The Famine as a Political Weapon

1
The Famine as a Political Weapon

• POL3162
• 3 March 2009

2
Malthusian View of Famine

• Excess of Population
• over Means of Subsistence
• Savagery Inefficiency
• to the point of Depopulation
• Progress as the Outcome of Disaster

3
Irish Famine

• 1845-1850 a million deaths
• Potato fungus blight vs Irish race
• Free Trade vs. State Intervention

4
Indian Famines

• 3 Waves of Famine
• India 1876-1879,
• India/Russia/Brazil 1889-1891,
• China 1896-1902
• Why Proliferation of Famines in Colonies
• When Famines Disappear in Europe?

5
Karl Polanyi

• Free Markets
• Insufficient Local Revenues
• Elimination of Local Reserves

6
No Stimulus Package

• Hailebury Dogma Increases in Prices, in
  Stimulating Imports the Only Way to Solve an
  Economic Crisis
• Adam Smith A Famine is Never Caused by Anything
  Else than Government Violence When It Tries,
  Inappropriately, to Remedy a Shortage

7
A Convert

• Sir Richard Temple prevents a famine, 1873-74
• Lambasted by The Economist
• Directives of Indian Council
• Temple passes the 1877 Anti-Charitable
  Contributions Act

8
Jenny Edkins

• Availability (Malthus) vs Entitlement (Sen)
• Sen a decline in food availability not necessary
  for a famine to occur (unemployment, terms of
  exchange etc.)
• What is crucial is whether individuals have
  access to food

9
A technical question?

• Assumptions that politics is separable from
  economics and that the state is benign and
  nonviolent
• Can starvation be deliberate?
• Political actors are controlling access to food
  Ethiopia, North Korea