The Moral Economy of the Peasant

The fear of falling below subsistence, James C. Scott argues, shapes much of peasant life in Southeast Asia. Peasants want higher income, he writes, but usually refuse any gamble that could leave them short of food, and they expect elites to protect that minimum as a moral duty. The same fear helps explain why peasants resist innovation and want land of their own even when it lowers income. Drawing on agrarian history in lower Burma and Vietnam, Scott shows how colonial-era change broke this moral economy, citing the Saya San Rebellion and the Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets of the 1930s as examples. Published in 1976, it holds particular interest for political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists and Southeast Asia specialists.

Seth Godin put it on his reading list, saying it explains why so many attempts to jump-start third-world economies fail, and that many of a marketer's prospects think the same way peasants do.