
#REDIRECT land reform
Land reform (also agrarian reform) is the government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of — i.e. transfer of ownership of (or tenure in) — agricultural land. The term most often refers to transfer from ownership by a relatively small number of wealthy (or nobility) owners with extensive land holdings (e.g. plantations, large ranches, or agribusiness plots) to individual or collective 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 is a moderate version of land reform. This definition is somewhat complicated by the issue of state-owned collective farming. 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. Agrarian or 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 B.C.E., which led to the social and political wars that ended the Roman Republic. 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) to People's Republic of China to Bolivia (1952) 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 Republic of China, 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. ==Land ownership and tenure== ''See main article Land ownership and tenure.'' The variety of land reform derives from the variety of land ownership and tenure. Among the possibilities are: * Traditional land tenure, as in the indigenous nations or tribes of North America in the Pre-Columbian era. * Feudalism land ownership, through fiefdoms * Life estate, interest in real property that ends at death. * Fee tail, hereditary, non-transferable ownership of real property. * Fee simple. Under common law, this is the most complete ownership interest one can have in real property. * Leasehold or renting * Rights to use a commons * Sharecropping * Easements 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 cooperative, or shares in a corporation, which owns the land (typically by fee simple or its equivalent, but possibly under other arrangements). There are also various hybrids: in many communist states, government ownership of most agricultural land has combined in various ways with tenure for farming collectives. 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, serfs, even slaves or effectively enslaved by debt bondage. ==The philosophy behind land reform== Philosophically there are strong arguments to justify land reform: Multiple legal titles to the same land decrease its usefulness, some of the titles may have been obtained through theft (sometimes aided by control of the legal system), Utilitarianism, 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. Except to Minarchism, state facilitation of "willing seller, willing buyer" transactions is relatively unproblematic, but other forms of land reform generally raise questions about a society's conception of rights and of the proper 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? ==Land reform for poverty alleviation and food security== Access to land is a crucial factor in the eradication of food security and rural poverty. The world's poorest people are usually land-poor; improved access to land provides shelter and food — allowing a household to increase food consumption — and may increase household income if surplus food is produced and sold. [http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/006/j0415T/j0415T00.htm] ==Land reform efforts== ===Latin America=== *Mexico: a certain degree of land reform was introduced, albeit unevenly, as part of the Mexican Revolution. Emiliano Zapata was strongly identified with land reform, as are the present-day Zapatista Army of National Liberation. *Brazil: In the 1930s, Getúlio Vargas reneged on a promised land reform. Strong campaign including direct action by the Landless Workers' Movement throughout the 1990s. Current efforts under Lula da Silva, Brazil's first elected leftwing president, inaugurated January 1, 2003 *Guatemala: land reform occurred during the History_of_Guatemala#The_.22Ten_Years_of_Spring.22, 1944–1954 under the governments of Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz. *Bolivia: The revolution of 1952 was followed by a land reform law, but in 1970 only 45% of peasant families had received title to land. *Peru: land reform in the 1950s largely eliminated a centuries-old system of debt bondage. Further land reform occurred after the 1968 coup by left-wing politics colonel Juan Velasco Alvarado, and again as part of a counterterrorism effort against the Shining Path roughly 1988–1995, led by Hernando de Soto (economist) and the Institute for Liberty and Democracy during the early years of the government of Alberto Fujimori, before the latter's ''auto-coup''. *Cuba: Land reform was among the chief planks of the revolutionary platform of 1959. Almost all large holdings were seized by the National Institute for Land 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. *Chile: Attempts at land reform began under the government of Jorge Alessandri in 1960, were speeded 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 Chilean coup of 1973 the process was halted, and up to a point reversed by the market forces. *Colombia: Alfonso López Pumarejo (1934-1938) passed the Law 200 of 1936, which allowed for the expropiation of private properties, in order to promote "social interest". Later attempts declined, until the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Colombia#The_National_Front 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 druglords, 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 expropiated from druglords and/or the properties given back by demobilized paramilitary groups have not caused much practical improvement yet. *Venezuela: Hugo Chávez's government enacted Plan Zamora to redistribute government and unused private land to ''campesinos'' in need. ===Middle East=== ''Land reform is discussed in the article on Arab Socialism'' * Egypt: (1952, largely reversed since) * Syria (1963, largely reversed since) * Iran: a significant land reform was part of Muhammad Reza Shah's so-called White Revolution of 1963. Almost 90% of Iranian sharecropping became land owners. * Iraq (1970) === Europe === *France: a major and lasting land reform took place under the French Directory during the latter phases of the French Revolution. *Estonia and Latvia: at their founding as states in 1918–1919, they expropriate the large estates of Baltic German landowners, much of which became smallholdings. *Ireland: after the Irish Famine, land reform became the dominant issue in Ireland, where almost all of the land was owned by the England aristocracy. The Irish Parliamentary Party campaigned for this in a largely indifferent United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland House of Commons. Reform began tentatively in 1870 and continued for fifty years. *Romania: After failed attempts at land reform by Mihail Kogalniceanu in the years immediately after Romanian unification in 1863, a major land reform finally occurred in 1921. *Russia **Imperial Russia: Stolypin reform **Soviet Russia: Decree on Land *Scotland the Land Reform Act (Scotland) was passed in 2003, it ends the historic legacy of feudal law and creates a framework for rural or Croft, Scotland communities right to buy land in their area. === Sub-Saharan Africa === *Namibia: A limited land reform has been a hallmark of the regime of Sam Nujoma; legislation passed in September 1994, with a "willing seller, willing buyer" approach. *South Africa: Land reform was one of the promises made by the African National Congress when it came to power in South Africa in 1994. The system is based on fair price system, land is bought from its owners (willing seller) by the government (willing-buyer) and redistributed. *Zimbabwe: Very controversial efforts at land reform in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe has moved steadily from a "willing seller, willing buyer" approach toward outright expropriation, often for the benefit of people close to the government. === North America === *Canada: A land reform was carried out as part of Prince Edward Island's agreement to join the Canadian confederation in the 1870s. Most of the land was owned by absentee landlords in England, and as part of the deal Canada was to buy all the land and give them to the farmers. === Asia === *China has been through a series of land reforms: ** 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-1950s, a second land reform compelled individual farmers to join collectives, which, in turn, were grouped into People's Communes with centrally controlled property rights and an egalitarian principle of distribution. This policy was generally a failure in terms of production. [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LTan0031.htm] There is evidence that the PRC began to reverse this policy even in the 1960s. ** 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 [1998] suggest that the later stagnation was due, in part, to a system of periodic redistribution that encouraged overexploitation rather than capital investment in future productivity. [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LTan0031.htm] *India: Due the taxation and regulation under the British Raj, at the time of Indian independence, India inherited a semi-feudal agrarian system, with ownership of land concentrated with a few individual landlords (Zamindars, Zamindari System). Since independence, there has been voluntary and state initiated/mediated land reforms in several states.The most notable and successful example of land reforms is in the state of West Bengal. After promising land reforms and elected to power, the Communist Party of India kept their word and initiated gradual land reforms. The result was a more equitable distribution of land among the landless farmers. This has ensured an almost life long loyalty from the farmers and the communists have been in power ever since. **But such a success in the state could not be replicated in other areas like Kerala - the only other state where communists swept to power. The reason lies in corruption and lackadaisical administration. The more radical wing of the CPI, the PWG (People's War Group) or Naxalites resorted to violence as it failed to secure any power in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Even in West Bengal, the economy suffered as a result of the communist economic policies that did little to encourage industries. In the state of Bihar, tensions between land owners milita and the villagers, Maoists have resulted in numerous massacres. **In the overal analysis, land reforms have been successful only in pockets of the country, as people have often found ways to subvert any ceilings on the maximum area of land held by any one individuals. *Japan: After World War II, the U.S. occupying forces conducted a land reform in Japan. *Taiwan: In the years after World War II, Chiang Kai-shek conducted land reform at the insistence of the U.S. This course of action was made possible, 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. *Vietnam: In the years after World War II, even before the formal division of Vietnam, generally successful and popular land reform boosted the popularity of North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, especially when contrasted with failed attempts at land reform in South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem. South Vietnam made several further attempts at land reform in the post-Diem years, the most ambitious being the Land to the Tiller (South Vietnam) program instituted in 1970 by President Nguyen Van Thieu. This limited individual to 15 hectares, compensated the owners of expropriated tracts, and extended legal title to peasants who in areas under control of the South Vietnamese government to whom had land had previously been distributed by the Viet Cong. Mark Moyar [1996] asserts that while it was effectively implemented only in some parts of the country, "In the Mekong Delta and the provinces around Saigon, the program worked extremely well... It reduced the percentage of total cropland cultivated by tenants from sixty percent to ten percent in three