Popkin: The Rational Peasant.

• “Some representations of preindustrial society idealize life in peasant villages”(xi) (Popkin contests Scott’s theses)

• “Moral economists” see the passage from precapitalist corporate villages to capitalism and contractual ties as harming peasant welfare.

• Popkin argues “moral economists” are wrong (“myth of the village”).

Popkin:

• Fieldwork in Vietnam from 1966 to 1970.

• Popkin advances “a view of the peasant as a rational problem-solver, with a sense both of his own interests and of the need to bargain with others to achieve mutually acceptable outcomes.” (ix)

Popkin:

• “I argue that peasants are continuously striving not merely to protect but to raise their subsistence level through long- and short-term investments, both public and private” (4)

• Ex: children, animals, land (private)• Village improvements (public)

Popkin

• The investment logic applies to both market and non-market exchanges.

Popkin:

• Given the uncertainties of the life in the village, “I predict that peasants will rely on private, family investments for their long-run security and that they will be interested in short-term gain vis-a-vis the village.” (23)

Popkin:

• There is no harmonious relationship between landlords and peasants. The peasants negotiate their conditions with different groups (State, parties, churches, etc.) seeking to improve their conditions of living.

Lane:

• The debate between Popkin and Scott fostered the shift towards institutions. Yet, their positions are not that different: both of them argue for the peasants’ rationality, although they are focusing on different situations.

• In any case, it contributed to highlight the complexity of strategic behavior and rationality in different contexts.

March and Olsen

• Politics creates identity and materializes institutions.

• Institutions frame identities and interests.

• History is “encoded into rules” and institutions embody such a history.

• Individuals belong to different institutions at the same time, and all of them contend to shape their political life.

Thelen & Steinmo: Rational Choice vs. Historical Institutionalism

RC-Institutions define the

strategic context of choice and solve problems of collective action

-Actors: rational maximizers

-Universal “toolkit” (deductive logical system with highly restrictive assumptions)

HI

-Institutions shape politics, identities, and goals. Patterned relations.

-Actors: rule followers “satisficers.”

-Middle-range theoretical models based on induction

RC• Ostrom’s

comparative study on the commons (small groups may overcome the problem of the “free rider”)

• Douglas North (on property rights)

HI

Migdal’s study on “strategies of

survival” (state/society,

determinations/contingency)

-Steinmo’s study on tax policy in the US, the UK, and Sweden

Examples

Focus on intermediate-level institutions

• Allows us to understand how general patterns (capitalism, liberal democracy) developed in different specific forms in different counties. Different Policies (taxes, education, health).

• Contingency and “path dependency”

The Institutional Model

1. Individual actors have many goals2. People create institutions (historical)3. Every human act is conditioned by

institutions4. Actors are political5. Search for theoretical models with

explanatory (and predictive) reach.

Our JourneyTraditional Political ScienceOld Institutionalism (Historico-Normative approach)Descriptive

Behavioral Revolution:Between Behavior & Beliefs (Descriptive) and Grand-Theorizing (flat)

Development Theory (Modernization)

Dependency Theory (Center/Periphery)

The “Return of the State”

Neo-Institutionalism(Institutions+real people + theory)RC & HI

Hernando De Soto: “Dead Capital and the Poor.”

Economic Reforms in less developed countries (LDCs) and former communist nations (FCNs) attempt to create a market economy.

Problem: Economic Reforms do not benefit the do not benefit the majoritymajority.

De Soto’s explanation: Lack of Property Rights.Lack of Property Rights.

The solution lies in the assets most of the people already own informally. But Property Rights are needed to transform that “dead capital” into “live capital.”

“Before blaming culture for the magnitude of apparent

lawlessness among the poor and the disorder it brings, it is essential to examine the legal legal institutionsinstitutions and the role they play in the informal-formal

divide.”

Similar Things, Different Uses.

Dead Capital • Most assets in

developing countries are used onlyonly for primary purposes (use values)

• Ex: houses provide shelter

Live Capital • In the West, houses,

land, and merchandise also also secure credit.secure credit. Use of assets in the marketplace.

• Ex: houses provide shelter andand allow people to get loans to develop their business.

Dead Capital, Ownership, and Legal Steps.

Philippines Perú Haiti Egypt

Dead Capital

132,9 Billion 74,2 Billion 5,2 Billion 241,2 Billion

Urban 72,1 36,5 2,0 195,2

Rural 60,8 37,7 3,2 3,2

Owned by

65% population

65% population

82% population

85% population

Legal Steps

168 steps 728 steps

(Lima)

111 steps 77 steps

31 entities

Source: De Soto, Hernando, The Mystery of Capital

Total Informal Property in the World:U$s 9,34 trillion

Valor Informal Urban Dwellings

Valor Informal Rural Area

Asia 1,75 (trillion u$s) 0.59 (trillion u$s)

Africa 0.58 (trillion u$s) 0.39(trillion u$s)

Middle East & South Africa

0.74(trillion u$s) 0.25 (trillion u$s)

South America 0.89(trillion u$s) 0.24 (trillion u$s)

Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean

0.36(trillion u$s) 0.09 (trillion u$s)

China, NIS, and Eastern Europe

6.48(trillion u$s) 2.36 (trillion u$s)

Source: De Soto, Hernando, The Mystery of Capital

Formal Property

• Formal property is a recent phenomenon (no more than 200 years old)

• Widespread in the West in the last 100 years.

• In Japan (less than 50 years ago)LAG:LAG: Property is a non-clearly visible

institutioninstitution, which has been taken as a given in the West, and consequently it remains naturalized and non-theorized.

“Because ownership cannot be readily traced and validated, and exchanges cannot be governed by a legally recognized set of rules, their assets cannot be used in efficient and legally

secured market transactions. The property of the poor is, in

effect, ‘dead capital’.”

“The development of formal property could therefore be considered one of the most

remarkable achievements of the West. It made possible to create

the network of switches and connections needed for a market

economy.”

“Formalizing property removes the perception of things from their

physical space to a mental space... What Western formal

property representation systems did was increase the range of

conceivable uses and operations of assets.”

PROPERTY IS A CONCEPTCONCEPT

The Formalization Process

“Determining ownership is not enough. The formalization process must also include mechanisms to increase the productivity of informal sector assets by linking them to contracts and legal instruments that allow their owners to relate to government and private business.”