| dc.creator | Handa, Jagdish | |
| dc.date | 2011-04-06T13:38:09Z | |
| dc.date | 2011-04-06T13:38:09Z | |
| dc.date | 1973-10 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2012-11-10T12:57:41Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2012-11-10T12:57:41Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 10-11-12 | |
| dc.identifier | Handa, Jagdish. (1973) Some aspects of the political economy of agricultural societies. Discussion Paper 182, Nairobi: Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi | |
| dc.identifier | http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/536 | |
| dc.identifier | 317778 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/handle/123456789/1889 | |
| dc.description | This paper is a study of the various social and political systems
which have been imposed on traditional agricultural economies
in the past. Traditional agricultural is characterised by underemployment
of the labor force except during harvest periods, and this has serious
implications not only for the wage rate but also for labor's social and
political freedom. Maximization of rent in an economy in which both land
and labor are scarce brings strong pressures to bind labor to the farm through
the crop year. Such restrictions have often taken the social and political
form of feudalism. In a land surplus economy agricultural slavery may be
practised in order to create a surplus for the propertied class.
Modern agriculture differs from traditional agriculture
in employing its labor force fully, or almost fully, throughout the year.
This requires an increase in the productivity of harvest labor made
possible by technological advance and an increase in the ratio of capital
to labor in harvesting. In the end, agricultural labor becomes more
prosperous, and the problems of the seasonal variation in employment
are transferred from labor to capital. | |
| dc.language | en | |
| dc.publisher | Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi | |
| dc.relation | Discussion Papers;182 | |
| dc.rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ | |
| dc.rights | Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi | |
| dc.subject | Economic Development | |
| dc.subject | Agriculture | |
| dc.title | Some aspects of the political economy of agricultural societies | |
| dc.type | Series paper (non-IDS) | |