years." [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/moyar.htm] *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. [http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/36.htm] ==See also== *Anti-globalization movement *Communism *Eminent domain *Homestead principle *Land Value Tax *Land rights *Restitution *Squatter Contrast: * Inclosure ==External links== *[http://www.landaction.org Land Research Action Network:News, Analysis, and Research on Land Reform] *[http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Rural/Land Land Reform in Scotland] *[http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/zimbabwe/ Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe] ==References== * Fu Chen, Liming Wang and John Davis, [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LTan0031.htm "Land reform in rural China since the mid-1980s"], [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LR98_2/landrf.htm 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. *Mark Moyar, [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/moyar.htm "Villager attitudes during the final decade of the Vietnam War"]. Presented at 1996 Vietnam Symposium [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/papers.htm "After the Cold War: Reassessing Vietnam"]. Agriculture
I see this is the CSB collaboration of the week. Unlike some topics, I'm not knowlegable enough on this to jump in and write (though I'll see if I can do some useful research). Some topics, though, that I think should be engaged by this article: # Relation to squatting, homesteading, collectivization of farms. #* Now at least mentioned -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:18, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) # Transitions from collectivization to smallholding as the Communist states ended or (as in China) underwent major transitions toward capitalism #* China material now fleshed out in this respect. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 23:54, Dec 24, 2004 (UTC) # Relation to the rather opposite trend of the British enclosure movement. #* A "See also" link provided as a "Contrast". -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:19, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) # Korea as an example where land reform probably occurred largely because Japanese occupation had weakened the political power of traditional landlords. #* mentioned, implied, no real discussion yet. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:18, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) # The degree to which land reform in various times and places has involved reassignment of existing, clear title to land ''vs.'' the degree to which it has involved the transition from traditional, undocumented title (commons, etc.). # The current use of the rhetoric of land reform in Zimbabwe for a movement that seems only marginally to be one of land reform. #* Like many other things, now at least mentioned. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:21, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) #Compensation (or its lack) to previous owners #* Mentioned several places. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:18, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) #Arguments of the relative efficiency of smallholdings vs. plantations/latifundia. Cash crops vs. subsistence farming. How these tradeoffs relate to market economies (or lack thereof) at various times. #Try to find sources that look at at least a couple of reasonably successful land reform efforts and at some of the failures, possibly some discussion of comparative factors; I suspect availability of capital and the relative quality of the lands would both loom large. #Relation to other policy matters (e.g. tax systems, the drug war, GMOs and other aspects of agribusiness vs. organic farming or other sustainable agriculture) Also, if anyone can simply add here in Talk a list of potentially useful source material (online and on paper), that would be very helpful. I'll be looking for some sources and sharing what I find. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 01:52, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) *Land Research Action Network, which the page already links to, has some [http://www.landaction.org/category.php?section=18 country studies]. I haven't had a chance yet to see if they are any good. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 01:54, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) * The Sustainable Development Department of the FAO has a number of publcations on their website covering both general and specific cases of land reform [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/landrf.htm]--User:Petaholmes 02:42, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) * [http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/index.htm Oxfam on land rights in Africa] -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 06:22, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) *[http://www.mre.gov.br/cdbrasil/itamaraty/web/ingles/polsoc/refagra/apresent/ Brazilian gov't on land reform] from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, in English. Looks like a pretty extensive sub-site. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 06:22, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) *Google on site:lcweb2.loc.gov \"land reform\" to get mentions of land reform in U.S. gov't country studies, all of which are public domain. Similarly, site:lcweb2.loc.gov \"agrarian reform\" -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 06:38, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) **It's slightly easier to get to from here [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html], its a great resource, shame they ran of funding before they finished the rest of the developing world--User:Petaholmes 07:33, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) *The [http://econ.worldbank.org/prr/land_policy/ World Bank] has a decent publication on land reform--User:Petaholmes 08:22, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) ---- I've now used the "What links here" feature to gather up what substantive info Wikipedia already had on land reform efforts and get them into the article. There's probably more that's not linked here. So far, there is roughly nothing about the Communist countries. