Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

2023 | Book

Introduction: The History of Myanmar’s Political and Economic System, and the Structure of This Book Read chapter Read first chapter

Regime Changes and Socio-economic History of Rural Myanmar, 1986-2019

Author: Akio Takahashi

Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore

Book Series : Studies in Economic History

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Login to get access
insite
SEARCH

About this book

This is the first book to depict the transformation and steadiness of Myanmar’s rural socio-economy from within the villages based on my own detailed research, in relation with the regime changes from Burmese Way to Socialism to military junta and to democratization from 1986 to 2019.
The main subject of the transformation is “de-agrarianisation” including land use and holdings, household incomes, non-, migrations, power structure, village landscape, etc. And the principal theme of the steadiness is the “absence of village collective” which is the core of rural Myanmar, in contrast to village communities like Japan. This is the reason why Myanmar villagers have lived surprisingly bright, free and independent despite the oppressive political economy under the socialism and the military junta, and have not collectively participated in so-called community development.
This book is the result of research conducted by visiting more than 200 villages and interviewing more than 10,000 people by myself in Myanmar language.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction: The History of Myanmar’s Political and Economic System, and the Structure of This Book
Abstract
This chapter begins by presenting the two themes of the book, first, de-agrarianisation, and second, the absence of village collectives in Myanmar. The chapter then reviews the evolution of Myanmar’s political regimes and economic systems since the country’s independence. It will be shown that changes in Myanmar’s political regimes do not necessarily coincide with changes in Myanmar’s economic systems. Finally, this chapter introduces the structure of the book and concludes with a chronology of Myanmar’s political economy, especially agricultural and rural affairs.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 2. Agricultural and Rural Policies Amid Regime Changes
Abstract
This chapter traces the changes in agricultural policies during Myanmar’s complex regime transitions. The timeline is divided into the post-independence civilian period, the Burmese socialist period, the military regime period, and the democratisation period. Rather than surveying all possible agricultural policies, I focus on three policies that characterise Myanmar’s agricultural policy from independence in 1948 to the present: the State Farmland system, the Product Procurement system, and the Planned Cultivation system. This chapter describes in detail the historical evolution of these three policies. In relation to agriculture, the regime transitions and the policies related to rural villages are also discussed. These considerations help us understand how Myanmar’s agricultural and rural policies have affected farmers and the population at large.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 3. Agriculture and Rural Villages in the National Economy
Abstract
This chapter explores how agriculture and rural villages are positioned in the Myanmar national economy. Using macroeconomic statistics, such as the statistical yearbook, monthly statistical indicators, agricultural statistics, population and housing censuses, and internal data of the Ministry of Agriculture, I argue that: (1) the position of agriculture in the national accounts has been declining; (2) agricultural income is remarkably low; (3) the importance of rice is declining, despite Myanmar being often referred to as a rice-producing country; and (4) there are doubts about the future potential of Myanmar’s agriculture. In addition, we find that there are surprisingly few farmers in rural Myanmar. These considerations will show the extent of de-agrarianisation at the national economic level.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 4. A Socio-economic History of Two Villages
Abstract
In this chapter, I analyse closely the socio-economic transformation of two villages with different ecologies and histories. The villages are located about 500 km apart from each other on the same longitude, with one village in the north and the other in the south. I have been doing research in these villages since 1986. My analysis is based on the individual household surveys that I did through interviews in Burmese language while living in the villages. At first, using various academic and local materials, and documents of the colonial government offices, I discuss the history of the villages, which may date back to as far as the 11th century. This discussion includes the climate, the topography, and the changes in population and ethnic composition over a century. Then, based on the data from my household surveys conducted in 1987, 1994, and 2013, I describe in detail the changes over 26 years in the villages. These changes include occupational structure, land tenure, farming methods, agricultural productivity, price structure, composition of the non-agricultural sector, and everyday livelihoods. In addition, I share the results from my participant observation research for the period 2013–2019, to describe the changes in the social economy of the village, and to clarify the reality of de-agrarianisation.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 5. Revitalising a Village Through Buddhism: Thindaunggyi Village and Shwetheindaw Paya
Abstract
