The Political Economy of Agrarian Change.

This course will mainly cover the political economy of rural change as societies transform from pre-industrial forms to more industrial. In addition it will consider the state of agricultural class relations worldwide in the context of globalization. During the course of the semester we will compare the classical transition as described by Karl Marx in Capital to more contemporaneous changes occurring in the world. We shall also consider how these changes differ in countries that elected a socialist path of development as compared to a capitalist one. In examining this transition we shall be particularly interested in examining issues of class differentiation, the various “modes of production” debates that took place worldwide, the relationship between productivity and size of holding, changes in the distribution of assets, the creation of wage labour, gender roles, institutional changes and the various ways that accumulation takes place. We shall also consider the role of the state in mid-wifing the transition and in trying to manage the tensions created by this process. The course will end by examining whether the classical agrarian question exists in a globalized world. The course will address the questions above by primarily examining a series of debates on the Agrarian question. We will start by reading the end of Capital on primitive accumulation. This will be followed by an examination of the transition from feudalism in Europe, including Kautsky and Lenin’s work on Agriculture, followed by an examination of the Japanese transition. We will then turn to Mao’s approach as an introduction to the question in the third world. This portion will include examining the Indian Modes of Production Debate, and the Debates in Latin America and Africa focusing on the “Nairobi Debates” in Africa. For the African component given both the state of Africa and the fact that it may not be as common in our curriculum will devote a little more time to questions of transition and African economic history. We will use the last part of the class to look at issues of Land reform today. This will begin with a discussion of the Griffin et al articles and the responses in the Journal of Agrarian Studies, followed by a critical review of the Lipton’s new book on Land reform. While the class will attempt to cover all these questions the particular topics will depend on students’ interests.