Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy)

Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy)
Average customer rating:

Straightforward, seminal - - if perhaps too simple

A Testimony to Dependent Development

Rational Choice Approcah to African Agricultural Crisis

Extracting Rents Away from the Agricultural Sector

Explains how states affect market operations in Africa

Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy)
Robert H. Bates
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Agricultural | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Federal Government | Levels of Government | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 19791999 (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)

Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy

The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia

States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World

ASIN: 0520244931

Book Description

Most Africans live in rural areas and derive their incomes from farming; but because African governments follow policies that are adverse to most farmers' interests, these countries fail to produce enough food to feed their populations. Markets and States in Tropical Africa analyzes these and other paradoxical features of development in modern Africa and explores how governments have intervened and diverted resources from farmers to other sectors of society. A classic of the field since its publication in 1981, this edition includes a new preface by the author.

Customer Reviews:

Straightforward, seminal - - if perhaps too simple.......2007-08-07

This book examines a simple and important puzzle: why do African governments choose such terrible economic policies? These policies are especially bad for agriculture, even though most Africans are farmers.

The answer is simple: African governments systematically favor urban interests. That means that they provide cheap food for urban workers, which means cheap labor for urban businesses (capital). These groups are outnumbered, but they live in the cities. This means that labor and capital can mobilize politically against the government in the capital city, while farmers - - who are scattered all over a large countryside with poor transportation links - - find it very difficult to pressure the government.

Bates' basic claim has much to recommend it. It is simple, yet it served as a productive research agenda for other studies - - such as Michael Lofchie's comparison of Kenya and Tanzania, among others. It is no wonder that this book made Bates' reputation, and was a seminal contribution to political economy in its day.

Its simplicity also makes the argument incomplete. Though he does discuss colonial legacies, Bates doesn't consider the wider international context. African countries would find it difficult to pursue pro-farmer policies because the rich world, especially in Europe and Japan, closes its markets to many African food products. Certainly this fact deserves to play an important role when we consider the poor choices that African governments make.

A Testimony to Dependent Development.......2007-04-26

The decolonization of Africa was espoused by two ideals of the African people: political independence and economic development. The African nationalists attributed their economic backwardness to their colonial heritage and believed that `independence' would pave the way to prosperity. Yet facing the dilemmas of economic development and the limitations of the international system, they eventually ended up with inefficient industrial firms, impoverished peasantry, and increased economic inequality.

Robert Bates' Markets and States in Tropical Africa analyzes the reasons for and the mechanism of state intervention in market in African states. Like every other country who has attempted to develop so far, independent African countries too faced the dilemmas of economic development, namely capital accumulation and market creation. The economies of Africa have been overwhelmingly rural in nature and the governing elites in Africa aimed to change this situation by through industrialization. The scarcity of capital led national elites to extract resources from agriculture and channel them into manufacture and industry. What is important here, as Bates emphasize, is that all nations seeking to industrialize have done this: "The African policies are thus notable not as exceptions but as examples of a larger class," (p. 119). The forms of economic manipulation were compatible with the prevailing economic doctrines: industry is the engine of growth, savings come from the profits of industry, rural sector should be squeezed for development, etc. (p. 97).

The African governments had both economic and political incentives to channel resources from the rural agricultural sector to the urban industrial enterprises. On the one side they regarded this as necessary for the industrialization and economic development of their countries; on the other side, "the politicization of the electorate" in the nationalist era pushed the governing elite to follow clientalist policies to maintain their political status. As Bates put is, the resources allocated through governmental programs have been channeled to those "whose support is politically useful or economically rewarding to the state - that is, to members of the elite," (p. 56).

As for the instruments of state intervention in the market, African governments mostly exploited taxes, tariffs, and subsidies to transfer resources from rural areas to urban ones. Government in Africa subsidized fertilizers, seeds, mechanical equipments, land, and credit for commercial farming (p. 50). The taxes collected from the rural areas constituted the bulk of these subsidies given to the urban and rural elites. Also, to promote industrial development, African governments constructed protective barriers between the world and domestic markets which sheltered local industries from foreign competition (p. 66). Apparently, the peasantry has been the victim of both policies.