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 07:56, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) ---- We'll need to make the distinction between land reform and Land rights. Some information on land rights see the links on the discussion page--User:Petaholmes 08:16, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) == land reform in venezuela == Plan Zamora in Venezuela seems to focus on land that is owned by the government or currently lying fallow. This runs counter to the definition of land reform we have in the lead paragraph, where the two examples are both of land that is under use. More on Plan Zamora [http://www.yachana.org/reports/venezuela/landreform.pdf from Global Exchange] and [http://www.narconews.com/Issue31/article862.html Narco News] (two of the first google hits). The government is a large land owner too- the definitation in the lead is a bit narrow. It really should say that land reform is the redistribution of public or privately held land for use by small farms and so on --User:Petaholmes 00:44, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) ==Land reform for poverty alleviation and food security== Good material to expand this section can be found here [http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/006/j0415T/j0415T00.htm] ==Urban analogue== I believe there is an urban anaolgue to this that could get an article and should be linked to, but I don't know the term and don't know if we have an article. Under French law, and probably under some others, there is apparently a statute intended to prevent real-estate speculators from hoarding empty apartments and allows the government (I think at the city level) to intervene and expropriate the property. If anyone knows anything about it, I'd appreciate it. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 07:06, Oct 25, 2004 (UTC) Here are some things I could come up with: *There is a process called restitution which covers the expropriation of property by the for a price, this article covers some detail [http://www.fig.net/pub/athens/papers/ts17/TS17_1_Grover_Flores.pdf]. It seems to be realtively common in former communist states [http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/2003/31415.htm]. Resitituion isn't covered in the Property law article. *In the early part of the 20th century the French instituted a system of land development planning whereby the national government coordinated and planned land-use and development in consultation with local government. It grouped land for similar purposes - agriculture, housing, wooded reserves, conservation of existing open spaces. This planning system was modelled on Baron Haussmann's famous restructuring of Paris between 1853 and 1869. It was a system much admired and imitated throughout Europe. The government had the power to acquire land cheaply for public purposes, including housing. There were taxes on unearned improvements in land value [http://www.population.org.au/pressrm/pub/landspec.htm]. *In some American states there are laws that make it possible to force the sale of vacant urban property [http://www.prcno.org/AcqPopfaq.html].--User:Petaholmes 08:11, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC) Interesting. These probably deserve articles of their own... -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 18:11, Oct 25, 2004 (UTC) Someone with familiarity with land reform in the United States should add something. My understanding is that a series of late 19th century land reforms resulted in squatting rights, basically if you live on a piece of land and no one stops by to assert their ownership by collecting rent (even a token one) or to demand you leave for some fixed period then you can apply for a title to the land. The period is usually between 7-10 years. Plus, there is also the system of title insurance which facilitates easy exchange of property. Basically a homeowner pays $1000-2000 a year to an insurance company that investigates the property when you first buy it, and defends your title. If they fail to defend your title they refund you the full purchase price, or at least your morgage if you have a minimal policy. Often a country engaging in land reform has many conflicting titles to the same land, so anyone selling a title to the land can't demand its full value because the new owner has to contend with the possibility that another title holder might show up some day. And, the lack of clear titles means no insurance company is willing to sell title insurance at reasonable rates. --User:Zenyu 00:06, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Land_reform:
Land_Reform
Land_reform
Land_reform
Land_reforms
Land_Reforms_Ordinance
Land_reform_in_Ireland
Land_reform_in_Zimbabwe
Land_reform_in_Zimbabwe
Land_Reform_Ordinance
Land Reform
#REDIRECT land reform
Land reform
Land reform (also agrarian reform) is the government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of — i.e. transfer of ownership of (or tenure in) — agricultural land. The term most often refers to transfer from ownership by a relatively small number of wealthy (or nobility) owners with extensive land holdings (e.g. plantations, large ranches, or agribusiness plots) to individual or collective 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 is a moderate version of land reform. This definition is somewhat complicated by the issue of state-owned collective farming. 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. Agrarian or 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 B.C.E., which led to the social and political wars that ended the Roman Republic. 