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Pastoralists in dire straits
921
WORLD
DEVELOPMENT
The Long Struggle of Eritrra for Independence mui Constructive Peace. Trenton. NJ: Red Sea Press (315 pp., cloth/paper, S29.95/$9.95). These nine essays form an accessible introduction and guide to a growins literature on a most interesting case in alternatlve development. This work and several others report that without fanfare or much external aid. Eritreans have combined revolutionary war with economic. social and institutional development. This survey treats historical. legal. and military issues as well, but development specialists will find of most use the illustrations of self-reliant political and economic practice at the local level, how the food svstem crisis, educational and health needs. and institutional and sustainability issues are faced. This is an effective introductory work with wide application. Cohen, John (19S7) Integrated Rmd Develop. mew: The Ethiopian Experience ad the Debate Uppsala: SIAS (267 pp.. cloth. SEKISO). Cohen has been the Western social scientist most involved in and prolific about the Chilalo (CADU. then ARDU) project in western Ethiopia over the last two decades. This analytical review and detailed case study is used to joust with one set of critics of integrated rural development. The case study is valuable, and Cohen is successful in showing the project’s ability to learn and overcome some of the environmental and organizational constraints. It is indeed crucial to base critique or applause on case material in depth. But Cohen largely restricts his debates to reflection on other functionalists and thus limits the boundaries of his development learning and of his vision of success. This literature on success. for example, has gone far beyond the kind of US Agency for International Development and World Bank items cited, as readers of this column have seen. Crouch, Susan (1987) Westem Responses IO Tarliarlian Socialism 1967-1983. Aldershot, Ijal;npshire. UK & Brookfield. VT: Cower (194 pp,, cloth, X19.50). There has been much debate on Tanzania’s efforts to pursue a gradual path to self-reliant socialism and the responses of Western aid donors from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. In a cogent addition Crouch shows how, despite its rhetoric. .Tanzania’s actual policies and continued dependence on Western resources and technology, especially in the face of the oil shock and natural disasters, effectively prevented equitable, participatory, self-reliant economic results. Indigenous institutional limits were sub-
stantial. Cultural and material tastes provided b! the Lvorld economy were expensive. Nyerers’s political addiction to aid as reparation also worked against self-reliance. Curtis, Donald et al. (1988) Prrrenting Firmine: Policies and Prospects for Africa. Net\ York & London: Routledge. Chapman Sr Hall (250 pp., cloth/paperback. $59.95/517.95). This collective effort by nine English scholar/ practitioners is based on study and practice in South Asia. the Horn, the Sahel and southern Africa. The crux of the practical argument is for accountable. sustainable institutions lvhich impI:; a “lively, participative, political atmosphere. More democratic institutions and anticipator! research are keys to the effectiveness of reforms in livestock and cropping practice. in local services and markets, and in line agency and donor agency policies. Local needs. maintaining entitlements and what scholars term the moral economy are also far better served by more such democracy and inquiry. It is an effective combination of recent case material and practical advice, Dejene, Alemnah (1957) Peasmrs. Agrariarl Socialism and Rlrral Developmetlt 01 Ethiopirr. Boulder, CO: Westview (162 pp.. paperback. $23.50). This field study is of interest as it took place in 19S4, just before the famine, and in Arsi. one of the few surplus-producing regions. Dejene. working with a SIDA project, had unusual access. He was able to compare his findings from 150 interviews to previous research of the Chilalo project. Farmers expressed substantial complaints with low prices, availability of consumer goods, limited technology, and the policy of creating collective farming units. About 25% of the collective farmers supported the government. [More autonomy for service cooperatives and peasant associations is Dejene’s practical alternative. Dietz, Tom (1987) Pastorolists in Dire Straits. Amsterdam: Netherlands Geographical Studies (Weteringschaus 12, 1017 SC) (32-l pp., paperback, Dfl 43). The pastoralists of Western Pokot along the Kenya/Uganda border have seen their way of life shattered since 1970. becoming “charity dependent peasants-cum-laborers-cum-petty producers.” From extensive field work. 1982-86 for a Dutch project. Dietz studies the past. present, and prospects of these people. The area is found to be crisis prone in the extreme, with
