicsandlearninghowtodoeconomicresearch.Mostofmyfellowgraduate
students were skilled theorists whose mathematical skills I could hardly match.
While several graduate students wrote empirical dissertations only the develop-
ment economists would go out to the field to collect their own data. The idea to
collect data in a developing country, learn how to do development economics in
practice, combinedwiththe chance toinvestigate thecausesandconsequences of
one of the most horrific crimes of the twentieth century provided the energy
necessarytofinishthedoctoralcourseworkandembarkonadissertation.Iamstill
grateful to my doctoral advisers at the time as well as to the Fund for Scientific
Research (FWO) for the support they gave to start this intellectual journey.
During my years in high school, at the university and till today I entertain a
broad interest in history and politics. I never saw this as a waste of time as some
believeitisforaneconomistwhoneedstowriteacademicarticles.Infact,history
and politics provide the framework to ask questions on the economy. I was an
institutional economist before I knew what that meant. Luckily, by the end of the
1990s we saw the first signs of a renewed interest in political economy in eco-
nomics.Forayoungeconomistinterestedinhistory,politicsanddevelopment,this
interest was great because it gave the feeling that there were many scholars out
ix
x Preface
therewhowereinterestedinthepoliticaleconomyofdevelopment.Today,writing
this preface in 2012, this seems obvious as political economy approaches in
general and development economics in particular have gained center ground in
economics.
Throughout the years and with each academic article on Rwanda I gained a
deeper understanding of the forces that lead to the genocide. The constraints
propertoanarticle,however,rarelyallowaresearchertoexplainwhat(s)hewants
toexplainindepthandatlength.Ithereforewrotethisbook.Thereaderwillnotice
that I am sharing insights that I have never published earlier in the form of an
academicarticle.Thebookisfarfromacollectionofpreviouslypublishedpapers.
Rather, I integrate several previously published papers with new chapters in an
attempt to increase our overall understanding of development and genocide in
Rwanda.Morethanhalfofthecontentofthisbookisnew.TheChaps.1,3,5,7–9
as well as the conclusion presented in Chap. 11 are researched uniquely for this
book.
I would like to thank the publishers of different journals for the permission to
usepreviouslypublishedarticlesforthisbook.Anearlyversionofthefirstchapter
was published in the Journal of Genocide Studies in 2000 as well as in a mono-
graph on genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda edited by Susan Cook in 2004. The
versionpublishedinthebookisrevisedandupdated.Chapter4wasfirstpublished
in the European Journal of Political Economy in 2003 with a completely new
version in the Journal of Theoretical Politics in 2012. Chapter 6 was published in
the Journal of Agrarian Studies in 2011 and has not been changed since then. A
part of Chap. 10 has been published as a Working Paper on the Households in
Conflictwebsitein2007.Idrawonseveralofmyother,inparticulareconometric
articles on the causes and consequences of the genocide in this book, but these
articles are not reproduced here.
Thefollowingpersonsmeritaspecialwordofgratitudefortheirsupporttothe
research for the chapters published in this book: Stefan Dercon and Lodewijk
Berlage, my thesis advisors at the Catholic University of Leuven; Ben Kiernan,
renowedgenocidescholaratYaleUniversitywhereIstudiedoneyear(1999)and
one semester (2004). I benefited from a Fellowship from the Belgian American
Educational Foundationand from a Fulbright-Hays Grant to support both stays at
Yale.ThelateAlisonDesforgeswasnotonlyaprofoundexpertonRwandaanda
human rights activist but also one of the most inspiring persons I have ever met.
Victor Ginsburg emeritus professor of economics at the Université Libre de
Bruxellesgavevaluableadviceonthestructureofthemanuscript.Icouldrelyon
the skills of my editor at Springer-Verlag Hendrinkje Tuerlings throughout the
productionprocess.IamgratefultoFrancoisBartforthepermissiontoreproduce
three maps from his 1993 book. Chapter 4 benefited from the insights of my co-
author Bart Capéau with whom I wrote the 2012 article on the political economy
of dictatorship mentioned above. Chapter 9 is co-authored by Jacob Boersema.
Chapter 10 is co-authored by all graduate students who performed fieldwork in
Preface xi
Rwanda in 2004, in alphabetical order Jacob Boersema, Arlette Brone, Jerome
Charlier,Bert Ingelaere, Shanley Pinchotti, Inge Thiry,CecelleMeijer,and Marij
Spiesschaert. I express my deep appreciation for the many Rwandans and non-
Rwandans who have shared their stories and insights with me over the years.
Brussels, May 2012 Philip Verwimp
Contents
1 Development, Dictatorship and Genocide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Genocide in Rwanda: A Campaign Unlike Anything Else. . . . 1
1.2 Short History of State Formation in Rwanda . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 The Argument of the Book in a Nutshell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 A Political Economy Approach to Genocide . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4.1 The Economic Analysis of Dictatorship . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4.2 The Political Economy of Population Density . . . . . . 17
1.5 Outline of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2 The Nature of the Second Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1 An Unconventional Source of Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2 Habyarimana Combined Pronatalism
with Malthusian Believes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.3 Food Self-Reliance, Endogenous Development
and Political Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4 Habyarimana Pictured Himself as a Peasant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.4.1 Ruralisation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.4.2 Umuganda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.4.3 The Glorification of the Peasantry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.5 Habyarimana had a Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.5.1 The Ethnic Cleansing and Coup d’état of 1973 . . . . . 44
2.5.2 A Policy of ‘Ethnic Equilibrium’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.5.3 A Remarkable Anniversary Publication in 1987. . . . . 50
2.6 Concluding Remarks to this Chapter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3 The Rwandan Economy 1973–1994: From Macro to Micro . . . . . 55
3.1 Population Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.2 Macro-Economic Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.3 The Rural Household Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.4 Taxation and Public Goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.5 Poverty and Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.5.1 Ethnic Income Disparities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
xiii