The economic theory of Agrarian institutions Edited by P. Bardban Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, 382 pp.
| Date | 01 May 1992 |
| Published date | 01 May 1992 |
| Author | J. Allister McGregor |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230120210 |
2
18
Book
reviews
tion. Yet with war now probably the main cause of famine in Africa (notably the Horn
and Mozambique), and local administrations unable to function, early warning systems are
often the best means available to alert the international community to the food needs of
the people trapped by war.
This
in itself adds a crucial rider to Dreze and Sen’s second
argument: famine is now relatively easily preventable anywhere in conditions
of
relative stabi-
lity-a neglected characteristic of
all
the famine prevention
success
stories presented-but
is not easily preventable under war conditions. Africa has yet to find a way to end its protracted
local wars, and the famines that go with them, in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Liberia
and Mozambique.
If this review has focused on the book’s few weaknesses it should end by reafiirming its
overall strength, which lies in the wealth of well reasoned and documented discussion across
the range of food security issues, and which defies brief review.
MICHAEL
HUBBARD
University
of
Birmingham
THE ECONOMIC THEORY
OF
AGRARIAN INSTITUTIONS
Edited
by
P.
Bardban
Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1989,382
pp.
This is an important book to which non-economists should pay good heed (one presumes
that economists are already paying heed). It is a collection of excellent papers which can
be considered to be part of a general upsurge of ‘new-institutionalism’ across the social sciences.
As such, it signals an important groundswell of change amongst economists: the collection
both
affirms
a renewed legitimacy for the study
of
development in economics and demonstrates
a willingness to take institutions and organizations in developing societies seriously. A broad
range of topics are considered, including share-cropping and tenancy, labour markets, coopera-
tives, credit relations, and, more generally, the insurance dimensions of rural institutions.
The introduction to the book, by Pranab Bardhan, is itself highly stimulating, although
the overview of institutionalist approaches in economics is all too brief. In the introduction,
Bardhan describes the ‘old institutionalist’ literature (one presumes followers of Veblen and
Commons) as being intellectually
lazy,
in the sense that institutions tended to be invoked
as a means of avoiding explanation. Some headway is made in this book towards providing
more explanation of how institutions (or are they organizations?) work and the roles which
they play in rural developing societies, but Bardhan in particular can equally
be
accused
of laziness. In both his introduction and in his later short note on ‘interlinkage’, important
themes are raised, ideas are tantalizingly floated, and are then not pursued.
Non-technical readers should not be completely put off by the fearsome calculus contained
in
many of the papers in this volume-a friend tells me that it is not as bad
as
it looks.
In any event, it is not necessary for this to be fully comprehended in order to appreciate
the story that is being advanced. The story is that it is necessary to look beyond abstracts
of ‘the market’, whether perfect or imperfect, and seek to understand the dynamics of interac-
tions between people, or, if you prefer, actors. This approach is implicitly very close to that
developed by the sociologist Anthony Giddens, who would argue that it is these interactions
which themselves generate and reproduce the institutions, and that these institutions synchro-
nously affect those interactions. If this line of analysis is pursued, it represents an important
epistemological shift for economists, away from variations on structural functionalism, towards
a more dynamic and interactionist perspective. However, an early warning should be sounded.
It is a potential danger for the exponents of the game theory calculus which is employed
in
this book, that they may become more fascinated with their techniques than with the
subject material which they are exploring. If they do, their debates and discussions on important
issues in the study of development
will
once again become inaccessible to those studying
the same subject material from different disciplinary perspectives.
Indeed, this draws our attention to one of the weaknesses of this book, which is that
at times
it
appears to be lamentably ignorant of debates beyond economics. The work of
authors such
as,
for example, Scott, Popkin and Geertz, must be considered to be clearly
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