Types and Consequences of Land Reform in Latin America

Bibliographic Data

ID5031901
AuthorsAlain De Janvry, Lynn Ground
Year1978
Volume5
Issue4
Pages90-112
Publication date1978-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x7800500405
OpenAlexW2123461834
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited11

Since the Mexican revolution and in particular the Punta del Este charter of the Organization of American States in 1961, the issue of land reform has been raging in Latin America. Most countries of the continent have had at least some kind of land reform, and in many cases it has led to significant social change. Yet, no literature exists that analyzes systematically the process of land reform in terms of the dynamics of the global social system in which it occurs. That is one need which this paper seeks to meet. The other is to systematically classify land reforms in Latin America according to a theoretically consistent model based on the concepts of modes of production and social classes and to discuss the consequences of the different types of reforms relative to a set of criteria derived from the logic of public reforms. The key aspects of the nature of capitalism in Latin America are first specified. This permits us to identify its major economic and social contradictions and hence the logic of state intervention through public reforms in an attempt to counteract these contradictions. We focus, in particular, on the problems of stagnation of food production relative to effective demand and of social tensions associated with rural poverty, for which resolution by programs of land reform has been sought. By identifying a hierarchy of factors that explain stagnation and poverty, we then construct a typology of land reforms based on these factors. Seventeen land reform programs in ten countries are thus classified. Their impacts on production and poverty can then be derived from the extent to which different types of reforms affect the factors that are the root causes of these contradictions

Agriculture · Archaeology · Development economics · Economics · Geography · Land reform · Latin Americans · Political science · Land Rights and Reforms

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