Modern discussions of rural development focus on the relationship between state and market but in fact extend to the relationships between state and associations and state and community. State. market, community and associations must all be taken into account, as they represent the different levels of any social order.
State/market. In the present Jin de siècle period. radical thinkers would say that either the world is recreated through the image of the market or the state is the sole designer of the world in which citizens live. Their respective zones of influence are decisive in the consensus-building process. If the reconciliation between state and market is unbalanced and without synergies, then a destructive confrontation arises. There is a new method of perception based on the amplified economic liberties we have witnessed, a common milestone of which is the concept of property, owing to the fact that state properties have diminished in most parts of the world and other forms of property have emerged. Even though there is a tendency to label them all as private property, they include a wide range from individual and family to corporate and cooperative property. In this context the state must assure plurality in the different forms of property. The state and market need each other but. in order to guarantee a productive relationship between the two, the norms of their interactions must be rendered public and revisable.
State/associations. In many societies new forms of social organization have emerged in the form of networks. They may not - and usually do not - express social identities, but rather convergence's in specific issues. At the same time professional associations, for example unions, have weakened as a result of the radical changes occurring in the workplace. A proliferation of social representatives have put basic institutional structures under stress because they are ill-adapted to encompass plurality. Old and new forms of intolerance and bigotry provoke social entrenchment and anomy. Plurality cannot mean the dissolution of new social expressions, but rather their institutionalization. At the same time. a prudent balance between existing interests and new aspirations is needed in order to avoid conflicts.
State/communities. Entitled rights are not sufficient to make decision-making processes more democratic. Participation implies a transition from entitlement to empowerment, and such a transition cannot be accomplished with consensus if the meaning of empowerment is seen as a reduction or disappearance of entitled rights. Solidarity could be the keyword. Not in the sense of assistance to the poor but in the form of a much larger social contract that includes all. inclusiveness is the basis for solidarity.
All that has been said above is essential to establish a bridge between an assessment - new roles for government and civil society - and a proposition - a call for partnership. Because of the broad concept that has been proposed, more than partnership, what is needed is a general covenant. Just to put things in perspective one must start by recognizing that the postwar consensus has been shattered. The main rupture has occurred in the concept of justice, which was conceived by the classics as the heart of a political society. The triad of stability, distribution and growth is being replaced by a new set of principles which include governance, equity and modernization. Theoretical discussion of the basis of this new set of values has been triggered by crises and consensus cleavages. Two examples of such "consensus cleavages" are the abandonment of the full employment principle and the presentation of economic stability and democracy as a dilemma.
Once the basic consensus has been broken, it is necessary to establish pacts or contractual arrangements to rationalize and institutionalize the new social realities and thus rebuild the social foundations of the new interactions between the state and civil society. However, it is essential not to lose the conceptual unity between economy and society. Our contemporary problematic situation cannot be solved by dissociation: it calls for both scientific rationality and moral judgement.
It is in this context that food security must be recognized as one of the key concepts of the postwar consensus and, in terms of availability and accessibility, be further developed as the basic factor in a new consensus on development. The World Food Summit, to be held by FAO in November 1996, will thus provide a privileged forum to reaffirm the "inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition" World Food Conference, 1974) in the contemporary world. With this conceptual framework in mind it is important to present the trends in the new thinking of the Organization's Rural Development Division.
Strengthening social capital endowments. The Rural Development Division (SDA) of FAO's Sustainable Development Department is concerned with the identification of improved mechanisms for ensuring people's access to resources as well as with the development of appropriate institutional arrangements to support those access systems. These technical emphases are grounded in a perspective that views rural development in terms of strengthening social capital and fostering a decision-making environment that enables coalitions to engage in consensus-building and effective policy formation.
Agrarian reform and poverty eradication: dispute and consensus. SDA's programme is divided into two principal thrusts: agrarian reform (the creation of appropriate land tenure arrangements) and poverty eradication (the strengthening of a region's social capital endowments). Both these issues have been characterized by ongoing intellectual and policy-related debates. The agrarian reform debate embodies the tension between those who faveur the radical redistribution of resources and those who endorse market-driven tenure reform wedded to notions of efficiency and competition. SDA's supportive interventions derive from the realization that agrarian reform should be both sensitive to local conditions and capacities and grounded in the same impulses that govern political and economic liberalization. The division's assistance in poverty eradication is driven by four metatheoretical premises. First, poverty eradication programmed must be designed specifically for the poor and must therefore reflect the needs and capacities of this group. Second. poverty eradication requires an effective institutional environment. Third, it is recognized that interventions must focus on decision-making processes rather than policy formulation per se Finally, there is a need to set poverty eradication initiatives within the framework of social capital endowments.
