Aspects of the Political Economy of Technical Change in Developed Economies

Technological change has played an important role in stimulating remarkable productivity growth in United States agriculture. In the last decade, however, there has been an ominous slow-down. This paper suggests that explanations of the U.S. experience have become excessively “economistic,” and that technological change must be understood not only as a search for economic efficiency, but also as an instrument of change (or inertia) in social relations. This argument is supported by an examination of the process of technical change in California agriculture, with emphasis on the mechanized harvest of specialty crops.