Prompting Peasant Protest: Cashews, Coalitions, and Collective Action in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

Political scientists have historically viewed smallholder farmers in low-income countries as lacking the capacity to collectively oppose adverse policies. This article argues that they can if they are able to attribute price distortions to government action. Apart from direct taxes, however, this is likely to occur only when traders inform smallholders of unfavorable policies. When traders are also significantly harmed by a price-distorting policy (e.g., by an export ban), they are motivated to use their networks and financial resources to inform farmer protest. When traders can pass on price distortions to farmers (as with low export taxes), they will not. The article probes this argument through a controlled comparative case analysis of export bans and taxes on raw cashew nuts in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.