Agricultural Development and Household Incomes in Central Asia: A Survey of Tajikistan, 2003-2008

Two noted specialists on the agricultural economies of the former Soviet Union examine the effects of land reform on agricultural production and the income of rural house-holds in Tajikistan. The authors utilize official government statistics to discern trends of agricultural output at the national level, and the results of three extensive surveys conducted in 2007-2008 (N > 2,000) and one in 2003 (N = 4,000 respondents) by international organizations (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank) to identify household-level changes. They also review the legislative framework for agrarian reform in the country; examine national-level trends in farm structure and organization, livestock production, farm productivity, and cropping patterns; and analyze shifts in size of land holdings and rural family incomes at the household level. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D130, O130, P320, Q150. 11 figures, 10 tables, 42 references.     

Russian Peasant Farms and Household Plots in 2003: A Research Note

An American specialist on Russian agriculture surveys the current legal status of peasant farms and subsidiary agriculture ("private plots") in Russia following the enactment of two important new laws in 2003. In the process, he highlights differences between peasant farms and subidiary plots in terms of the quantity and type of food produced, the size of land plots utilized, and their legal status. Also reviewed are selected aspects of the recent economic perfomance of these two pillars of private-sector agriculture. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O13, O18, Q15. 16 references.     

Household Incomes in Central Asia: The Case of Post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Two European geographers present the findings of a sizeable survey (n = 7,515) providing a detailed geographical analysis of household incomes and reliance on personal subsidiary garden plots across Kazakhstan. The authors focus on assessing the extent to which Kazakhstan's rising GDP during the post-Soviet period has coincided with an increase in the general population's personal income and ability to secure adequate food supplies for personal consumption. The fine geographical scale of analysis of the survey data (significantly less coarse than oblast-level data) enabled them to identify regions characterized by "trickle-down" income, largely centered on the country's two main urban centers and areas of resource exploitation. The patterns revealed in the paper have relevance to the debate concerning the uneven distribution of benefits from resource exploitation (notably oil and gas) to Kazakhstan's population. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D100, D310, I300, Q120, R290. 2 figures, 6 tables, 51 references.     

Worcestershire Peasant Buildings,Household Goods and Farming Equipment in the Later Middle Ages

THE BUILDINGS of the Blackfriars priory in Gloucester are in the course of restoration by the Ancient Monuments Branch of the Department of the Environment. This provides an unusual opportunity to examine in a dismantled state an important series of scissor-braced roofs, to compare many timbers and joints, and thereby to consider the finer points of the 13th-century carpenter's workmanship and engineering sense, and the ways in which he reacted to variations in the timber. The value of such a study is increased by the existence of contemporary records about the origin of the timber.     

The Impact of Land Reform on Rural Household Incomes in Transcaucasia

An agricultural economist specializing in the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU) assesses changes in land use and their impact on rural incomes in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. The paper compares developments in these countries with core CIS (Russia, Ukraine) and Central Asian states of the FSU. The author's premise—that agricultural growth, and hence higher well-being of the rural population are positively linked to individualization of farming structure and commercialization—is tested on the basis of survey results linking increases in farm size with higher rural incomes and accelerated sales of farm products. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: Q15, Q18, Q24. 4 figures, 4 tables, 19 references.     

Mercantile Transformations: Understanding the State,Global Debt and Philippine Agriculture

This paper examines an important continuity in the political economy of the Philippines: the interplay between domestic merchant capitalists and the state over the role of the state in the Philippine economy. During the Marcos regime, this interplay increasingly took the form of competition between state mercantile interests and ‘private’ merchant interests. This competition is still being played out. To better understand the nature of the competition, consideration is focused on two essential contemporary facts: the Philippines has a major external debt crisis and the Philippines, still predominantly an agrarian country, suffers from stagnant productivity growth and enduring rural poverty. While the Philippine external debt problem can be attributed in significant part to various international hegemonic interests, the analysis concludes that the characteristics of the crisis primarily reflect changing state/class/economy configurations within the Philippines. These same configurations, in turn, significantly influence the implications of the external debt crisis on Philippine agriculture.     

