Kleoniki Alexopoulou | Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

Published articles by Kleoniki Alexopoulou

Revista De Historia Industrial — Industrial History Review , 2024

We adopt the metaphor of the “jackal” and the “lion” to explore whether variation in geo-politica... more We adopt the metaphor of the “jackal” and the “lion” to explore whether variation in geo-political power of metropoles affected fiscal and military capacity building in colonial Africa. Zooming in on Portuguese Africa, we hypothesize that indigenous taxpayers in Angola and Mozambique were forced to invest more in order, security and their own subjugation, as Portugal lacked the wealth, the scale economies, the imperial cross-subsidies and the means of credible deterrence underpinning British and French imperial security policies. We show that military and police force expenditures extracted larger proportions of the colonial budget in Portuguese Africa. The Portuguese African army was also relatively large, relied extensively on forced labour recruitment and remained poorly equipped. While Britain and France supported African colonial armies with substantial metropolitan and imperial subsidies, and Britain also kept far fewer troops on African soil, the conditions of “jackal imperialism” placed greater burdens on long-term colonial state finances.

Revista de Historia Industrial, 2023

We study the history of human capital in Greece during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We... more We study the history of human capital in Greece during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We investigate the numeracy skills of the population both at national and regional levels. Furthermore, we test the effect of gender equality, as well as geographic, demographic and socioeconomic factors such as agricultural specialisation (crops, livestock), trade and industry development, urbanisation, and migration on numeracy. We find that the gender gap is highly correlated with numeracy and its effect fades out around 1910. We show that the maritime orientation of the island economies was highly complementary with early numerical human capital and increasing gender equality.

Revista Brasileira de Economia Social e do Trabalho, 2022

Portugal and Greece under crisis applied economic adjustment programs (2010-2018) as conditiona... more Portugal and Greece under crisis applied economic adjustment programs (2010-2018) as conditionalities for receiving loans by the Troika. Both count among the most poor and unequal countries in the EU and their welfare states have been built recently. Our main research objective is to conduct a comparative analysis of the impact of social policy reforms on public expenditures, development and welfare indicators such as poverty, inequality, unemployment, net earnings, and emigration. If results differed in the two cases, what are the reasons? Is it due to previous growth levels, exogenous factors (adjustment programs) or endogenous ones (welfare state models) or post-Troika governments? We retrieve evidence from secondary literature, state archival documents, IMF and EC evaluation reports. We elaborate on statistical datasets retrieved from Eurostat. We find that welfare state components –i.e. health and employment levels–were deeply affected in Greece and we explain processes of divergence towards a universalist model.

Book Chapter in the collective volume "Shifting Patterns of Migration in Africa, 1800-present", edited by Ewout Frankema and Michiel de Haas, Routledge, 2022

This chapter offers an overview of labor migration in former Portuguese Africa during the full ce... more This chapter offers an overview of labor migration in former Portuguese Africa during the full century prior to independence. Apart from mapping the several migration flows and developing a typology of migrant workers, this study presents a detailed analysis of the legal and administrative frameworks regulating the process of labor recruitment and migration. Our analysis is guided by four main questions: (i) How did the Portuguese colonial state govern the supply of free and unfree labor in relation to rising demand from within and beyond its African territories? (ii) Why did the Portuguese colonial state develop rather complex systems of labor recruitment?; (iii) Why did Portuguese Africa absorb relatively few workers from abroad?; (iv) Why, given the scarcity of labor in its own territories, did the Portuguese colonial state promote labor migration flows to neighboring colonies? We address these questions by exploring historical data on legislation, correspondence, official bulletins, censuses, and statistical yearbooks.

European Review of Economic History, 2021

How can we trace early African development? The share of known birth years of rulers is identifie... more How can we trace early African development? The share of known birth years of rulers is identified as an indicator for elite numeracy in African regions since 1400, and the share of murdered rulers allows us to gain insights into interpersonal violence of African elites. A dynamic picture of quantitative African history emerges. The absence of elite violence and high elite numeracy developed jointly in sub-Saharan Africa. Some African regions, such as today’s Ethiopia and Angola took the lead in early development, but also experience severe declines. The development in Africa was on average slower than in Northwestern Europe.

