The Political Economy of Institutional Corruption in Africa: The Case of the 1996–97 Tanzania Coffee Crisis

This article argues that institutional corruption is the central governance dilemma in Africa by examining the causes, outcome, and origins of the 1996–97 Tanzania coffee crisis. It shows how the growth and crash of a coffee price bubble became a harbinger for defining corruption as historically embedded institutional tendencies and advantages, instead of acts of individual malfeasance. Institutional corruption highlights political gains from the use of public resources in the form of political influence over producer prices, concentrated market power, and centralized policymaking for the wealthy and politically connected, as opposed to personal gains.

“We Leave to Help Our Parents Economically”

This chapter discusses a new migrant group that replaced the circular migrants as the predominant group among the first-time Mexican migrants to the United States between 1980 and 1990. The group consisted mostly of young men—often the younger sons—from relatively wealthy rural households, and peaked in numbers following the economic crises in Mexico. This group is called crisis migrants. Crisis migrants accounted for just one in ten new migrants in the 1960s. The share of the group climbed to one-half in the mid-1980s, and dropped to one-fifth by the late 1990s. The trend in this group tracked almost perfectly to the inflation rates in Mexico, capturing the volatile economic environment in the country in the aftermath of the peso devaluations between 1976 and 1985. The group also responded to regional events like the coffee crisis in the early 1990s and the earthquake in 1985, increasing disproportionately fast in the affected regions compared to the rest of the country.

LA CRISIS CAFETERA: ELEMENTOS PARA UNA DISCUSIÓN SOBRE LOS ANÁLISIS DE LOS SISTEMAS ALIMENTARIOS (Coffee crisis: elements for a discussion on the analysis of food systems)

El trabajo aborda la historia del café en Colombia para explorar la forma en la que el Estado Nación y las organizaciones gremiales, como la Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, fueron determinantes en la producción de café en Colombia, que posicionaron al país como uno de los principales productores de un mercado regulado por la dinámica internacional de los sistemas alimentarios. Discurre en un análisis documental por las crisis que experimentan los países productores a partir de la caída del pacto cafetero. Dicho pacto expresa las relaciones de subordinación de los Estados Nación del Sur con las Naciones dominantes, enmarcado en los procesos de desregulación económica promovidos por las políticas neoliberales. También discute las relaciones que se establecen entre las naciones en tiempos de la globalización, en especial sobre el mercado del café, como base para analizar los elementos de los sistemas alimentarios mundiales estudiados por la sociología rural.