The Moral Economy of the Peasant

The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia is a 1976 book by James C. Scott on the nature of subsistence ethics in peasant cultures. He asserts that peasants prefer the stability of state or landlord protection of minimal subsistence over the risky instability of self-subsistence, producing a feudal moral economy. Where colonialism and introductions of market economies interfere with this arrangement, peasants will rebel, separate from concerns about fluctuating quality of life. Scott cites three 1930s rebellions as examples: Cochinchina, the Burmese Saya San Rebellion, and the Vietnamese Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets.