Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Scope and method
- 3 The economic unit and economic organization
- 4 Production and exchange
- 5 The level and structure of peasant income
- 6 The economic behavior of the peasant family
- 7 Stagnation in the peasant economy and the role of demand
- 8 Economic crisis and the peasant economy, 1975–1980
- 9 Conclusions: reality, theory and policy
- Appendixes
- Notes
- Bibliograph
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
7 - Stagnation in the peasant economy and the role of demand
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Scope and method
- 3 The economic unit and economic organization
- 4 Production and exchange
- 5 The level and structure of peasant income
- 6 The economic behavior of the peasant family
- 7 Stagnation in the peasant economy and the role of demand
- 8 Economic crisis and the peasant economy, 1975–1980
- 9 Conclusions: reality, theory and policy
- Appendixes
- Notes
- Bibliograph
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
Summary
The previous chapters have shown production and exchange structures in today's peasant communities in Peru. The peasant economy was observed at a given point in time (1978–9). This chapter will attempt to depict the dynamic of the peasant economy in Peru in the recent decades. If this is an economy very much integrated to the market system, has economic growth experienced in the Peruvian economy reached the peasantry? Have rapid population growth and urbanization induced growth in peasants' income through higher levels of demand for food?
Growth and distribution in Peru: 1948–75
The income distribution problem presents peculiar characteristics in the underdeveloped countries. It not only refers to the problem of inequality, but also includes the problem of absolute poverty. For this reason, in order to evaluate the performance of an underdeveloped economy in terms of the distributive problem, it is necessary to determine the changes which have occurred both in the degree of inequality as well as in the proportion of the population still living in conditions of absolute poverty.
In the last three decades, Peru has experienced various patterns of economic growth, initially based in export of primary products, followed by import substitution industrialization. Also, it has undergone periods of both rapid growth and recession. On the other hand, Peru passed through diverse socio-political contexts. From the initiation of the government of General Odria in 1948 until 1968, economic policy was basically liberal. Certainly one can draw distinctions concerning the degree of liberalism manifested: it was much more marked in the Odria and Prado regimes; there was a greater degree of State intervention in the first Belaunde government.
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- Information
- Capitalist Development and the Peasant Economy in Peru , pp. 82 - 101Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1984