The Political Economy of Productivity: Thai Agricultural Development, 1880-1975

Richard Stubbs was a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, N.S.

This book, whose author is an economist at McMaster University, is the third in the University of British Columbia Press’s Asian Studies Monographs. It provides the reader with a detailed historical review of the changes that took place in Thai agricultural policies between 1880 and 1975. During the period 1880-1941, Thailand became one of the few major rice exporters in the world. Using a supply and demand model of technical and institutional change, the author examines the boom in rice exports and analyses why the boom did not lead to greater development. Concentrating particularly on rice production, irrigation, and transportation policies, the author explores such interesting questions as the extent to which the competition between national security goals and economic development goals influenced decision-makers and the problems raised when the private interests of the elite superseded the general social interests of the masses. In a final chapter, which covers the post-World War II period, the reemergence of these themes is emphasised as is the continued dominance of urban over rural interests.

Development is too seldom analysed in its long- term historical context. This case study shows the value of such an enterprise. Experts in both rural development and the political economy of Southeast Asia will find this a useful source from which to quarry information. The less specialized reader, however, may find that in places the mixture of detail and economic jargon makes the book heavy going.