Abstract
The redistribution of land property titles by the state is a key issue in poor agrarian countries where land is both the main productive asset and the basis of survival and accumulation for the majority of the population, and thus land tenure is the foundation of the social structure and political power. ‘Agrarian reform’, which encompasses the transformation of rural administrative institutions, labour use and markets as well, is the modern form of this concept. Urban land reform is not dealt with here, as it is usually subsumed under housing policy. Historically, while widespread changes of land tenure have been characteristic of social revolutions since ancient times (Tuma 1965), and classical economic doctrine supported the sweeping away of the feudal land tenure system to permit commercial modernization and stabilize the independent peasantry; the ‘agrarian question’ only becomes a central issue of political economy in the 19th century (Hussain and Tribe 1981).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Barraclough, S. 1973. Agrarian structure in Latin America. Lexington: Heath.
Bettelheim, C. 1975. The transition to socialist economy. Brighton: Harvester.
de Janvry, A. 1981. The agrarian question and reformism in Latin America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
Dorner, P. 1972. Land reform and economic development. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
FitzGerald, E.V.K. 1985. The problem of balance in the peripheral socialist economy. World Development 13(1): 5–14.
Ghose, A.K. (ed.). 1983. Agrarian reform in contemporary developing countries. London: Croom Helm.
Griffin, K. 1974. The political economy of agrarian change. London: Macmillan.
Hussain, A., and K. Tribe. 1981. Marxism and the agrarian question. London: Macmillan.
Jacoby, E.H. 1971. Man and the land. London: Deutsch.
King, R. 1977. Land reform: A survey. London: Bell.
Lardy, N. 1983. Agriculture in China’s modern economic development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lehmann, D. 1978. The death of land reform: A polemic. World Development 6(3): 339–345.
Lipton, M. 1974. Towards a theory of land reform. In Agrarian reform and agrarian reformism, ed. D. Lehmann. London: Faber.
Saith, A. (ed.). 1985. The agrarian question in socialist transition. London: Cass.
Schultz, T.W. 1964. Transforming traditional agriculture. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Tuma, E.H. 1965. Twenty-six centuries of agrarian reform. Berkeley: University of California Press.
United Nations. 1976. Progress in land reform: Sixth report. New York: United Nations.
Wadekin, K.E. 1982. Agrarian policies in communist Europe. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.
Warriner, D. 1969. Land reform in principle and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wolf, E. 1969. Peasant wars in the twentieth century. New York: Harper & Row.
World Bank. 1974. Land reform. Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
FitzGerald, E.V.K. (2018). Land Reform. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1266
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1266
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences