The Agrarian Question and Reformism in Latin America

328 Pages·1981·0.36 MB·English

by  Alain de Janvry

THE AGRARIAN QUESTION
AND REFORMISM IN
LATIN AMERICA
Alain de Janvry
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore and London
assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
el981 The Johos Hopkins University Prel!:
All rights re.erved
Printed io Ihe Uoiled Siaies of America
Ori.lnaJJy published (hnrdcover nod paperback). 1981
Second primln@: (paperhQck)' 1983
Third printing (paperback). 198~
Fourth printing (paperbackl. 1990
The Jtmns Hopkins Univcnily Prel's
70 I West 40th Street
Ralthnore, Maryland 21211
The Johns Hopkins Pru& Lid .• London
ibrary of Congress Catalogln@: In Publication Data
de Janvry. Alain
The agrarian question and refomlism i
Bibliography: pp. 303-6.
Includes indel.
I. Agriculture Ilnd 5late-Latin America. 2. und reform-tali
America. I. ntle.
HDI790.S.ZBD4 1981 338.1'88 81-4147
ISDN 0·8018·2S)I·8 AACR2
ISDN 0·8018·2S32·6 (pbk.)
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Contents
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Preface xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction I
ChaPter 1. Laws of MotIon In the Center-Periphery Structure:
The Underlying Forces 7
Evolulion of Thought on Unequal Development 9
The Dialectic Between Production and Circulation 23
Contradictions of Accumulation in Articulated Economies 26
Contradictions of Accumulation in Disarticulated Economies 32
Dependency, CIa •• Structure, and Social Disarticulation 40
Market-Widening and Market-Deepening 45
Mechanisms of Surplus Transfer Between Center and Periphery 50
Industrial and Financial Imperialism 50
Surplus Transfer Through Trade 52
Unequal E~chan8e 53
Unequal Trade 54
Unequal Rewards in the Formation of International Prices 54
Accumulation in the Center-Periphery Structure and the Current
Crisis 55
Chapter 2. Agrarian CrIsiS In Latin America: The Facts 61
Integration of Latin American Agriculture into the National and World
Economies 61
Contents
Patterns of Growth and Stagnation 68
The Rise and Logic of Functional Dualism 81
The Contradictions of Functional Dualism 85
Chapter 3. Transformation of the AgrarIan Structure
and the Peasantry 94
The Nature and Future of the Peasanlry 95
The Marxist Classics 96
Peasantry as a Specific Type of Economy 100
An Alternati ve Conceptualization of Peasants 102
Roads to the Development of Capitalism in Agriculture 106
Modes of Production. Social Classes. and Types of Farm Enter-
prises 109
A Typology of Fann Enterprises 109
Empirical Characterization of the Rural Class Structure 114
Dynamics of Class Differentiation 117
Empirical Characterization of Class Differentiation: Global
Data 118
Empirical Characterization of Class Differentiation: Country
Studies 123
Mexico 123
Colombia 131
Peru 136
Chapter 4. DIsartIculated AccumulatIon and Agrarian Crlsla
Prevalent Theses on the Food and Hunger Crisis 141
Neo-Malthusianism 142
Technological Detenninism 143
Monetarist Thesis of Stagnation 144
Structuralist Thesis of Stagnation 146
Overconsumption: Austerity and Aid 148
Poverty: Employment and Nutrition Programs 149
Material Detenninants of the Agrarian Crisis 151
The Contradiction Between Rent and Profit in the Transition to
Capitalism 152
Cheap Food and Foreign Exchange: The Contradictions 157
Food Self-Sufficiency Versus Comparative Advantages 158
Cheap-Food Policies Versus Development of Capitalism in
Agriculture 162
Technological Bias Toward Laborsaving 169
Use Versus Reproduction of the Peasantry as a Source of Cheap
Food 172
The Global Crisis 174
1be New World Order: A New International Division of Labor for
Agriculture? 175
Chapter 5. The Polllical Economy of Reformism 182
The Capitalist State 183
1be Petty Bourgeoisie and Legitimation 187
The Peripheral State 191
Refonns and the Management of Crises 193
The Limits of Refonnism 195
Legitimacy Crisis of the State 196
Fiscal Crisis of the State 196
Adminislrative Crisis of the State 197
Agrarian Refonnism in Latin America 197
Chapler 8. Types and Consequencas of Land Reform 202
A Typology of Land Refonns 203
Redistributive Reforms 207
Transition from Precapitalist Mode to Junker Road 208
Transition from Precapitalist Mode to Fanner Road 209
Shift from Junker Road to Farmer Road 209
Transition from Junker Road to Precapitalist Mode 210
Transition from Fanner Road to Precapitalist Mode 210
Shift from Farmer Road to Junker Road 210
'Consequences of Land Reforms 211
Observation I: Market Expansion 21/
Observation II: Development of Capitalism in the Nonrefonn
Sector 214
Observation IU: Political Stabilization Through the Refonn
Sector 218
Observation IV: Functional Dualism 220
The End of Land Reform 221
Chapter 7. The Strategy of Integrated Rural Development
A Typology of Rural·Development Projects 224
Criteria for the Evaluation of Rural-Development Projects 231
Puebla-Type Rural-Development Projects 234
The Puebla Project 234
The Garcia Rovira Project 235
The Cajamarca Project 237
Economic Achievements of Rural-Development Projects 238
Contents
Structural Characteristics of the Peasant Economy That Condition Technolog-
ical Change 239
Functional Dualism 239
Semi proletarianization 242
Labor Scarcity 246
Profitabil ity and Risk 247
New Technologies for Peasant Agriculture 248
Effective Demand 249
Risk 250
Diffusion Strategy 250
Extension Model 250
Institutional Linkages 25 J
The Political Economy of Integrated Rural Development 252
Chapter 8. The AgrarIan Quastlon and Change
In latin America: Conclualons 255
Policy Proposals for Growth with Equity 255
Employment Creation 256
Integrated Rural Development 256
Redistribution with Growth and Basic Needs 256
New International Economic Order 257
Redistribution Before Growth 257
The Limits of Reformism 259
The Political Economy of Equitable Growth 264
Notes 269
Selected Bibliography 303
Index 307
Figures
I. I. Structure of an Aniculated Economy 27
1.2. Structure of Disarticulated Export-Enclave Economies 32
1.3. Structure of Disarticulated Import-Substitution Industrialization
Economies 33
104. Productivity of Labor and Real Wages in Manufacturing, United States
and Brazil, 1966-74 35
1.5. Social Class Structure and Alliances 42
Contents
3.1. Social Classes and Types of Farm Enterprises in Latin
America 110
3.2. Dynamic Process of Class Differentiation in Latin America
6.1. Typology of Land Refonns in Latin America 205
7. I. 1'ypes of Agnuian Reforms 225
Tables
Average Annual Growth RaIeS in Gross Domestic Product, Manufa c-
turing, and Gross Fixed Capital Ponnation 19
1.2. Growth and Income Distribution, 1960-70 36
1.3. Share of Different Income Strata in Total Consumption, 1974, and
Growth Rate of Production by Type of Commodity, 1967-68 to
1975-76 47
1.4. Mexico: Distribution of Income and Consumption in Urban Hoose-_
holds, 1968 49
1.5. Flow of Funds Related to Direct U.S. Investment, 1960-72 51
2. I. Agricultural Production in Latin America, Selected Vears 69
2.2. Rate of Growth of Production by Commodity and Country, 1948-52 to
1968-72 72
2.3. Real Price Tendencies (Rate of Change per Year), 1950-70 74
2.4. Share of Large Farms in Total Production, and Mean Area Harvested
per Farm, 1950-71 75
2.5. Share of Production Sold and Share of Labor Hired,
by Crop 77
2.6. Grain Dependency: Sbare of Impons in Total Consumption, 1948-52
and 1968-72 78
2.7. Share of Selected Foods in the Urban Wage Basket, Selected Years and
Countries 79
2.8. Share of Exports in Total Production, 1948-52 and
1968-72 80
3.1. Rural Social Classes in Latin America: Distribution of Households and
Land 1/5
3.2. Dynantics of Land Tenure Systems: Initial and Tenninal
Percenillges 119
3.3. Size of Farms Less Than 5 Hectares in Area for Eleven Central and
South American Countries, 1950-70 122
3.4. Mexico: Hectares of Land Benefited by Major Federal Irrigation Proj-
ects as a Percentage of Total Hectares Cultivated, 1940-60 125
3.5. Mexico: Value Share of Agricultural Production, 1950 and
1960 126
3.6. Mexico: Distribution of Cultivated Area and Value Share of Production
by Farm Size, 1940-70 127
Contents
3.7. Mexico: Average Area per Landholding, 1960 and 1970 128
3.8. Mexico: Number of Farms, Percentage of Farms, and Total Land
Area in the Private Sector Controlled by Farms, by Farm Size,
1940-70 130
3.9. Colombia: Value Share of Total Production by Type of Crop, 1950-55
and 1971-76 133
3.10. Colombia: Land Area Cultivated, by Type of Crop, 1950-55 and
1971-76 134
3.11. Colombia: Land Distribution by Number and Size of Farm and by
Total Area, 1960 and 1970 135
3.12. Peru: Distribution of Farms and Agricultural Land by Farm Size,
1960-70 139
4.1. Price of Nitrogen Relative to That of Wheat and Com at the Producer
Level in Latin America and Elsewhere 165
4.2. Wheat Yields and Relative Prices Received by Farmers,
1968-70 166
4.3. Comparison of Annual Rates of Change in Selected Economic Indi-
cators in the United States, 1950-68 and 1968-77 177
6.1. Statistical Information on Land Reforms in Selected Latin American
Countries, 1917-76 206
7.1. Puebla: Profitability of Farm Activities by Farm Type, 1970 241
7.2. Cajamarca, Puebla, and Garcia Rovira: Distribution of Farms by Farm
Type, 1970-73 243
7.3. Cajamarca, Puebla, and Garcia Rovira: Sources of Net Household
Income by Farm Type 244
7.4. Cajamarca: Sources of Net Household Income by Farm Type,
1973 245
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Preface
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While in the field in Latin America as well as in the classroom teaching
coorses on economic and agricultural development at Berkeley, I have re
peatedly been impressed by two frustrations that are widely shared by others
and thai thus motivated me to write this book. One is that practitionen; of
economic development-policy makers, project direeton;, international
donor.I and lenders, and political activists-lack a global interpretative
framework that would allow them to give consistency to the variety of actions
they undertake. As a result, the practice of economic development bas been
reduced to the evaluation and implementation of disconnected projects. Un
derlying these projects is a dramatic paucity of unden;tanding of how they fit
into the broader economy. and what their political implications are. Most
particularly, there is a general incomprehension (or neglect) of the stale as a
social phenomenon and of illl logic, role, and limits in the management of
reforms. In terms of the practice of development, a crying need thus exists for
8 unifying flllll\ework that is both sufficiently comprehensive to explain the
multidimensional facets of underdevelopment and suffICiently simple to pr0-
vide ,8 broad set of guidelines that an in turn be made more specific in
particular historical, geographical, and ideological contexts to serve as a basis
for policy formulation and pOlitical action. This book is consequendy wrillen
principally for practitioners of economic and agricultura1 development who
have been preoccupied with finding a consistent theoretical frameworll in
which to interpret the situations they observe and want to tnlnsfOflll.
The other frustration that has recurrently perturbed me is that the global
interpretations that have been developed-in the context of modernization
Prerace
Iheory as well as In that of political economy-have remained at. very general
BJId abstract levels. This, while pleasing to academic 8cholm of world eco
nomic systems and armchair revolutionaries, has left the practitioners of eco·
nomic development, from policy-makers to political activists, in a vacuum:
!he global frameworks have provided only sweeping directives that can hardly
be translated into pragmatic programs, and specific projects can be fitted Into
the global frameworks only in a rather distant and artificial fashion. In this
hook, I consequently attempt to show that this vacuum need not exist; a global
interpretative framework is indeed essential for policy and political action,
and il can serve to give very pragmatic directives for the definition and
implementation of "what i8 to be done." Not only should the test of a
theory '8 relevance be Its ability to guide social action; conversely, a concern
with the practical e~lgencies involved In changing the existing social reality is
essential for developing a meaningful social theory. Consequently, this book
is also written for scholars BJId students of economic development in an
attempt to funher our understanding of the global phenomenon of underde
velopment In the world economic system and to show how this knowledge can
be used in the analysis and design of specific projects.
I am of course aware that by standing thus between two powerful traditions
in development economics-pragmatic project design BJId abstract studi. .. of
global frameworks-I e~pose myself to critiques from both flanks. The prac
titioners may lose patience with the generalities that will often appear to them
to be rhetorical and gB8p for immediate gUidelines for Bction. I believe that
these guidelines are there but that they can be deduced from the global
framework only through historical and conjunctural studies of the infmily of
concrete situlltions-a task thllt is left to each practitioner BJId that is forever
undenaken anew. The scholars of global systems may also lose patience with
the specificity of the analysis of particular projects, such as land reform and
rural development, which Inevitably brings us to Ihe level of the concrete,
such as farming systems in peasant fields on the Alliplano. It is my hope,
however, thai both practitioners nod scholars will admit that the problems of
world underdevelopment, and especially the dramas of widespread hunger
and massive rural poveny, are some of the most pressing we race today and
that an essenllal first step in moving toward a solution is to bridge tbe e~istins
gap between global interpretations and pragmatic policy and political
guidelines. Bven if modestly, this study attempts to mOVe in that direction.
The writing of this book took several yem and involved extended periods
of stay in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru as well"" frequent visita to
Ecuador, Me~ico, the Dominican Republic, BJId Brazil. My main indebted
ness goes to my students at Berkeley, who provided both a constant opponu
nity for joint learning and invaluable B• •l stance. I want in particular to ac
knowledge the contributions of Carlos Garram6n, Luis Crouch, Margaret
Andrews, David Runsten, Carmen Diana Deere, Lynn Ground, RamOn
Crouch, Marilyn Skyles, &lnalda da Sliva, William Gibson, Frank Kramer,