In this chapter, in order to discuss the relationship between Buddhism and village economy in Myanmar, I will focus on a great change that took place in one of the two villages mentioned above, Thindaunggyi Village. This village’s paya—pagoda or Buddha image—which in 1987 had been like those found in any other village transformed into a famous paya. It is now known to all Buddhists in Myanmar. This change came about partly because of changes in Myanmar’s socio-economic situation. I analyse the relationship between religious activities and economic development through the records of my individual household surveys in this village and the accounting books of the paya. In addition, I examine the economic ripple effect that the paya brought about on the village through a survey of the shops, restaurants, open-air stalls, peddlers, and so on in the shopping street that sprang up around the paya. This study expands the body of research on how the practice of Buddhism can have an enormous economic effect in Myanmar. It also shows a process of de-agrarianisation of this village, which has changed from a farming village to a shopping district.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 6. Villagers on the Move: Mixed Multi-ethnic Settlement in Zeepinwea Village
Abstract
In this chapter, I examine the relationship between regime change and migration. I use my individual household questionnaires from 1987, 1994, and 2013 to analyse population movements at the household level in Zeepinwea Village, where I have conducted long-term research. While population mobility was very high in the delta region of Myanmar during the colonial period, I have shown that frequent population movements continued during the socialist period, despite restrictions on people changing their place of residence (Takahashi, 1997, p. 22). This chapter describes how villagers moved under the market-economy system that came about after the demise of the socialist system. I show how migration is another aspect of the process of de-agrarianisation.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 7. Myanmar Village Society: Comparing with Japan and Thailand
Abstract
In this chapter, I explore the unchanged core of Myanmar villages and clarify what kind of society the village in Myanmar. I compare village structures in Japan, Thailand, and Myanmar from the perspective of what kind of “cohesion” the villages have, that is, village communality. First, I survey the academic literature on Japanese and Thai village studies, and organise these studies into the thesis of group or organisation and the thesis of subjective cognition. I apply this logic to the reality of Myanmar’s rural villages to construct a theory of Myanmar village society. This is a unique attempt, which has no predecessors. While seeming similar to Japan, the village groups and organisations in Myanmar, as well as the village itself, are generated and function on completely different principles.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 8. A Myanmar Village is a Community of Life
Abstract
In this chapter, I explore how Myanmar villages are organised and what the essence of a Myanmar village is. I suggest that a Japanese village is a “collective for production” and a Myanmar village is a “community for living”. In Japanese villages, joint production activities—such as agricultural cooperative movements, irrigation management, rice procurement, land consolidation, reduction of rice acreage, and management of common lands—have been conducted by each village as one unit. In Myanmar, however, there are no such organisations for agricultural production, and even if there are, they are either short-lived or converge on administrative or individual management. However, various groups—namely, consumer cooperatives, congratulatory or condolence associations, fire brigades, pagoda committees, and drinking water committees—have been set up in Myanmar villages for purposes of living together, in the same way as in Japan. Thus, a village in Myanmar is a community of life, but not a collective of production. I detail the socio-economic characteristics of Myanmar villages by comparing them with Japanese villages and consider their positive significance beyond the argument that Myanmar villagers are economically poor or loosely constructed socially.
Akio Takahashi
Chapter 9. Conclusion: Change and Continuity in the Social Economy of Rural Myanmar
Abstract
This chapter summarises the contents of the book. This book described the socio-economic history of Myanmar over a period of 33 years, beginning in 1986, at the end of the Burmese-style socialist regime, when I started my village studies; continuing through the period of military rule from 1988 to 2011; and ending in 2019, when democratisation and liberalisation since 2011 had made some progress. To add depth to this 33-year rural socioeconomic survey, I also examined Myanmar’s earlier history of agriculture and rural political economy since the country’s independence, and analysed the country’s macroeconomy. The first part of the book detailed the changes in agriculture and the transformation of rural society, with “de-agrarianisation” as the key concept. The second part, by contrast, discussed the rural community’s core—its unchanged socio-economic characteristics—and developed the theory of the “absence of village collective”.
Akio Takahashi
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Regime Changes and Socio-economic History of Rural Myanmar, 1986-2019
Author
Akio Takahashi
Copyright Year
2023
Publisher
Springer Nature Singapore
Electronic ISBN
978-981-9932-72-6
Print ISBN
978-981-9932-71-9
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3272-6