de janvry, peasants, capitalism and the State in latin american culture

(391-392): three near-universal features of peasant production

1. family-based nature of production motivated by rationality of ensuring unit's reproduction (safety-first, etc.)
2. subordinate position of peasants, which requires them to surrender a portion of the surplus
3. discontinous and often defensive collective action strategies

(393): three facts about LA

1. dependent development, growth that was inequalizing of income
2. failure of real wages to revive
3. most rapidly growing sectors of economy oriented to luxury consumption and capital goods

(393): characterized by extreme inequality in assets; surplus labour; unfavourable terms of trade

(394): two observations

1. systematic undervaluation of agricultural commodities, in order to produce cheap food (overvalued exchange rates, trade restrictions, price fixing) [this is a tax on agriculture, effectively, designed to serve industry]
2. permanence of a large peasantry (often growing)

(395): despite cheap food policies, institutional rents allow well-off peasants to do ok; meaning that poor peasants bear the brunt.

(395): hypothesis of 'functional dualism', for four reasons

1. peasants can provide particularly cheap food, thanks to their capacity to exploit themselves to a point where they're more productive than their capitalist counterparts.
2. they can also be a source of rent (why we see share-cropping, in his argument).
3. a source of cheap labour, since part of their costs of reproduction don't need to be paid
4. land acts as a social safety net that the State can't provide

(397): noting that off-farm sources of income are quite high for peasants (based mostly on figures collected in the 80s) [suggests that 'depeasantization' might need better theorization)

(398): despite their functional position, poverty makes their state very unstable

(399): anti-feudal land reforms forged a dualistic agrarian structure: -- an expansive capitalist sector and a growing semi-proletarian peasantry (absorbed labour, politically stable)

(402): peasantry finds itself in a contradictory class position

(403, FN): nice description of backward-linkages (the demand generated for input-suppliers), and forward-linkage (the supply generated for output-consumers)