@article{Hagedorn:183500,
      recid = {183500},
      author = {Hagedorn, K},
      title = {The Impact of Institutional Particularities on  Agricultural Policy},
      address = {1990},
      number = {995-2016-77855},
      pages = {10},
      year = {1990},
      abstract = {The process of restructuring the agricultural sector in  Southern Africa will require
a wide range of incentives and  subsidies provided by agricultural policies. But it may  depend
even more on certain preconditions which have to be  fulfilled by general politics, e.g.
protection of human  rights, implementation of democratic principles and  abolition of racial
discrimination. Economic efficiency in  agriculture and- what may be even more  importantsocial
peace can only be achieved and maintained  if all groups of farmers have equal access
to land,  markets, education, technology, infrastructure, political  measures, and the process
of policy-making from which  decisions on agrarian institutions and policies derive (cf.  Van
Zyl & Van Rooyen, 1990:1; Kassier & Vink, 1990:21).  Recent experiences in Eastern
Europe have shown that  large-scale agriculture based on a non-democratic system  lacks
economic efficiency and social stability. Instead, in  most industrialised states without central
planning,  smaller farms integrated in a pluralistic political  framework have become the
prevailing institutional  arrangement in agriculture. According to Schmitt (1990:22),  "the
dominance and persistence of family farms (in Western  countries, K.H.) is explained
economically by flexibility  and stability in resource allocation to farm and  non-farm
employment as well as household production. Their  economic superiority vis-a-vis large
farms employing hired  labour or organized by producer cooperatives is explained  by lower
transaction costs. Most likely, advantageous  transaction costs of smaller family managed
farms are not  outweighed by increasing returns due to economics of scale  and size of larger
farms".},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/183500},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.183500},
}