摘要：Phil Ryan's lively and well-informed critique of the agrarian reform policies of Nicaragua's Sandinista Front for National Liberation makes an important contribution to the debate on the "peasant question." I have often found myself amazed, frustrated, and disheartened by the grandiose schemes that Marxists - and liberals also - concoct to modernize agriculture and "backward" peasants. Nevertheless, it seems to me that Ryan's critique would have been strengthened if he had further explored the relevance of scale economies for different types of agriculture.