The unifying themes of social capital and institutional reform. Unifying SDA's activities are two core themes: institutional reform and social capital endowments. The former provides the functional link that couples tenure concerns with poverty eradication. Both require appropriate institutional environments, and these cannot be developed without an understanding of contingent decision-making structures and procédures and detailed analyses of local conditions, needs and capacities. Social capital provides a unitary referential language with which interventions can be formulated and executed. The format and design of SDA's activities reflect the normative consistency and functional linkages contained in its operational mandate.
Social capital development. Three conceptual principles - efficiency, effective management and equity infuse all SDA's activities and are reflected in the division's core concern with social capital. Social capital is a concept that has assumed increasing relevance in academic and policy debates. The approach demands that poverty eradication be seen in terms of utilizing and strengthening a region's social and cultural endowments. This ontological shift requires corresponding changes in the perceived relationship between poverty eradication and development: poverty eradication ceases to be seen as a necessary, but residual, element in the development equation. Instead. eradicating poverty vis-à-vis fostering a region's social capital endowments becomes a core component of any development strategy. Furthermore, this reconfigured concept of poverty eradication ensures that programmed and policies become inherently more sustainable. in that strengthening social capital implies the utilization and transformation of local resources and capacities rather than only the importation of new and external structures and processes.
Strengthening local capacities. An emphasis on local resources and capacities demands further shifts in the way that SDA formulates and executes its activities. First, interventions must focus on the strengthener of local policy-making capacities. rather than on the simple provision of appropriate technical assistance and policy advice. Second, a region's social capital base is composed of a range of different actors and agencies: the state, public and private sector institutions and civil society and its institutions. Through its interventions, the division seeks to encourage the participation of the full range to actors and agencies in the policy-making process and to strengthen coalitions and consensus-building between them.
SDA activities. These conceptual shifts are resected in the division's approach to its mandate. individuel programme elements constitute related themes of a unitary thrust and they confront the full dimensionality of social capital development in a coherent and integrated fashion. These operational linkages are likewise reflected in the division's evolving internal structures. Staff members are being increasingly organized into "issue groups" (knowledge centres) providing a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to the development of normative expertise on key programme issues and themes.
G. Gordillo
Director, Rural Development Division
Editor/Rédacteur en chef/
Redactor en Jefe
P Groppo
Language editors,/Rédacteurs/
Redactores
R. Tucker/F. Serván
Layout editor/Mise en page/
Compaginación
M. Criscuolo
Editorial Board/Comité de rédaction/Comité de Redaccíon
H. Meliczak, M. Lins, G. Ciparisse, J. Riddell, N. Forni, R. Howard-Borjas
This bulletin is issued by FAO as a medium for the dissemination of information and views on land reform and related subjects to the United Nations, FAO member governments and national and international experts and institutions Articles are published in the original language (English, French or Spanish)
Readers requiring more detailed information concerning this bulletin should write to the Editor, Land Reform. Land Settlement and Cooperatives, Rural Development Division FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
The opinions expressed in this document are the personal views of the individuel authors and do not necessarily reflect those of FAO
Le présent bulletin a pour but de fournir des renseignements et de faire connaître des opinions sur la réforme agraire et les questions connexes à l'Organisation des Nations Unies, aux Etats Membres de la FAO ainsi qu'aux experts et institutions nationaux et internationaux Les articles paraissent dans la langue originale (français, anglais ou espagnol)
Les lecteurs désireux d'obtenir des renseignements complémentaires res sur ce bulletin vent priés de s'adresser au rédacteur en chef, Réforme agraire colonisation et coopératives agricoles, Division du développement rural FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome (Italie).
Les opinions exprimées dans le présent bulletin n'engagent que leurs auteurs et ne vent pas nécessairement celles de la FAO
El presente boletín se publica como medio difusor de información y opiniones sobre la reforma agraria y temas conexos entre las Naciones Unidas, los Estados Miembros de la FAO y expertos e instituciones nacionales e internacionales. Se publican artículos originales en español francés e inglés.
Los lectores que deseen obtener más detalles sobre este boletín o sobre los artículos que figuran en él deberán escribir a: Redactor en Jefe, Reforma Agraria, Colonización y Cooperativas Dirección de Desarrollo Rural, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Roma, Italia.
Los artículos que aparecen en esta publicación expresan las opiniones de sus autores y no representan los puntos de vista de la FAO.
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