Nicaragua
The Peasantry, Grain Policy, and the State
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4938936 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Zalkin (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 71-91 |
| Publication date | 1988-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Latin American Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0094582x8801500404 |
| OpenAlex | W1979185798 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 9 |
State policy toward peasant grain producers is a crucial concern for the Nicaraguan government. Peasants, historically exploited, currently form an important part of the revolutionary alliance. They produce the greatest share of two staples in the Nicaraguan diet, corn and beans. 1 In almost 10 years of revolution, state policy toward the peasantry has had important political, economic, and even military repercussions. This article makes six points. First, the Nicaraguan government has distributed massive amounts of resources to the peasantry. Second, in spite of so much aid, state policy has never fully been defined as either favoring or opposing peasant grain production. Third, peasants' access to resources, their economic and food production strategy, and their response to government policy differ according to their class position. Fourth, the consequences of future government policy for food production and marketing, and for peasant transformation, will depend upon which strata of the peasantry is assisted. Fifth, a peasant-based food strategy is both possible and consistent with goals of revolutionary class transformation. Finally, with respect to mode of analysis of the peasantry, class is an important (though not exclusive) basis for analysis and policy formation. The first section presents the principal components and results of Nicaraguan grain strategy over the 1979-1987 period, treating state support for and the ambiguity of state policy toward peasant grain producers. The second section uses the results of rural research by the author in 1982 and 1983 to explain class differentiation of the peasantry and its impact. The third section lays the basis for a peasant-based
Geography · Political science · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Latin American socio-political dynamics · Rural Development and Agriculture
Marxist epistemology
A Conceptual Framework for the Empirical Analysis of Peasants
Classes in Marxian Theory
The Theory of Transitional Conjunctures and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism in Western Europe
The Peasantry and the Development of Sandinista Agrarian Policy, 1979-1984
Food policy and class transformation in revolutionary Nicaragua, 1979–1986
The role of the revolutionary state in the Nicaraguan food system
The Worker-Peasant Alliance in the First Year of the Nicaraguan Agrarian Reform
Peasantry' as an economic category
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.14 |
| Citation span | 1989 - 2017 (29) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |