(also ''' Agrarian Reform ''', though that can have a broader meaning) is an often- Controversial alteration in the societal arrangements whereby government administers possession and use of land. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed Real Estate Property Redistribution , generally of Agricultural land, or be part of an even more revolutionary program that may include forcible removal of an existing government that is seen to oppose such reforms.
Throughout history, popular discontent with land-related institutions has been one of the most common factors in provoking revolutionary movements and other social upheavals. To those who labor upon the land, the landowner's privilege of appropriating a substantial portion —in some cases half or even more— of production without making a commensurate contribution to production may seem a rank injustice. Consequently, land reform most often refers to transfer from ownership by a relatively small number of wealthy (or Noble ) owners with extensive land holdings (e.g. Plantation s, large Ranch es, or Agribusiness plots) to individual ownership by those who work the land. Such transfer of ownership may be with or without consent or compensation; compensation may vary from token amounts to the full value of the land. The Land Value Tax advocated by Georgists is a moderate, market-based version of land reform.
This definition is somewhat complicated by the issue of state-owned Collective Farms . In various times and places, ''land reform'' has encompassed the transfer of land from ownership — even Peasant ownership in smallholdings — to government-owned collective farms; it has also, in other times and places, referred to the exact opposite: division of government-owned collective farms into smallholdings. The common characteristic of all land reforms is modification or replacement of existing institutional arrangements governing possession and use of land.
See Also: Land ownership and tenure
The variety of land reform derives from the variety of land ownership and tenure. Among the possibilities are:
In addition, there is paid agricultural labor — under which someone works the land in exchange for money, payment in kind, or some combination of the two — and various forms of collective ownership. The latter typically takes the form of membership in a s, government ownership of most agricultural land has combined in various ways with tenure for farming collectives.
Additionally there are, and have been, well-defined systems where neither land nor the houses people live in are their personal property ('' Statare '', as defined in Scandinavia ).
The peasants or rural agricultural workers who are usually the intended primary beneficiaries of a land reform may be, prior to the reform, members of failing collectives, owners of inadequate small plots of land, paid laborers, sharecroppers, Serf s, even Slave s or effectively enslaved by Debt Bondage .
Land reform policies are generally advocated as an effort to eradicate '' (i.e., "the greatest good for the greatest number"), Philosophical or Religious arguments (see Jubilee ), a right to Dignity , or a simple belief that justice requires a policy of "land to the tiller". However, many of these arguments conflict with prevailing notions of property rights in most societies and states. Implementations of land reform generally raise questions about how the members of the society view the individual's rights and the role of government.
These questions include:
- Is private property of any sort legitimate?
- If so, is land ownership legitimate?
- If so, are historic property rights in this particular state and society legitimate?
- Even if property rights are legitimate, do they protect absolutely against expropriation, or do they merely entitle the property owner to partial or complete compensation?
- How should property rights be weighed against rights to life and liberty?
- Who should adjudicate land ownership disputes?
- At what level of government is common land owned?
- What constitutes fair land reform?
- What are the internal and external political effects of the land reform?
Concern over the value of land reform is based upon the following:
- Lack of consistent track record to support land reform outcome; for example, in Zimbabwe, an aggressive land reform plan has led to a collapse of the economy and 45 percent malnutrition, while land reforms in Taiwan after WW II preceded a multi-decade economic boom that turned a poor country into a rich one.
- Question of experience and competence of those receiving land to use it productively
- Equity issues of displacing persons who have sometimes worked hard in previous farming of the land
- Question of competence of governmental entities to make decisions regarding agricultural productivity
- Question of miring a country in vast legal disputes from arbitrary property distribution
- Demotivation of any property owners to invest in land that ultimately can be seized
Opposing exists despite the "willing" label.
The opposition for a land reform may also be based on other ideologies than modern-day liberalism. In countries where there has traditionally been no private land ownership (e.g. Russia in 19th century) the opposition for reforms enabling the creation of private farms may use nationalistic arguments, proposing that the private farms are inconsistent with the national culture. In countries where the established church was an important land owner, theological arguments have been used in the debate on privatization or nationalization of that land (e.g. 16th century Sweden ). The right to ownership of the land, and sometimes, the persons residing on that land, has also been argued on the theory of ''right of conquest'', implying that the original ownership was transferred to the land-owning class's ancestors in a Just War . The ownership can also be argued on the ground of god-given right, implying that a supernatural power has given the land to its owners.
For the proponents of the reform, the rights of the individuals for whose good the reform is supposed to work trump the property rights of the land owners. Usually their philosophical background differs significantly from the viewpoints outlined above, spanning from Marxism to religious ideologies. What is common for them, is that they see the rights or duties advocated as more important than a right to own real estate.
''See also Property Redistribution .''
Agrarian land reform has been a recurring theme of enormous consequence in world history — see, for example, the history of the Semproninan Law or ''Lex Sempronia agraria'' proposed by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and passed by the Roman Senate (133 BC), which led to the social and political wars that ended the Roman Republic .
A historically important source of pressure for land reform has been the accumulation of significant properties by tax-exempt individuals or entities. In ancient Egypt, the tax exemption for temple lands eventually drove almost all the good land into the hands of the priestly class, making them immensely rich (and leaving the world a stunning legacy of monumental temple architecture that still impresses several millennnia later), but starving the government of revenue. In Rome, the land tax exemption for the noble senatorial families had a similar effect, leading to Pliny's famous observation that the latifundia (vast landed estates) had ruined Rome, and would likewise ruin the provinces. In the Christian world, this has frequently been true of churches and monasteries, a major reason that many of the French revolutionaries saw the Catholic church as an accomplice of the landed aristos. In the Moslem world, land reforms such as that organized in Spain by Al-Hurr in 718 have transferred property from Muslim s to Christians, who were taxable by much higher rates.
In the modern world and in the aftermath of Colonialism and the Industrial Revolution , land reform has occurred around the world, from the Mexican Revolution (1917; the revolution began in 1910) to Communist China to Bolivia (1952, 2006) to Zimbabwe and Namibia . Land reform has been especially popular as part of Decolonization struggles in Africa and the Arab World , where it was part of the program for African Socialism and Arab Socialism . Cuba has seen one of the most complete agrarian reforms in Latin America. Land reform was an important step in achieving economic development in many Third World countries since the post- World War II period, especially in the East Asian Tigers and "Tiger Cubs" nations such as Taiwan , South Korea , and Malaysia .
Since Mainland China 's economic reforms led by Deng Xiaoping land reforms have also played a key role in the development of the People's Republic Of China , with the re-emergence of rich property developers in urban areas (though as in Hong Kong, land in China is not privately owned but leased from the state, typically on very long terms that allow substantial opportunity for private speculative gain).
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- reneged on a promised land reform. A first attempt to make a national scale reform was set up in the government of José Sarney , as a result of the strong popular movement that had contributed to the fall of the military government. However, the so-called First Land Reform National Plan never was put into force. Strong campaign including Direct Action by the Landless Workers' Movement throughout the 1990s has managed to get some advances for the past 10 years, during the Fernando Cardoso and Lula Da Silva administrations.
- restarted land reform when he took office in 2006.James Read, Bolivia head starts land handout , BBC News, 4 June 2006. Accessed 20 July 2006. On 29 November 2006, the Bolivian Senate passed a bill authorizing the government redistribution of land among the nation's mostly indigenous poor. The bill was signed into law hours later, though significant opposition is expected "Morales signs controversial bill into law." [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/11/30/2003338532], Taipei Times, 30 November 2006. Accessed 30 November 2006.
- in 1960, were accelerated during the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-1970), and reached its climax during the 1970-1973 presidency of Salvador Allende . Farms of more than 198 acres (80 hectares) were expropriated. After the 1973 Coup the process was halted, and up to a point reversed by the market forces.
- (1934-1938) passed the Law 200 of 1936, which allowed for the expropriation of private properties, in order to promote "social interest". Later attempts declined, until the National Front presidencies of Alberto Lleras Camargo ( 1958 - 1962 ) and Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966-1970), which respectively created the Colombian Institute for Agrarian Reform (INCORA) and further developed land entitlement. In 1968 and 1969 alone, the INCORA issued more than 60,000 land titles to farmers and workers. Despite this, the process was then halted and the situation began to reverse itself, as the subsequent violent actions of drug lords, paramilitaries, guerrillas and opportunistic large landowners severely contributed to a renewed concentration of land and to the displacement of small landowners. In the early 21st century, tentative government plans to use the land legally expropriated from drug lords and/or the properties given back by demobilized paramilitary groups have not caused much practical improvement yet.
- ) Land reform was among the chief planks of the revolutionary platform of 1959. Almost all large holdings were seized by the National Institute For Agrarian Reform (INRA), which dealt with all areas of agricultural policy. A ceiling of 166 acres (67 hectares) was established, and tenants were given full ownership rights.
- , 1944–1954 under the governments of Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz .
- . Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata were strongly identified with land reform, as are the present-day (as of 2006) Zapatista Army Of National Liberation . See Mexican Agrarian Land Reform .
- . Further land reform occurred after the 1968 coup by Left-wing colonel Juan Velasco Alvarado, and again as part of a Counterterrorism effort against the Shining Path during the Internal Conflict In Peru roughly 1988–1995, led by Hernando De Soto and the Institute For Liberty And Democracy during the early years of the government of Alberto Fujimori , before the latter's ''auto- Coup ''.
- 's government enacted Plan Zamora to redistribute government and unused private land to ''campesinos'' in need.
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''Land reform is discussed in the article on Arab Socialism ''
- essentially abolished the political influence of major land owners. However, land reform only resulted in the redistribution of about 15% of Egypt's land under cultivation, and by the early 1980s, the effects of land reform in Egypt drew to a halt as the population of Egypt moved away from agriculture. The Egyptian land reform laws were greatly curtailed under Anwar Sadat and eventually abolished.
- Syria (1963, largely reversed since)
- .
- Iraq (1970)
- Albania : In 1946 the estates of Albania’s land owners were sized by the communist government and redistributed among small peasant landowners. In the 1950’s the land was reorganized into collective farms, but after 1991 the land was redistributed among private smallholders.
- Austria :
- Bulgaria : Upon independence in 1878 the overwhelmingly Turkish nobles estates were redistributed among peasant smallholdings. Additional reforms were implemented in 1920-23 and a maximum ownership 30 hectares was fixed.
- Czechoslovakia : Major land reform was passed in 1919 redistributing mainly German noble’s estates to peasant smallholdings. By 1937 60% of noble land was expropriated with remaining land mainly in unarable arias or Germen and Hungarian lands. Almost all remaining lands were redistributed in reforms of 1945 and 1948.
ceded to Soviet Union , toiling at their new homestead]]
- , the medieval model of all fields consisting of numerous strips, each belonging to a farm, was replaced by a model of fields and forest areas each belonging to a single farm. In the further reparcellings which started to took place in 1848 , the idea of concentrating all the land in a farm to a single piece of real estate was reinforced. In these reparcelling processes, the land is redistributed in direct proportion to earlier prescription. Both the general reparcelling and the further reparcelling processes are still active in some parts of the country. In 1918, Finland fought a Civil War resulting in a series of land reforms. These included the compensated transfer of lease-holdings (''torppa'') to the leasers and prohibition of forestry companies to acquire land. After the Second World War , Karelia ns evacuated from areas ceded to Russia were given land in remaining Finnish areas, taken from public and private holdings. Also the veterans of war benefited from these allotments.
