Mode of Production Analysis of Crime, Disorder and Social Control in Botswana (From Comparative Criminal Justice: Traditional and Nontraditional Systems of Law and Control, P 181- 208, 1996, Charles B Fields and Richter H Moore, Jr, eds. -- See NCJ-161138)

• NCJ Number: 161149
• Author(s): F P Roth
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper demonstrates how the concept of multiple modes of production explains a congruent development of institutional social control and patterns of social conduct, using Botswana as a case study.

Abstract

The central hypothesis of this research is that the material and social imperatives of any configuration of modes condition the shape of group friction and the behavior of social regulation. Initially, the principle task of a mode-of-production analysis is to assess the "forces of production" (labor, raw materials, and technology), the elements of which establish productive priorities and potential. Superimposed on this material foundation are the "social relations of production," which constitute the corresponding configuration of power and authority that determines how the appropriate surplus will be extracted and distributed. These two elements are linked in a reciprocal interaction by the concept of "articulation." Articulation is "the complex of interactions between and among the precapitalist social relations of production and the more dominant modes of production." In the case study of Botswana, the analysis shows that the problem of order in transitional societies such as Botswana is a reflection of the distinctive nature of its articulated modes of production. Traditional relationships governed by time-honored customs persists, sustained by productive modes only marginally connected to the market economy. Impersonal and transient social relationships engendered by market forces have created an urgent need for formal mechanisms of control to supersede or modify the regulatory apparatus of traditional communities. In the course of these developments, the state has begun to develop a machinery of coercive social control. The repressive features of Botswana's National Security Act contradict the spirit and the letter of democratic law. The restraint of labor and the curbs on human and political rights contained in the National Security Act have established a framework for active repression that the transition to capitalist modes of production will eventually mandate. 7 notes and a 95-item bibliography