Imperialism and the Agrarian Question

Abstract

The classical discussion of the agrarian question in the writings of Kautsky and Lenin occurred in the context of countries which were not under colonial or imperial yoke. This classical discussion, therefore, needs to be further developed, not just to take account of the changes that have taken place but also to take account of the colonial/imperial context whose specificity has not yet received the attention it deserves, specifically its ‘income deflating’ mechanisms in the peripheries of the system. The perspective which derived from Lenin’s writings remains essentially valid, especially its emphasis on land redistribution, as overall capitalist development has failed to absorb an adequate number of workers into the capitalist sector. But even while the core of the understanding of the resolution of the agrarian question remains essentially valid, new developments in imperialism, which have brought in a new player to the agrarian scene in a major way, namely corporate capital, raise a number of new issues which have to be confronted today and which did not exist earlier.