- during the latter phases of the French Revolution .
- Greece : At independence in 1835 the predominately Turkish nobles estates were redistributed as peasant smallholdings.
- Germany :
- landowners, most of which was distributed among the peasants and became smallholdings.
- Hungary : In 1945 every estate bigger than 142 acres was expropriated without compensation and distributed among the peasants. In the 1950s collective ownership was introduced according to the Soviet model, but after 1990 co-ops were dissolved and the land was redistributed among private smallholders.
- Italy :
- , land reform became the dominant issue in Ireland, where almost all of the land was owned by the Protestant Ascendancy . The Irish Parliamentary Party pressed for reform in a largely indifferent British House Of Commons . Reform began tentatively in 1870 and continued for fifty years during which a number of Irish Land Acts were passed (''see also'' Land War ).
- Lithuania : the major land reform was initiated since the 1919 and was fully launched in 1922. The excess land was taken from the major landowners, mostly aristocracy, and redistributed among new landowners, primarily soldiers, or small landowners, 65,000 in total.
- Montenegro and Serbia : At independence in 1830 the predominately Turkish nobles estates were divided up among peasant smallholdings.
- Portugal :
- in the Second Polish Republic (1919, 1921, 1923, 1925 and 1928) and Land Reforms (1944) in the People's Republic Of Poland .
- in the years immediately after Romanian unification in 1863, a major land reform finally occurred in 1921, with a few additional reforms carried out in 1945.
- Slovenia and Croatia : With absorption into the kingdom of Yugoslavia land reform was passed in 1919 with subsidiary laws thereafter redistributing nobles estates among peasant smallholders. Additional reform was implemented in 1945 under the communist.
- Soviet Union
- ---
- ---
- Spain :
- Scotland the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 ends the historic legacy of Feudal Law and creates a framework for rural or Croft communities right to buy land in their area.
- , the general reparcelling out of land, began. In this process, the medieval principle of dividing all the fields in a village into strips, each belongingn to a farm, was changed into a principle of each farm consisting of a few relatively large areas of land. The land was redistributed in proportion to earlier possession of land, while uninhabited forests far from villages were socialized. In the 20th century, Sweden, almost non-violently, arrived at regulating the length minimum of Tenant Farming contracts at 25 years.
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- carried out one of the most extensive land reforms in Africa in 1975.
- launched a "willing buyer-willing seller" based land reform program in the 1960s, funded by Britain, the former colonial power. In 2006 president Mwai Kibaki said it will repossess all land owned by "absentee landlords" in the coastal strip and redistribute it to squatters. Pledge to redistribute Kenya land
- ; legislation passed in September 1994, with a compulsory, compensated approach. Namibia: Land Reform to Cost Billions
- when it came to power in South Africa in 1994. Initially, land was bought from its owners (willing seller) by the government (willing buyer) and redistributed. However, as of early 2006, the ANC government announced that it will start Expropriating the land, although according to the country's chief land-claims commissioner, Tozi Gwanya, unlike Zimbabwe there will be compensation to those whose land is expropriated, "but it must be a just amount, not inflated sums."http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55132&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=SOUTH_AFRICA http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=263484&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
- under Robert Mugabe moved from a "willing seller, willing buyer" approach to the "fast track" land reform program, sometimes to the benefit of people close to the government, as is the case throughout Africa.
- 's agreement to join the Canadian Confederation in the 1870s. Most of the land was owned by Absentee Landlord s in England, and as part of the deal Canada was to buy all the land and give it to the farmers.
- United States Of America :
- ---Following the Civil War , the Radical Republicans attempted to put a land reform through Congress, promising " Forty Acres And A Mule " to newly-freed blacks in the South, which was ultimately rejected by moderate elements as "socialistic". This failure left blacks without an economic base, and was one of the key contributing factors to the development of Sharecropping and Segregation .
- ---The Dawes Act of 1887 split the Indian tribal lands into allotments held by individual Indians. Most tribal land was recollectivized in 1934.
