Subsistence and Economic Development Author:Ronald E. Seavoy Economic development is primarily a political process. Coercive political policies are needed to induce peasants to perform commercial labor norms in food production because this is the only way to end subsistence privation. Rather than trying to cure rural poverty, Seavoy insists that economic development can only occur when the institutions th... more »at protect subsistence labor norms in food production are replaced by institutions that motivate cultivators to perform commercial labor norms.« less