Reactions to the Market: Small Farmers in the Economic Reshaping of Nicaragua, Cuba, Russia, and China

Policy Summary

(as stated by her website page) Enríquez’ most recent book, Reactions to the Market: Small Farmers in the Economic Reshaping of Nicaragua, Cuba, Russia and China, brings her research on the first two of these countries together in an analysis of the different strategies that each government pursued in the post-1990 period to address their economic crises, and the impact these had on small farmers. Placing Nicaragua’s and Cuba’s small farmers in a comparative light with those of Russia and China, it argues that reform strategies implemented in each case reflected the overall political economic orientation of their respective governments: in Nicaragua and Russia, the emphasis was on bringing about a rapid retreat from socialism, and in Cuba and China (especially between 1978-1985), it was on reconfiguring socialism. The book situates this discussion at the intersection of the theoretical debates concerning “the transition to the market” that has taken place in former socialist countries – in particular the issue of whether that transition has led to more or less inequality – and the future of the peasantry with the expansion of capitalism in agriculture.

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