Published in a collective volume (edited by Ewout Frankema and Anne Booth) by Cambridge University Press, 2019

This chapter surveys the fiscal policies and practices in the Portuguese African colonies of Moza... more This chapter surveys the fiscal policies and practices in the Portuguese African colonies of Mozambique and Angola from the 1850s to 1970s. It explores the fiscal implications of a long history of trade relations and cultural exchange, including early forms of colonial settlement (merchants, missionaries, prazeros), which were moulded into a relatively late and severely contested occupation wave in the late 19 th nineteenth century. It discusses the constraints to revenue centralization and fiscal unification and shows how spending policies prioritized security, administration and infrastructure over welfare services. I argue that local conditions, including this specific 'pre-colonial' history of Portuguese-African relations, limited possibilities of fiscal modernisation, while major ruptures in metropolitan politics (e.g. the Salazar authoritarian regime) were key in the re-organization of imperial finances.

International Review of Social History, 2017

Samir Amin (1972) divided the African continent into three “macro-regions of colonial influence” ... more Samir Amin (1972) divided the African continent into three “macro-regions of colonial influence” with distinct socio-economic systems and labour practices: Africa of the colonial trade or peasant economy, Africa of the concession-owning companies, and Africa of the labour reserves. We argue that Mozambique encompassed all three different “macro-regions” in one sole colony. We reconstruct government revenue (direct/indirect taxes) raised at a district level between 1930 and 1973 and find persisting differences in the “tax capacity” of the three regions throughout the colonial period. The tax systems, we claim, developed in response to existing local geographic and economic conditions, particularly to labour practices. Portuguese colonial rule adapted to and promoted labour practices such as migration and forced labour to maximize revenue. The extent to which the lack of integration played a role in the post-colonial state and fiscal failure should be studied further.

Conference Presentations by Kleoniki Alexopoulou

Presentation at the 15th Annual Meeting of the AEHN “Crossroads in African Economic History”, Uni... more Presentation at the 15th Annual Meeting of the AEHN “Crossroads in African Economic History”, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Presentation at the 4th International Conference in Economic and Social History “Varieties of Capitalism in the Mediterranean (18th-20th c.)”, Panteion University and National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece, 2022

Presentation at the 40th Conference of the Portuguese Economic and Social History Association, 2021

Portugal and especially Greece have been undertaking various fiscal and labour law reforms, debt ... more Portugal and especially Greece have been undertaking various fiscal and labour law reforms, debt and austerity policies during the recent economic crisis (2010-2020), in the form of adjustment programs, applied as conditions for receiving loans, by the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Portugal and Greece are counted among the poorest and most unequal countries in the EU, suffering dramatic political pressure due to external interventions. Both are considered “semi-peripheral” countries and their welfare states have been built recently, in the framework of the democratisation process from the mid-1970s onwards. The impact of the adjustment programs on development and welfare indicators has been questioned by numerous scholars. Our principal research objective is to conduct a comparative analysis of fiscal, labour and social policy reforms, aiming at reduction of fiscal deficit in the two eurozone countries, under TROIKA intervention. What was the impact of these reforms on public expenditures and socio-economic indicators such as poverty, inequality, unemployment, net earnings, and emigration? If results differed to a certain extent in the two cases (Portugal and Greece), what are the reasons for such differences? Is it due to previous growth levels (GDP), to exogenous factors (nature of interventions) or endogenous ones (welfare state models and structural problems)? We retrieve qualitative and quantitative evidence from both secondary literature and primary sources, such as state archival documents, IMF evaluation reports and press coverage. We elaborate on statistical datasets retrieved mainly from Eurostat. We find that typical welfare state components, such as health care, as well as (un)employment levels were deeply affected, especially in the case of Greece. We explore similarities and differences between the nature of welfare states in the two cases. Last, we discuss lessons learned and future policy implications.

Samir Amin (1972) divided the African continent into three different “macro-regions of colonial i... more Samir Amin (1972) divided the African continent into three different “macro-regions of colonial influence”: Africa of the colonial trade or peasant economy, Africa of the concession-owning companies, and Africa of the labour reserves. We argue that Mozambique encompassed all three different “macro-regions” in one sole colony. We find persisting differences in “tax capacity” of these three regions throughout the colonial period and, based on a historical narrative, we explain the causes of this path dependency. We use a newly compiled dataset that includes government revenue (direct/indirect taxes) raised on district level between 1930 and 1973, derived from the statistical yearbooks and national accounts of Mozambique. Focusing on one country has the advantage over cross-country comparisons that one can keep the metropolitan identity constant. We conclude that the tax and labour systems developed as a response to the local conditions, and that the differences between the three regions were exacerbated during colonial times.

Thesis chapters by Kleoniki Alexopoulou

Railways were key to the colonization of Africa. Railways facilitated the occupation of hinterlan... more Railways were key to the colonization of Africa. Railways facilitated the occupation of hinterland areas, the spread of new settlements, the trade in minerals and cash-crops, tax collection and the effectuation of a violence monopoly. From the 1930s onwards, infrastructural investments in Portuguese Africa were increasingly regarded as part of a colonial 'development' scheme. This paper analyses the emergence of railway geographies in Angola and Mozambique from a political economy and comparative perspective, focussing on the financing, chronological order and operation of different lines and the various actors involved, such as private companies and investors, metropolitan and colonial governments. I show that in the early colonial era railways were funded mainly by private capital-especially in Angola-but the colonial state and colonial budgets soon took over. Both colonies-especially Mozambique-raised indigenous taxes and coerced African labour to fund railway expansion. 'Development' through coercion thus hardly resulted in tangible welfare gains for the impoverished majority of colonial subjects.

Master's thesis, Dec 1, 2011

The supply linkages between the formal dairy sector and the informal one .. 5.1.3 The relationshi... more The supply linkages between the formal dairy sector and the informal one .. 5.1.3 The relationship of the formal and the informal dairy sector on demand level ……………………………………………………………………………….59 5.1.4 The dynamics of the formal and the informal dairy sector and their causes .. 5.2 The characteristics of the informal milk supply chain in Mwanza .

This paper sheds light on the colonial policies and fiscal practices in Portuguese Mozambique and... more This paper sheds light on the colonial policies and fiscal practices in Portuguese Mozambique and Angola from their early colonial period (1850s) until their independence (1970s). Its added value derives from its comparative approach to long-term state (trans)formation, fiscalisation and citizenship in an understudied region. The paper contributes to the literature on colonial Africa by demonstrating various dimensions of colonial taxation and public spending, based on novel data from primary sources, such as the Statistical Yearbooks and the National Accounts of Mozambique and Angola. Covering more than a century, the paper identifies tax per capita levels, types of taxation imposed, main revenue sources and expenditure patterns. Annual time series indicate trends, continuities, ruptures and varieties within Portuguese Africa as well as with respect to British and French Africa. The paper shows that despite the context-dependent disparities between Mozambique and Angola, the metropolitan vision was dominant in shaping the administration and fiscal policies applied in the colonies. Under the influence of regime changes in Portugal, colonial rule swung between administrative and financial autonomy (following the model of British Africa) and power centralisation policies (French Africa). In theory, colonial rule aimed to maintain the order in Portuguese Africa at minimum cost. In practice, both direct and indirect taxation revenue increased across time, especially in Mozambique, while public investments on security resources and infrastructure were prioritised over social services almost throughout the colonial era.

Book Reviews by Kleoniki Alexopoulou

Βιβλιοκρισία Εξουσιάζοντας τα κύματα επιμ. Αθηνά Συριάτου εκδόσεις Ασίνη, 2021

Ο τόμος αυτός, που επιμελήθηκε η Αθηνά Συριάτου, μιλάει για την Βρετανική Αυτοκρατορία και τη δια... more Ο τόμος αυτός, που επιμελήθηκε η Αθηνά Συριάτου, μιλάει για την Βρετανική Αυτοκρατορία και τη διαμόρφωση της βρετανικής ταυτότητας κατά την αποικιακή, αλλά και μεταποικιακή περίοδο, και αποτελεί μάλλον την πρώτη συστηματική προσπάθεια να εκδοθεί κάτι σχετικό στην Ελλάδα με επίκεντρο την ιστοριογραφία.

The long depression : how it happened, why it happened, and what happens next [Μακρά Ύφεση: Πώς σ... more The long depression : how it happened, why it happened, and what happens next [Μακρά Ύφεση: Πώς συνέβη, γιατί συνέβη και τι θα συμβεί μετά] Michael Roberts Chicago, Ill., Haymarket Books, 2016 | 347 σελίδες

Revista De Historia Industrial — Industrial History Review , 2024

Revista de Historia Industrial, 2023

Revista Brasileira de Economia Social e do Trabalho, 2022

Book Chapter in the collective volume "Shifting Patterns of Migration in Africa, 1800-present", edited by Ewout Frankema and Michiel de Haas, Routledge, 2022

European Review of Economic History, 2021

Published in a collective volume (edited by Ewout Frankema and Anne Booth) by Cambridge University Press, 2019