The history of African economic development in the post-independence era in general and Robert Bates' book in particular demonstrate the inevitability of the sacrifices and burden that at least one class should undertake. Historically speaking, these classes have usually been peasantry and workers. A capitalist economic development necessitates the accumulation of capital in the hands of a capitalist entrepreneur class, which forces the state to intervene in the market and to channel resources from the lower strata to the upper ones. Neither the developed Western countries nor the East Asian NICs escaped this necessity of economic development. Yet what made these countries `overcome' the aforementioned dilemma and eventually become a `success story' were the availability of `external resources and market' at their disposal. While in the Western case the cheap labor, food, and market of what is now called the Third World made possible the redemption of the agonies of the peasantry and the eventual establishment of `welfare states', in the `Asian miracle' case, their privileged access to the Western markets provided the `fuel' to keep their economic growth and to gradually relieve the burden of the peasantry and working class in these countries. It was not the intervention of the state in the market that differed the African case from the `success' stories, rather it was the unavailability of external means that determined the eventual fates of African countries.

Rational Choice Approcah to African Agricultural Crisis.......2006-07-28

In this work, Bates moves away from dependency theory in explaining the financial discrepancies between the Center and Periphery. Rather than concentrating on external catalysts to stalled development, Bates rational-actor model concentrates on the internal problems facing African development, particularly the pursuit of interests on the part of political and urban elites.

Much of Africa is facing an agricultural crisis. Although generally populated by small farmers, many nations in Africa face food shortages. Bates argues that these crises are the result of inefficient policies (which intervene in, and distort markets) implemented by political and economic elites. The question becomes, why are these policies being pursued? Bates explains the implementation of these inefficient agricultural policies through a rational choice model. Bates suggests that these policies are developed and implemented by rational political and economic elites seeking to maximize their own utility - particularly in regards to garnering political support - rather than pursing the collective good. This often occurs at the expense of many small farmers. He writes, "Policies are designed to secure the advantages of particular interests, to appease powerful political forces, and to enhance the capacity of political regimes to remain in power" (5-6).

The political and urban elites work in tandem to harvest economic resources garnered from the agricultural sector to promote industrialization. This is often done through the manipulation of market forces, particularly in keeping food prices low for urban interests. Doing so keeps the urban masses content, and allows industrialists to maintain low wages. In turn, the policy making elites garner political support. Bates spells out the beneficiaries of such policies clearly. "Owners and workers in industrial firms, economic and political elites, privileged farmers and the mangers of public bureaucracies - these constitute the development coalition in contemporary Africa" and hence benefit from the inefficient policies.

In regards to production, such policies skew the incentive structure of smaller agricultural producers. When receiving below world market prices, farmers will lower production, in turn limiting food supply. Or farmers may pursue a policy of "out-migration" and moved to the urban areas in pursuit of jobs. In this regard, the peasants are too acting rationally according to Bates model. Bates also discusses the problems of mass organization in order to oppose these policies. The small farmers are so dispersed and politically weak that the collective action problems ensue. The government expands on these collective action problems by offering preferential disbursements of subsidies, etc. to those who tow the party line. This divide and conquer technique has limited the power of the rural masses to organize a coherent oppostion.

Extracting Rents Away from the Agricultural Sector.......2005-12-05

In this landmark study, Robert Bates offered an interpretation of African economic policies toward the agriculture sector that set the terms of the debate for the years to come. Why do African governments pursue policies that create market distortions, skewed incentives and misallocation of resources, despite their obvious costs for social welfare and long-term development? The core of Robert Bates' argument is that bad economics often makes good politics: governments choose to pursue policies that are clearly irrational from an economic viewpoint because their economic and social costs are more than offset by the political benefits that accrue to them and to the social forces that maintain them in power.

Things did not have to turn that way. Political elites who took power at the time of the independences sincerely believed that they could put their countries on a path to economic modernization and social well-being. What trapped Africa into a low equilibrium of narrow clientelism and entrenched self-interests was a mix of bad institutions, bad advice and bad luck.

African governments inherited from their colonizers institutions that were set to extract rents from the agriculture sector rather than to maximize the welfare of farmers. They chose a mix of development policies that emphasized the role of the state and the importance of a nascent manufacturing sector. And they benefited from a period of high commodity prices that led them to consider cash crops and natural resources as an inexhaustible source of foreign exchange revenue.

The institution that came to symbolize the rent-extracting nature of African agriculture policies is the marketing board, which purchased cash crops from farmers at administratively determined prices and then sold them for a higher price on the world market, thereby accumulating funds that could be used for state-sponsored industrial projects or for social subsidies, if not for outright plundering. Another instrument of redistribution away from the agriculture sector was the local industrial firm that processed raw agricultural products acquired at artificially low prices, or the importation of foreign crops at prices below domestic ones in order to feed urban workers and lower the cost of living.