发展的幻象——近代华北农村农户收入状况与农民生活水平辨析

近年来,国内有关近代华北农村社会的研究存在着一种引人注目的倾向。素来被认为是衰落破败的近代华北农村,在不少学的笔下则呈现出欣欣向荣的农村资本主义自由发展的耀眼图景。而与之相对立的过密型商品化理论,以及近代中国农村经济衰退论,则被当做“近代农村经济史研究的主流思维”而遭致激烈的批评。甚至挞伐。     

农家负债与地权异动——以20世纪30年代前期长江中下游地区农村为中心

关于20世纪30年代前期中国农村地权变化,学者大致有三种见解,即“集中说”、“分散说”和“现状说”。本文以抗战前湖南、湖北、江西、安徽、江苏和浙江六省农村为中心,以农家负债和地权异动为视角,从农户土地典押借贷比例,由土地典押借贷到丧失地权的可能性与现实性,农户因土地典押借贷引起地权丧失的实况,中、微观和宏观两个层面的地权变化等方面,论证抗战前长江中下游地区地权处于集中时期。并且从地权异动的状况论证30年代前期长江中下游地区地权集中具有普遍性、不剧烈性,从地权异动之后的土地流向论证土地兼并者的非农民性程度加强,从30年代前期地权变化在20世纪上半期中的地位,论证此次地权集中具有转折性。同时还对土地买卖与地权变化在农户通融资金中的意义进行分析,探讨30年代前期土地市场清淡对农家经济的影响,并由此说明20世纪30年代前期中国农村所面临的前所未有的严峻形势。     

Self-Sustainability of Subsidiary Household Plots: Lessons for Privatization of Agriculture in Former Socialist Countries

A paper devoted to subsidiary household (private) plots in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union explores issues surrounding their economic viability during the current period of economic transition and agrarian reform, using Russian farms as the main example. Considerable emphasis is placed on the continuing strong linkages between subsidiary household plots and the system of collectivized agriculture, one of several factors that serves to differentiate this type of agriculture from the private (peasant) farms receiving so much attention recently as an indicator of agrarian reform. A key argument of the paper is that the performance of subsidiary household farms is not a good indicator of prospects for success of private farming in Russia, because subsidiary farms are closely linked to collectivized agriculture in terms of sources of inputs and channels for outputs, and therefore are not inherently “private.” 8 tables, 24 references.     

Method and Confusion in the Study of the Household: A Review

Abstract

When analyzing Woodrow Wilson's narrow victory in the presidential election of 1916, students of the Electoral College have focused on the closeness of the popular vote in California. None of them have noticed that Wilson's victory in the Electoral College depended on non-enforcement of the Penalty Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Using Morgan Kousser's analysis of voter disenfranchisement across the South between 1880 and 1910, this article demonstrates that Charles Evans Hughes would have won the electoral vote if the Penalty Clause had been enforced when the House was reapportioned following the 1910 census.     

A Review, Comparison, and Evaluation of Some State & Local Data Handbooks

Bureau of the Census, 1972 Census of Governments
Bureau of the Census, Local Government Finances in Selected Metropolitan Areas and Large Counties: 1974–75
Bureau of the Census, City Government Finances in 1974–75
International City Management Association, The Municipal Year-book, 1977
Paul Albright, ed., The Book of the States, 1976–77     

An Army of Educators: Gender,Revolution and the Cuban Literacy Campaign of 1961

The conventional scholarly narrative of gender in post‐revolutionary Cuba is that the revolutionary government prevented the emergence of an expressly feminist movement by addressing women's basic needs and simultaneously eliminating autonomous space for female organising. Recent scholarship has increasingly considered women's participation in revolutions in order to understand women's roles in post‐revolutionary societies. Looking beyond armed insurrection for instances of female participation in revolution, this article considers women's roles in the Cuban Literacy Campaign. An analysis of the testimonies of female former volunteer teachers and of the official rhetoric and content of the campaign suggests that the broader narrative of cooption, while certainly accurate overall, threatens to obscure instances in which women did challenge traditional gender norms in meaningful ways. This paper argues that the Cuban Literacy Campaign and the participation of women in that campaign significantly impacted Cuban patriarchal culture at a crucial moment of consolidation for the revolutionary regime. In other words, though the male‐led revolution did not give women the space to organise against patriarchy, by actively participating in the revolution, women did help change the nature of Cuban patriarchy.