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) to People's Republic of China to Bolivia (1952) 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 Republic of China, 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. ==Land ownership and tenure== ''See main article Land ownership and tenure.'' The variety of land reform derives from the variety of land ownership and tenure. Among the possibilities are: * Traditional land tenure, as in the indigenous nations or tribes of North America in the Pre-Columbian era. * Feudalism land ownership, through fiefdoms * Life estate, interest in real property that ends at death. * Fee tail, hereditary, non-transferable ownership of real property. * Fee simple. Under common law, this is the most complete ownership interest one can have in real property. * Leasehold or renting * Rights to use a commons * Sharecropping * Easements 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 cooperative, or shares in a corporation, which owns the land (typically by fee simple or its equivalent, but possibly under other arrangements). There are also various hybrids: in many communist states, government ownership of most agricultural land has combined in various ways with tenure for farming collectives. 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, serfs, even slaves or effectively enslaved by debt bondage. ==The philosophy behind land reform== Philosophically there are strong arguments to justify land reform: Multiple legal titles to the same land decrease its usefulness, some of the titles may have been obtained through theft (sometimes aided by control of the legal system), Utilitarianism, 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. Except to Minarchism, state facilitation of "willing seller, willing buyer" transactions is relatively unproblematic, but other forms of land reform generally raise questions about a society's conception of rights and of the proper 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? ==Land reform for poverty alleviation and food security== Access to land is a crucial factor in the eradication of food security and rural poverty. The world's poorest people are usually land-poor; improved access to land provides shelter and food — allowing a household to increase food consumption — and may increase household income if surplus food is produced and sold. [http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/006/j0415T/j0415T00.htm] ==Land reform efforts== ===Latin America=== *Mexico: a certain degree of land reform was introduced, albeit unevenly, as part of the Mexican Revolution. Emiliano Zapata was strongly identified with land reform, as are the present-day Zapatista Army of National Liberation. *Brazil: In the 1930s, Getúlio Vargas reneged on a promised land reform. Strong campaign including direct action by the Landless Workers' Movement throughout the 1990s. Current efforts under Lula da Silva, Brazil's first elected leftwing president, inaugurated January 1, 2003 *Guatemala: land reform occurred during the History_of_Guatemala#The_.22Ten_Years_of_Spring.22, 1944–1954 under the governments of Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz. *Bolivia: The revolution of 1952 was followed by a land reform law, but in 1970 only 45% of peasant families had received title to land. *Peru: land reform in the 1950s largely eliminated a centuries-old system of debt bondage. Further land reform occurred after the 1968 coup by left-wing politics colonel Juan Velasco Alvarado, and again as part of a counterterrorism effort against the Shining Path roughly 1988–1995, led by Hernando de Soto (economist) and the Institute for Liberty and Democracy during the early years of the government of Alberto Fujimori, before the latter's ''auto-coup''. *Cuba: Land reform was among the chief planks of the revolutionary platform of 1959. Almost all large holdings were seized by the National Institute for Land 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. *Chile: Attempts at land reform began under the government of Jorge Alessandri in 1960, were speeded 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 Chilean coup of 1973 the process was halted, and up to a point reversed by the market forces. *Colombia: Alfonso López Pumarejo (1934-1938) passed the Law 200 of 1936, which allowed for the expropiation of private properties, in order to promote "social interest". Later attempts declined, until the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Colombia#The_National_Front 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 druglords, 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 expropiated from druglords and/or the properties given back by demobilized paramilitary groups have not caused much practical improvement yet. *Venezuela: Hugo Chávez's government enacted Plan Zamora to redistribute government and unused private land to ''campesinos'' in need. ===Middle East=== ''Land reform is discussed in the article on Arab Socialism'' * Egypt: (1952, largely reversed since) * Syria (1963, largely reversed since) * Iran: a significant land reform was part of Muhammad Reza Shah's so-called White Revolution of 1963. Almost 90% of Iranian sharecropping became land owners. * Iraq (1970) === Europe === *France: a major and lasting land reform took place under the French Directory during the latter phases of the French Revolution. *Estonia and Latvia: at their founding as states in 1918–1919, they expropriate the large estates of Baltic German landowners, much of which became smallholdings. *Ireland: after the Irish Famine, land reform became the dominant issue in Ireland, where almost all of the land was owned by the England aristocracy. The Irish Parliamentary Party campaigned for this in a largely indifferent United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland House of Commons. Reform began tentatively in 1870 and continued for fifty years. *Romania: After failed attempts at land reform by Mihail Kogalniceanu in the years immediately after Romanian unification in 1863, a major land reform finally occurred in 1921. *Russia **Imperial Russia: Stolypin reform **Soviet Russia: Decree on Land *Scotland the Land Reform Act (Scotland) was passed in 2003, it ends the historic