The international political economy of agriculture and food: An introduction
The international political economy of agriculture and food: An introduction
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农业和粮食的国际政治经济学:简介
DOI:
10.4337/9781782548263.00006
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发表时间:
2015
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
L. Busch
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
A. Bonanno;L. Busch
In his illustration of the virtues of neoliberalism and the functioning of the free market, Friedrich von Hayek (2011[1960]; 2007[1944]) denounces the perils associated with attempts to politically direct the economy. Referring to politically selected economic objectives and measures as “intelligent design,” Hayek contends that they can never be replacements for the highly desirable solutions offered by the autonomous functioning of the market. Political plans of any type, he contends, need to be eliminated from the managing of the economy. Accordingly, for Hayek and likeminded neoliberals, political economy should be confined to nothing more than the free functioning of the market. This neoliberal position stands in sharp contrast to the manner in which the political economy of agrifood has been interpreted and evolved for virtually the entire modern era and, certainly, throughout the 20th Century. Keynesian, radical, socialist, social democratic, but also beginning of the century laissezfaire approaches have interpreted and managed agriculture and food in terms of the interplay of a variety of factors pertaining to the economic, social, cultural, political and geopolitical spheres. These and other factors have been considered central in the directing of agrifood development and the achievement of the specific goals assigned to this sector. In this context, for the greatest part of the 20th Century, agriculture and the production and distribution of food around the world were highly planned activities supported and coordinated by the intervention of the nationstate. Continuing practices initiated in previous centuries, the capitalist nationstates of advanced countries directed the organization of agriculture and food not only in terms of the economic growth and social stability of the sector, but, above all, in terms of the overall balanced development of the entire society. The production of affordable food for the growing urban lower and middle classes, the controlled migration of agricultural labor to manufacturing jobs and cities and the creation of a reliable system for the production of food for the domestic market and security became the period’s fundamental objectives of virtually all nations. Indeed, both democratic and authoritarian regimes understood that cheap food limited social unrest. The insistence on the use