This complex web of policies and institutions should not be seen solely as a way to transfer resources away from agriculture into the modern urban economy, thereby achieving the "primitive accumulation" that Marxist economists saw as a condition to industrial development. Some policies, such as large irrigation projects, the subsidization of inputs, the channeling of credit or the extension of public services to rural areas, benefit large landowners at the expense of small-scale farmers. Likewise, industrial development projects under protective trade policies give rise to large, capital intensive public enterprises which often operate below capacity and at high costs.

Robert Bates makes heavy use of interest group theory to explain how policies are designed to secure advantage for particular interests, to appease powerful political forces, and to enhance the capacity of political regimes to remain in power. More ground-breaking is his analysis of the market as the setting for the struggle between the peasant and the state, the political arena in which social forces collide or avoid each other. Through intervention in the market, the state seeks to levy resources from the countryside, to appease social unrest in urban areas and to serve the private interests of those in power. For their part, rural producers use the market as a means of defense against the state, thereby evading some of the adverse consequences of government policies. They do so in part by reducing output, shifting crops, migrating out of the countryside, returning to subsistence lifestyles or joining the informal sector. Consequently, policy aberrations on the part of the government are more likely to result in exit patterns than in attempts at reforms.

This book has been vilified in some quarters because it was said to have provided the intellectual blueprint to the policies of structural adjustment that swept African countries soon after its publication. The denunciation of the urban bias and the abolition of the marketing boards certainly provided a rallying cry that was easily picked up by market reformers working from development agencies, with little consideration to the social forces that would be put in motion by such prescriptions. And it is true that Bates is almost entirely silent on the organizational characteristics of his interest group coalitions that underpin policy choices and institutional settings. But this classic work still provides many insights on Africa's internal and external structural problems.

Explains how states affect market operations in Africa.......2000-10-31

This book nicely presents the way that African governments influence markets, why they do so, and the effect of their involvement on citizens, especially the poor. I found it helpful in explaining why some states make the decisions they do, despite the fact that they might not always be the most economically efficient.

Book Description

Effective Management of Benchmarking Projects shows you how to apply benchmarking to a variety of projects.

Effective Management of Benchmarking Projects equips the project team or manager with all the necessary competence for managing projects effectively. This practical book begins with definitions of 'what to benchmark' and ends with a stimulating real case study where a benchmarking project was conducted by observing all the necessary rules and with total adherence to the various protocols.

This book deals with the application of benchmarking. It gives real examples of effective applications from such companies as:
Rank Xerox, D2D, American Express, Rover, Texas Instruments.

Author is a leading authority on benchmarking
Blends theory with practice appealing to both academics and practitioners
Includes examples of best practice in a variety of fields eg the public sector, utilities sector, financial services, car after-sale service

Book Description

This 30-chapter volume is a complete reference book that includes current updates and trends in the field of agrochemicals. Topics in the book include herbicides in agriculture, control of insects and acrids in agriculture, and control of fungal disease in agriculture.

Book Description

After introducing students to the basic biological principles of cancer, this new updated edition of an established textbook progresses to the human dimensions of the disease by considering actual cases of cancer. Other chapters discuss cancer pathology, metastasis, carcinogenesis, genetics, oncogenes and tumor suppressors, epidemiology, and the biological basis of cancer treatment. Also included are an appendix with descriptions of common forms of cancer and a glossary. First Edition Pb (1998): 0-521-59695-5

Customer Reviews:

can't afford not reading it.......2004-02-16

It's a great book,definitely.Interesting and easy to understand,it's the best for a starter-a scientest to be.On the other hand,it's not lacking depth at all.What makes it more informative is that it provides lots of clinical studies where you have a real feeling of human cancer.

This is a great book, it is very informative and interesting.......1999-05-16

I am a student at the University of MN and I am taking the Biology of Cancer course from Dr. McKinnell. I have enjoyed this book very much and find that the information provided gives me an understanding that has helped me realize how deadly cancer is and how I can live my life to prevent it. I recommend it highly.