- China has been through a series of land reforms:
- --- In the 1940s, the Sino-American Joint Commission On Rural Reconstruction , funded with American money, with the support of the national government, carried out land reform and community action programs in several provinces.
- --- The thorough land reform launched by the Communist Party Of China in 1946, three years before the foundation of the People's Republic Of China (PRC), won the party millions of supporters among the poor and middle peasantry. The land and other property of landlords were expropriated and redistributed so that each household in a rural village would have a comparable holding. This agrarian revolution was made famous in the West by William Hinton's book ''Fanshen''.
- ---In the mid- through the proclamation of the Sixty Articles. As a result, the ownership of the basic means of production was divided over three levels with collective land ownership vested in the production team (see also Ho {Link without Title} ).
- --- A third land reform beginning in the late 1970s re-introduced family-based contract system called the Household Responsibility System , which had enormous initial success, followed by a period of relative stagnation. Chen, Wang, and Davis suggest that the later stagnation was due, in part, to a system of periodic redistribution that encouraged over-exploitation rather than capital investment in future productivity. [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LTan0031.htm . However, although land use rights were returned to individual farmers, collective land ownership was left undefined after the disbandment of the People's Communes.
- --- Since 1998 China is in the midst of drafting the new Property Law which is the first piece of national legislation that will define the land ownership structure in China for years to come. The Property Law forms the basis for China's future land policy of establishing a system of freehold, rather than of private ownership (see also Ho, {Link without Title} ).
- after 1947. However, this success was not replicated in other areas like the states of Andhra and Madhya Pradesh , where the more radical Communist Party Of India (Maoist) or Naxalite s resorted to violence as it failed to secure power. Even in West Bengal , the economy suffered for a long time as a result of the communist economic policies that did little to encourage heavy industries. In the state of Bihar , tensions between land owners militia, villagers and Maoist s have resulted in numerous massacres. All in all, land reforms have been successful only in pockets of the country, as people have often found loopholes in the laws setting limits on the maximum area of land held by any one person.
- after World War II ) by the instructions of GHQ by the proposal from the Japanese government. It was prepared before the defeat of The Greater Japanese Empire . It is also called Nōchi-kaihō(,emancipation of farming land ).
- . This course of action was made attractive, in part, by the fact that many of the large landowners were Japanese who had fled and also by the fact that the Kuomintang were mostly from the mainland and had few ties to the remaining indigenous landowners.
- South Korea : In 1945–1950, United States and South Korean authorities carried out a land reform that retained the institution of private property. They confiscated and redistributed all land held by the Japanese colonial government, Japanese companies, and individual Japanese colonists. The Korean government carried out a reform whereby Koreans with large landholdings were obliged to divest most of their land. A new class of independent, family proprietors was created. {Link without Title}
- P.P.S. Ho, ''Who Owns China’s Land? Policies, Property Rights and Deliberate Institutional Ambiguity'' , The China Quarterly, Vol. 166, June 2001, pp. 387-414
- R. H. Tawney, ''Land and Labour in China'' New York, Harcourt Brace & Company (1932).
- Fu Chen, Liming Wang and John Davis, "Land reform in rural China since the mid-1980s" , Land Reform 1998/2 , a publication of the Sustainable Development Department of the United Nations ' Food And Agriculture Organization (FAO).
- William H. Hinton . ''Fanshen: A documentary of revolution in a Chinese village''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1966. ISBN 0-520-21040-9.
- P.P.S. Ho, ''Institutions in Transition: Land Ownership, Property Rights and Social Conflict in China'' , (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005)
- Mark Moyar, "Villager attitudes during the final decade of the Vietnam War" . Presented at 1996 Vietnam Symposium "After the Cold War: Reassessing Vietnam" .
- Summary of "Efficiency and wellbeing for 80 years" by Tarmo Luoma on site of ''TEHO'' magazine.
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