A critical analysis of theories of agricultural development and agrarian reform, with reference to agrarian reform policies in Chile (1962-1973).

摘要

This thesis is a work of theory; it is also historical. Itudattempts to provide a critique of the categories through whichudthe phenomena of agricultural development and land reform areudhabitually grasped. It is divided into three parts.udIn the first part three main theoretical orientations to theudstudy of capitalist agrarian development are discussed, bothudabstractly and with reference to their accounts of LatinudAmerican rural society in the 1960's. It is argued that alludthree are unable to explain adequately the process of socialudand agrarian change. This inability is traced to the factudthat all three reduce social totalities to two or more distinctudsub-entities or sub-totalities. The author calls this generaludposition the social problematic of dualism. Its inability. toudaccount for social change is, he argues, traceable to the factudthat the existence of the sub-entities into which socialudtotalities are divided, is posited as theoretically prior toudthe relations which connect them. These points are pursuedudin the second and third parts of the thesis.udIn the second part an alternative to dualism' with pärticularudreference to its variants of the separation of a realm of'udindustry from a realm of*agriculture, and of the separationudof a realm of the economic from a realm of the social, isudprovided through a detailed theorisation of capitalist socialudrelations. It is argued that the existence of distinct realmsudof agriculture, industry, economy and society is a real effectudof the essential relations of capitalist society, and thatudthese divisions must be transcended through an elucidation ofudthe character of such relations. This is done by distinguishingi;udthree forms of capitalist development which are produced byudthese essential relations. Further examples of a dualistudanalysis in contemporary theorisations of petty commodityudproduction, the world economy and the articulation of modesudof production are discussed.udIn the third part the author returns to an examination of theudLatin American context through a discussion of the case ofudChile. The theoretical insights developed in the earlierudparts are systematically applied to various aspects of Chileanudhistory from the conquest of Latin America to the 1960's, andudto the processes of land reform which covered the decadeud1962-1973. It is suggested that the agrarian social transformationsudwhich this country experienced are only explicable inudterms of a position which systematically transcends all dualistudassumptions.