WORLD
DEVELOPMENT
The Long Struggle of Eritrra for Independence mui Constructive Peace. Trenton. NJ: Red Sea Press (315 pp., cloth/paper, S29.95/$9.95). These nine essays form an accessible introduction and guide to a growins literature on a most interesting case in alternatlve development. This work and several others report that without fanfare or much external aid. Eritreans have combined revolutionary war with economic. social and institutional development. This survey treats historical. legal. and military issues as well, but development specialists will find of most use the illustrations of self-reliant political and economic practice at the local level, how the food svstem crisis, educational and health needs. and institutional and sustainability issues are faced. This is an effective introductory work with wide application. Cohen, John (19S7) Integrated Rmd Develop. mew: The Ethiopian Experience ad the Debate Uppsala: SIAS (267 pp.. cloth. SEKISO). Cohen has been the Western social scientist most involved in and prolific about the Chilalo (CADU. then ARDU) project in western Ethiopia over the last two decades. This analytical review and detailed case study is used to joust with one set of critics of integrated rural development. The case study is valuable, and Cohen is successful in showing the project’s ability to learn and overcome some of the environmental and organizational constraints. It is indeed crucial to base critique or applause on case material in depth. But Cohen largely restricts his debates to reflection on other functionalists and thus limits the boundaries of his development learning and of his vision of success. This literature on success. for example, has gone far beyond the kind of US Agency for International Development and World Bank items cited, as readers of this column have seen. Crouch, Susan (1987) Westem Responses IO Tarliarlian Socialism 1967-1983. Aldershot, Ijal;npshire. UK & Brookfield. VT: Cower (194 pp,, cloth, X19.50). There has been much debate on Tanzania’s efforts to pursue a gradual path to self-reliant socialism and the responses of Western aid donors from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. In a cogent addition Crouch shows how, despite its rhetoric. .Tanzania’s actual policies and continued dependence on Western resources and technology, especially in the face of the oil shock and natural disasters, effectively prevented equitable, participatory, self-reliant economic results. Indigenous institutional limits were sub-
stantial. Cultural and material tastes provided b! the Lvorld economy were expensive. Nyerers’s political addiction to aid as reparation also worked against self-reliance. Curtis, Donald et al. (1988) Prrrenting Firmine: Policies and Prospects for Africa. Net\ York & London: Routledge. Chapman Sr Hall (250 pp., cloth/paperback. $59.95/517.95). This collective effort by nine English scholar/ practitioners is based on study and practice in South Asia. the Horn, the Sahel and southern Africa. The crux of the practical argument is for accountable. sustainable institutions lvhich impI:; a “lively, participative, political atmosphere. More democratic institutions and anticipator! research are keys to the effectiveness of reforms in livestock and cropping practice. in local services and markets, and in line agency and donor agency policies. Local needs. maintaining entitlements and what scholars term the moral economy are also far better served by more such democracy and inquiry. It is an effective combination of recent case material and practical advice, Dejene, Alemnah (1957) Peasmrs. Agrariarl Socialism and Rlrral Developmetlt 01 Ethiopirr. Boulder, CO: Westview (162 pp.. paperback. $23.50). This field study is of interest as it took place in 19S4, just before the famine, and in Arsi. one of the few surplus-producing regions. Dejene. working with a SIDA project, had unusual access. He was able to compare his findings from 150 interviews to previous research of the Chilalo project. Farmers expressed substantial complaints with low prices, availability of consumer goods, limited technology, and the policy of creating collective farming units. About 25% of the collective farmers supported the government. [More autonomy for service cooperatives and peasant associations is Dejene’s practical alternative. Dietz, Tom (1987) Pastorolists in Dire Straits. Amsterdam: Netherlands Geographical Studies (Weteringschaus 12, 1017 SC) (32-l pp., paperback, Dfl 43). The pastoralists of Western Pokot along the Kenya/Uganda border have seen their way of life shattered since 1970. becoming “charity dependent peasants-cum-laborers-cum-petty producers.” From extensive field work. 1982-86 for a Dutch project. Dietz studies the past. present, and prospects of these people. The area is found to be crisis prone in the extreme, with