BETWEEN QUIESCENCE AND REBELLION AMONG THE PEASANTRY - INTEGRATING THE MIDDLE GROUND

This essay is a theoretical and empirical test of two major theories o f peasant political action, James Scott's Moral Economy of the Peasant and Samuel Popkin's The Rational Peasant. The essay draws primarily u pon testimony taken from peasant activists involved in a wide range of different forms of political action. The essay goes on to operational ize core elements from each of these two theories and to compare them statistically to determine which is stronger in explaining different t ypes of peasant political action. The qualitative and quantitative fin dings show that Scott's theory is stronger when explaining choices of extreme action such as rebellion whereas Popkin's theory is primarily important with respect to tactics of collective nonviolence. Both theo ries and both kinds of motivation are needed to provide an explanation for the full range of possible peasant political actions. The conclus ion points toward a need for a more comprehensive and inclusive theory of political motivation incorporating both self-interested and commun ity-oriented types of motivation.