Notes on state and peasantry: the Tanzanian case

This paper is complementary to the author's previous ‘Notes on Capital and Peasantry’ (Review10). In that article, the role of the state in promoting the commoditisation of peasant agriculture was alluded to, a theme which is pursued further here. This is done through a number of provisional hypotheses which ‘map out’ three connected areas of contradictions: contradictions in the circuits of peasant economy, in the apparatuses and practices of the state, and in the sphere of state‐peasant relations. These schematic hypotheses are presented with the intention of contributing to current debates about the nature of the agrarian question, and of the state, in contemporary Africa.