Economic lessons from some small socialist developing countries

Political analysis and development studies

“…The diverse effects on the forms of development of different governmental beliefs and behaviours-including, of course, beliefs and behaviours in relation to the international environment-^can be seen most vividly in such otherwise similar 'pairs' as North and South Korea, China and Taiwan, Kenya and Tanzania. At a wider level there is still major work to be done by political scientists in considering different regime-types as categories in relation to development trajectories; the gamut runs at least from the 'small socialist developing countries' studied by Morawetz (1980) to the 'repressivedevelopmentalist regimes' discussed by Feith (1980). And many writers, such as those who led the neo-conservative assault on the Brandt report in the pages of Encounter in 1980-81, would also argue for further analysis of the pathologies of government behaviour in the Third World.…”

Agrarian Transformation and the Rural Labour Market: The Case of Nicaragua

“…In one such small economy, Nicaragua, the Sandinist government is seriously trying to avoid all the pitfalls generally associated with socialist transformation in small countries (Morawetz, 1980). It has kept wages low and it has reduced private and public consumption as much as possible.…”

Rural Labor and the State in Postrevolutionary Nicaragua

“…2 The economic difficulties inherent in carrying out a radical structural change of a country's economy suggest that despite the best of intentions, it is not possible initially to improve the welfare of a revolution's intended beneficiaries. 3 Consequently, the leadership of the revolution face the dilemma of how to confront the expectations they themselves raised during the prerevolutionary period without losing their legitimacy in the process.…”