William H. Friedland

Proletarians and African capitalism : the Kenyan case, 1960-1972

Part I. The economic, social and political context: 1. Workers, unions and dependent capitalism 2. Labour policy in Kenya Part II. The state and the internal organization of unions: 3. The tendency toward oligarchy 4. The persistence of internal conflict 5 The bases of cleavage Part III. Working-class action: 6. Unions and clientelist politics 7. Militant economism (1) 8 Militant economism (2) 9. State control and worker protest.

U.S. Agricultural Policy: The 1985 Farm Legislation.

The expiration of agricultural commodity legislation in 1985 has resulted in debate on a new A¢Â€Âœfarm bill,A¢Â€Â providing the opportunity for evaluation of government activity in this industry.

Book Review: International and Comparative Labor Relations: Collective Bargaining in African CountriesCollective Bargaining in African Countries. By RobertsB. C. and de BellecombeL. Greyfié. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1967. xviii, 158 pp.

proach a book bearing the title Social Indicators with this expectation in mind. In this case, he will be disappointed. The title suggests that he will encounter a discussion of existing social indicators, of how specifically they could be improved and extended, and of urgently needed new ones. The flyleaf promises as much, talks of an impending Copernican revolution in the field, and complains about the supposed Philistimism of economic statistics, which stress how much, measured in money values, but never ask How good? But the promise is not fulfilled. What the reader actually finds is a diverse group of essays mostly devoted to one more exercise in formal sociology: the building up and intensive analysis of a great array of categories and concepts in traditional German style; some sound ad hoc criticism of a few existing series; a potentially interesting dispute between two of the contributors, in which the issue is never explicitly joined, over whether society can be studied through the systems approach of modern engineering; and hardly earthshaking proposals to improve the data concerning educational capacities and activities, the arts and humanities, and the vital statistics of organizations and associations. No one would quarrel with these last suggestions. He would prefer, however, to have some carefully formulated detailed proposals, backed up by a well-argued supporting brief, instead of pages past all counting devoted to the abstract categorization of the dimensions of social structure. As for the desirability and feasibility of studying society as a total system, the best evidence would be a showing that it can be done and can yield important discoveries, rather than an argument in vacuo in behalf of this approach. To make the point in another way, we already have a great variety of social indicators, for example, those published by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which range from numbers of inpatient hospital beds to educational retention rates of fifth graders to time of college entrance. The Departments statistics appear in Health, Education, and Welfare Trends, in Welfare in Review, in the Social Security Bulletin, and in Health, Education, and Welfare Indicators (now discontinued). If this vast body of statistical information is inadequate, where is it deficient? How could it be improved? How should it be supplemented? Here, clearly, was an opportunity to make concrete proposals for the benefit of the collecting agency, special interest users, and social scientists. All that the book contains, however, are a few passing references, bereft of any specific suggestions. On the narrower plane of how to anticipate the wider effects of, say, the space program, there is no empirical study to show how it could be done. Instead, many pages are devoted to proposing that such a study should be made. Many more pages are allocated to an exposition of key economic series, their strengths and weaknesses, and their uses and misuses. Economics does have its frailties. But in view of its undoubted accomplishments, it need no longer serve as a straw man for treatises on methodology. If we are to enlarge our knowledge of the broader areas of human behavior, the time has come to get on with the job. After all, it does take a better theory to kill a bad one.

7.25.

Here an economist examines an important political problem, the viability of democracy in late-industrializing nations. Works of this order make stimulating reading but the present volume is somewhat disappointing. Instead of considering the broad problem of democracy, de Schweinitz focuses heavily on the likelihood of the emergence of autonomous trade unions free of state interference. His thesis-that industrialization leads to democratic political institutions-the author sustains, on the whole, for the early industrializers (Great Britain, for example). He is weakest, in the opinion of this reviewer, when dealing with currently developing countries. There the book concentrates too narrowly on labor problems when a broader scope would be more appropriate. For students of labor in industrializing countries, Chapter IV Industrialization, Labor Controls, and Democracy (which appeared earlier in Economic Development and Cultural Change, July 1959), will have especial interest. Here, de Schweinitz considers the strains on distribution of material resources at a time when few concessions can be made to consumption demands. The author systematically specifies the conditions producing discontent, in particular the factors operative in late industrialization. Not only does population increase more rapidly than output but the economic advantages of advanced technology fade due to inadequate labor skills and shortages of the capital so necessary to maintain that technology. Worse, the demonstration effect produces expectations which cannot be fulfilled. De Schweinitz also concludes that discontent is likely to be more serious where it is exacerbated by the relative inability of individuals to engage in entrepreneurial activities or to migrate. The author thus disagrees with the thesis of Industrialism and Industrial Man that protest declines with later industrialization. However, he agrees with Kerr, et al., that the protest will be less significant because governments today are not so willing to stand aside and allow individuals to articulate their discontents... for [this] is likely to jeopardize the success of the growth process itself (p. 71). The author thus takes an intermediate position between those who contend that protest declines and becomes more manageable with late industrialization and those contending that protest increases and becomes even more difficult to control. The arguments of both de Schweinitz and Kerr, et al., may have a serious omission. By concentrating too heavily upon labor protest, they fail to show that many other strata or groups also suffer real or imaginary deprivation as development takes place. At the same time, late industrialization usually occurs against a background of anticolonialism and nationalism, sentiments that question existing institutional arrangements. Broadly based dissatisfaction plus breakdown in existing systems of authority lead almost invariably to political instability. The management of protest becomes, therefore, far more complicated than either de Schweinitz or Kerr, et al., believe, for there are not only many contending managers of protest but no institutional framework for its management. The weaknesses of handling democracy in late industrializers in terms of the development of an autonomous labor movement become most evident in the penultimate chapter, which concentrates mainly on the deterrents and handicaps peculiar to late industrializing nations. Natural handicaps include both the heterogeneity of the late industrializers (in contrast to the relative homogeneity of the early industrializers) and geographical, climatological, and other natural factors. Among the sociocultural handicaps, de Schweinitz stresses traditional institutions that impede social mobility based upon achievement and accomplishment: the extended family, traditional restrictions on mobility, and religious institutions and beliefs. His economic-demographic list includes tendSage Publications, Inc.