legacy of feudal law and creates a framework for rural or Croft, Scotland communities right to buy land in their area. === Sub-Saharan Africa === *Namibia: A limited land reform has been a hallmark of the regime of Sam Nujoma; legislation passed in September 1994, with a "willing seller, willing buyer" approach. *South Africa: Land reform was one of the promises made by the African National Congress when it came to power in South Africa in 1994. The system is based on fair price system, land is bought from its owners (willing seller) by the government (willing-buyer) and redistributed. *Zimbabwe: Very controversial efforts at land reform in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe has moved steadily from a "willing seller, willing buyer" approach toward outright expropriation, often for the benefit of people close to the government. === North America === *Canada: A land reform was carried out as part of Prince Edward Island's agreement to join the Canadian confederation in the 1870s. Most of the land was owned by absentee landlords in England, and as part of the deal Canada was to buy all the land and give them to the farmers. === Asia === *China has been through a series of land reforms: ** 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-1950s, a second land reform compelled individual farmers to join collectives, which, in turn, were grouped into People's Communes with centrally controlled property rights and an egalitarian principle of distribution. This policy was generally a failure in terms of production. [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LTan0031.htm] There is evidence that the PRC began to reverse this policy even in the 1960s. ** 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 [1998] suggest that the later stagnation was due, in part, to a system of periodic redistribution that encouraged overexploitation rather than capital investment in future productivity. [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LTan0031.htm] *India: Due the taxation and regulation under the British Raj, at the time of Indian independence, India inherited a semi-feudal agrarian system, with ownership of land concentrated with a few individual landlords (Zamindars, Zamindari System). Since independence, there has been voluntary and state initiated/mediated land reforms in several states.The most notable and successful example of land reforms is in the state of West Bengal. After promising land reforms and elected to power, the Communist Party of India kept their word and initiated gradual land reforms. The result was a more equitable distribution of land among the landless farmers. This has ensured an almost life long loyalty from the farmers and the communists have been in power ever since. **But such a success in the state could not be replicated in other areas like Kerala - the only other state where communists swept to power. The reason lies in corruption and lackadaisical administration. The more radical wing of the CPI, the PWG (People's War Group) or Naxalites resorted to violence as it failed to secure any power in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Even in West Bengal, the economy suffered as a result of the communist economic policies that did little to encourage industries. In the state of Bihar, tensions between land owners milita and the villagers, Maoists have resulted in numerous massacres. **In the overal analysis, land reforms have been successful only in pockets of the country, as people have often found ways to subvert any ceilings on the maximum area of land held by any one individuals. *Japan: After World War II, the U.S. occupying forces conducted a land reform in Japan. *Taiwan: In the years after World War II, Chiang Kai-shek conducted land reform at the insistence of the U.S. This course of action was made possible, 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. *Vietnam: In the years after World War II, even before the formal division of Vietnam, generally successful and popular land reform boosted the popularity of North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, especially when contrasted with failed attempts at land reform in South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem. South Vietnam made several further attempts at land reform in the post-Diem years, the most ambitious being the Land to the Tiller (South Vietnam) program instituted in 1970 by President Nguyen Van Thieu. This limited individual to 15 hectares, compensated the owners of expropriated tracts, and extended legal title to peasants who in areas under control of the South Vietnamese government to whom had land had previously been distributed by the Viet Cong. Mark Moyar [1996] asserts that while it was effectively implemented only in some parts of the country, "In the Mekong Delta and the provinces around Saigon, the program worked extremely well... It reduced the percentage of total cropland cultivated by tenants from sixty percent to ten percent in three years." [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/moyar.htm] *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. [http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/36.htm] ==See also== *Anti-globalization movement *Communism *Eminent domain *Homestead principle *Land Value Tax *Land rights *Restitution *Squatter Contrast: * Inclosure ==External links== *[http://www.landaction.org Land Research Action Network:News, Analysis, and Research on Land Reform] *[http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Rural/Land Land Reform in Scotland] *[http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/zimbabwe/ Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe] ==References== * Fu Chen, Liming Wang and John Davis, [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LTan0031.htm "Land reform in rural China since the mid-1980s"], [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/LR98_2/landrf.htm 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. *Mark Moyar, [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/moyar.htm "Villager attitudes during the final decade of the Vietnam War"]. Presented at 1996 Vietnam Symposium [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/papers.htm "After the Cold War: Reassessing Vietnam"]. Agriculture
