The Poverty Debate

Introduction Making of the Modern World – Wealth and impoverishment of nations? – Politics of equality but economic inequality? – What does modernisation look like when viewed from elsewhere in the world?

Definitions A statistical measurement? – ‘The Poor are not Us’ Disempowerment – ‘Look at everything and write what you see. What you see is poverty.’

Disaggregating Poverty Structural poverty – Long-term poverty Conjunctural poverty – Poverty as a temporary condition Land-rich poverty Land-scarce poverty

Poverty in 19 th Century Africa Moral economy – Kikuyu Exchange of land and labour Exchange of opportunity for former wealth and recognition of right of wealthy to rule in the present Land-rich & conjunctural poverty Poor silenced Poor dependent on elite felt no obligation when ties broke down – Crisis of colonial conquest

Poverty in Colonial Africa Colonies run for the economic benefit of colonial powers rather than the good of subjects – Limits on competition Settler colonies – Cash crop revolution Marketing boards – Creation of land-scarcity Limited mobility Native Reserves

Poverty in Colonial Africa Creation of urban poverty – Labour migration – Fixed wages – Post-1945 Expansion of structural poverty Poverty and protest – Mau Mau

Poverty in Post-Colonial Africa Promise of redistribution at heart of nationalism – Nationalist parties as coalitions of elites and grassroots – Influence of left on nationalism Cold War

Post-Colonial Poverty Differing policies – Ghana – Tanzania – Kenya How different? – Marketing boards – Rapid urbanisation Similar outcomes – Improvements in living standards – Crisis of the 1970s

Post-Colonial Poverty Competing explanations – Dependency theory Walter Europe, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Solution – Self-sufficiency » Tanzania – Capital shortage Need to fill gap between necessary investment & domestic savings Solution – Greater integration into global economy

Post-Colonial Poverty Structural adjustment – Liberalisation of economies – Reduction of state involvement Increase in urban poverty? – Decrease of state employment – End of price-fixing of foodstuffs – Inflation – Privatisation Decrease in rural poverty? – Prices set according to global markets Collapse of redistributive politics

Conclusion Did poverty worsen or improve in modern world? Change from conjunctural to structural poverty? View from periphery very different from that from industrialised countries Need for imperialism to be incorporated more fully into economic history