International Review of Social History, 2017

Presentation at the 40th Conference of the Portuguese Economic and Social History Association, 2021

Master's thesis, Dec 1, 2011

Βιβλιοκρισία Εξουσιάζοντας τα κύματα επιμ. Αθηνά Συριάτου εκδόσεις Ασίνη, 2021

The most recent book by Jeanne Penvenne deals with the role of women in the production and proces... more The most recent book by Jeanne Penvenne deals with the role of women in the production and processing of cashew nuts, the principal export commodity of Mozambique in the late colonial period. By the 1970s, Mozambique was a global leader in cashew production. Previous literature has overlooked the importance of the labour force, and particularly of the women working in the cashew economy (80 per cent of factory workers were women). Penvenne fills that gap by shedding light on the narratives of women who migrated from rural areas to the capital to work in cashew factories. She points at the connections between various socio-economic developments of the late colonial era such as commercialization, industrialization, migration, and urbanization.

African Economic History Network Working Paper #21

The question whether institutions in Africa were shaped by the metropolitan identity of the colon... more The question whether institutions in Africa were shaped by the metropolitan identity of the colonizer or by local conditions is lively debated in the African economic history literature. In
this paper we contribute to this debate by revealing regional differences in tax capacity in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Samir Amin (1972) divided the African continent into three different “macro-regions of colonial influence”: Africa of the colonial trade or peasant economy, Africa of the concession-owning companies and Africa of the labour reserves.
Interestingly, we argue that Mozambique encompassed all three different “macro-regions” in one sole colony. In regression analysis we find differences in “tax capacity” along this threefold
categorization. We use a newly compiled dataset that includes government revenue (direct/indirect taxes) raised on a district level between 1930 and the 1973, derived from the statistical yearbooks and national accounts of Mozambique. Focusing on one country has the advantage over cross country comparisons that one can keep the metropolitan identity constant. We conclude that the tax system developed as a response to the local conditions and the differences between the three regions were exacerbated during colonial times.

We study the history of human capital in former Ottoman and later Greek regions during the 19th a... more We study the history of human capital in former Ottoman and later Greek regions during the 19th and 20th century. We investigate numeracy skills of the population from a comparative perspective at regional level. Furthermore, we test the effect of gender equality, geographic, demographic and socioeconomic factors such as agricultural specialisation (crops, livestock), trade and industry development as well as urbanization and migration on numeracy. We find that in Greece the gender gap is highly correlated with numeracy and this effect fades out around 1910. We conclude that maritime orientation of the island economies was highly complementary with early numerical human capital and increasing gender equality.

Railways were key to the colonization of Africa. Railways facilitated the occupation of hinterlan... more Railways were key to the colonization of Africa. Railways facilitated the occupation of hinterland areas, the spread of new settlements, the trade in minerals and cash-crops, tax collection and the effectuation of a violence monopoly. From the 1930s onwards, infrastructural investments in Portuguese Africa were increasingly regarded as part of a colonial 'development' scheme. This paper analyses the emergence of railway geographies in Angola and Mozambique from a political economy and comparative perspective, focussing on the financing, chronological order and operation of different lines and the various actors involved, such as private companies and investors, metropolitan and colonial governments. I show that in the early colonial era railways were funded mainly by private capital -especially in Angola -but the colonial state and colonial budgets soon took over. Both colonies -especially Mozambique -raised indigenous taxes and coerced African labour to fund railway expansion.

This paper explores the fiscal and military capacity building in Portuguese Africa in the British... more This paper explores the fiscal and military capacity building in Portuguese Africa in the British African mirror, hypothesizing that the governments of Angola and Mozambique had to invest more to secure internal order and external borders, since they could not benefit from the economies of scale, the imperial cross-subsidies and the means of credible deterrence underpinning British imperial security policies. This had long-term implications for the development of public finances and state institutions. Compared to a sample of British African colonies, military expenses extracted larger parts of the colonial budget in Portuguese Africa and required more subsidies and loans from Lisbon. Armies were larger, recruitment practices were more coercive and while Portuguese Africa supplied soldiers to Portuguese dependencies in Asia, British African colonies benefitted from significant Indian subsidies.

Kleoniki Alexopoulou | Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (original) (raw)

Published articles by Kleoniki Alexopoulou

Conference Presentations by Kleoniki Alexopoulou

Thesis chapters by Kleoniki Alexopoulou

Book Reviews by Kleoniki Alexopoulou