The Biological Basis of Nursing: Cancer Care

Average customer rating:

The Biological Basis of Nursing: Cancer Care
William Blows
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Nursing | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Mental Health | Nursing | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Oncology & Cancer | Nursing | Medicine | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0415327466

Book Description

In 2000 the Department of Health issued a number of initiatives, with improving cancer treatment and research, and providing greater resources for cancer care being made a priority. Nurses and their colleague will be at the forefront of these changes.
The book presents specialized biological information on what cancer is, how it damages the body, and how cancer treatments work. Engaging, accessible and illustrated throughout, this unique text:
*explains the basic biology of cancer
*discusses the biology of wide range of common cancers
*identifies and explains the biological causes of cancer
*explains drug action in chemotherapy and analgesia
*explains the link between diet and cancer, and how diet is important in cancer therapy
*discusses the biological basis of a range of nursing skills linked to cancer.
This book will provide nurses with the essential knowledge required for working with cancer patient and their families, and will enable them to work with current and new forms of cancer treatment. It will also be of great use to clinical staff and nurse educators.

Acute and Long-Term Side-Effects of Radiotherapy: Biological Basis and Clinical Relevance (Recent Results in Cancer Research)

Average customer rating:

Acute and Long-Term Side-Effects of Radiotherapy: Biological Basis and Clinical Relevance (Recent Results in Cancer Research)
W. Hinkelbein , G. Bruggmoser , and H. Frommhold
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0387564071

Biological Basis of Geriatric Oncology (Cancer Treatment and Research)

Average customer rating:

Biological Basis of Geriatric Oncology (Cancer Treatment and Research)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Biochemistry | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Geriatrics | Specialties | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Health, Mind & Body | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Medicine | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Medicine | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0387239618

Book Description

Biological Basis of Geriatric Oncology highlights research issues that are specific to geriatric oncology in the field of carcinogenesis and cancer prevention and treatment, based on the biologic interactions of cancer and age. It illustrates the benefit of the principles of geriatrics in the management of cancer in the older individual.

This volume provides a frame of reference for practicioners of any specialties involved in the management of older patients and for oncologists involved in the management of cancer of older individuals. It is a source for basic and clinical scientists exploring the interactions and emerging information of cancer and aging.

Biological Basis of Oncologic Thermotherapy (Clinical Thermology Subseries Thermotherapy)

Average customer rating:

Biological Basis of Oncologic Thermotherapy (Clinical Thermology Subseries Thermotherapy)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0387514325

Cellular Variation and Adaptation in Cancer: Biological Basis and Therapeutic Consequences

Average customer rating:

Cellular Variation and Adaptation in Cancer: Biological Basis and Therapeutic Consequences
Michael Woodruff
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This book is an ideal guide for both clinicians and biologists working in cancer research. It addresses the problems associated with the early dissemination of cancer due to the heterogeneity of cancer cells and their capacity to diversify. These factors are key reasons for the stubborn
persistence of the disease and its resistance to therapy in many cases. However, the knowledge required in this area is cross-disciplinary. Written by an eminent authority, this work provides an accessible interface that will help clinicians to understand the role of biologists in cancer research,
while biologists will benefit from the informative look at how clinicians view the disease. It is based on many years of clinical practice and up-to-date laboratory experience.

Chemical Induction of Cancer: Structural Basis & Biological Mechanisms (Chemical Induction of Cancer)

Average customer rating:

Chemical Induction of Cancer: Structural Basis & Biological Mechanisms (Chemical Induction of Cancer)
Joseph C. Arcos
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

There is growing awareness that an understanding of the seemingly spontaneous appearance of clinical cancer and cancer in animals, the realistic assessment of human cancer risk from exposure to carcinogens, as well as the modalities of cancer prevention, require an interdisciplinary approach that considers all aspects that bear on carcinogenesis. Much of this information is scattered throughout the scientific literature. Yet, unlike in testing studies on single chemicals under controlled laboratory conditions, or when the tumors result from well-defined occupational or lifestyle exposures, many exogenous and endogenous factors/parameters influence, and in some instances can actually determine, the final outcome of exposure to chemical carcinogens.

This volume brings together the elements of a hitherto unavailable integrated perspective on the complex etiology of cancer. The book is the first to inventory and systematically discuss all major contributory factors and conditions in carcinogenesis and to focus on their interactive relationships. It provides a unique reference source for cancer research, for cancer prevention measures, and for adjuvant therapies. The book is directed to all scientists in disciplines seeking a better understanding of the induction of cancer.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books