Une comparaison des résultats de l'agriculture en Pologne et en Tchécoslovaquie

Abstract

A Comparison of Polish and Czechoslovak Agricultural Performance. This paper examines the thesis that agricultural performance is primarily a function of the economic system, i.e., that socialized farming tends to be less productive than decentralized private farming. This view has been forcefully advocated by Professor Lazarcik in a series of papers that appeared in the compendia on the economies of Eastern Europe published from time to time by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. A re-examination of the data indicates that, as far as Poland and Czechoslovakia are concerned, this thesis is correct only for the first half of the post-war period (1950 to 1965). It is not supported by the data for the second half of the period (1965-1979). During 1950-1965 agricultural performance (measured by growth rates of a number of success indicators) was better in Poland than Czechoslovakia. However, during 1965-1979 the performance of Czechoslovak agriculture became generally superior. This sheds doubt on the thesis that ownership is the most important explanatory variable. It is suggested that coexistence of private agriculture and a socialized non-agricultural sector (the case of Poland) may have been responsible for the inferior performance of Polish agriculture relative to that of Czechoslovakia since 1965. This hypothesis finds support in the experience of Yugoslav agriculture which is also largely private but operates within the framework of a market-socialist economy. During 1965-1979 Yugoslav performance was better than that of Czechoslovakia and much better than that of Poland, though not as good as that of the largely socialized agricultures of Romania and Hungary. It is suggested that the better performance of Polish agriculture during the period 1950 to 1965 could be explained by the fact that Poland avoided the dislocating effects of forced collectivization. Another possible explanation of the difference in the performance of the two agricultures runs in terms of different levels of economic development in general, and of agriculture in particular. The scope for improvement is greater in a less developed agriculture. As the development gap between Polish and Czechoslovak agriculture narrowed, Poland gradually lost the advantage of her relative backwardness.