Land reform
I see this is the CSB collaboration of the week. Unlike some topics, I'm not knowlegable enough on this to jump in and write (though I'll see if I can do some useful research). Some topics, though, that I think should be engaged by this article: # Relation to squatting, homesteading, collectivization of farms. #* Now at least mentioned -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:18, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) # Transitions from collectivization to smallholding as the Communist states ended or (as in China) underwent major transitions toward capitalism #* China material now fleshed out in this respect. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 23:54, Dec 24, 2004 (UTC) # Relation to the rather opposite trend of the British enclosure movement. #* A "See also" link provided as a "Contrast". -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:19, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) # Korea as an example where land reform probably occurred largely because Japanese occupation had weakened the political power of traditional landlords. #* mentioned, implied, no real discussion yet. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:18, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) # The degree to which land reform in various times and places has involved reassignment of existing, clear title to land ''vs.'' the degree to which it has involved the transition from traditional, undocumented title (commons, etc.). # The current use of the rhetoric of land reform in Zimbabwe for a movement that seems only marginally to be one of land reform. #* Like many other things, now at least mentioned. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:21, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) #Compensation (or its lack) to previous owners #* Mentioned several places. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:18, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC) #Arguments of the relative efficiency of smallholdings vs. plantations/latifundia. Cash crops vs. subsistence farming. How these tradeoffs relate to market economies (or lack thereof) at various times. #Try to find sources that look at at least a couple of reasonably successful land reform efforts and at some of the failures, possibly some discussion of comparative factors; I suspect availability of capital and the relative quality of the lands would both loom large. #Relation to other policy matters (e.g. tax systems, the drug war, GMOs and other aspects of agribusiness vs. organic farming or other sustainable agriculture) Also, if anyone can simply add here in Talk a list of potentially useful source material (online and on paper), that would be very helpful. I'll be looking for some sources and sharing what I find. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 01:52, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) *Land Research Action Network, which the page already links to, has some [http://www.landaction.org/category.php?section=18 country studies]. I haven't had a chance yet to see if they are any good. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 01:54, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) * The Sustainable Development Department of the FAO has a number of publcations on their website covering both general and specific cases of land reform [http://www.fao.org/sd/LTdirect/landrf.htm]--User:Petaholmes 02:42, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) * [http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/index.htm Oxfam on land rights in Africa] -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 06:22, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) *[http://www.mre.gov.br/cdbrasil/itamaraty/web/ingles/polsoc/refagra/apresent/ Brazilian gov't on land reform] from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, in English. Looks like a pretty extensive sub-site. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 06:22, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) *Google on site:lcweb2.loc.gov \"land reform\" to get mentions of land reform in U.S. gov't country studies, all of which are public domain. Similarly, site:lcweb2.loc.gov \"agrarian reform\" -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 06:38, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) **It's slightly easier to get to from here [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html], its a great resource, shame they ran of funding before they finished the rest of the developing world--User:Petaholmes 07:33, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) *The [http://econ.worldbank.org/prr/land_policy/ World Bank] has a decent publication on land reform--User:Petaholmes 08:22, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) ---- I've now used the "What links here" feature to gather up what substantive info Wikipedia already had on land reform efforts and get them into the article. There's probably more that's not linked here. So far, there is roughly nothing about the Communist countries. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 07:56, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC) ---- We'll need to make the distinction between land reform and Land rights. Some information on land rights see the links on the discussion page--User:Petaholmes 08:16, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) == land reform in venezuela == Plan Zamora in Venezuela seems to focus on land that is owned by the government or currently lying fallow. This runs counter to the definition of land reform we have in the lead paragraph, where the two examples are both of land that is under use. More on Plan Zamora [http://www.yachana.org/reports/venezuela/landreform.pdf from Global Exchange] and [http://www.narconews.com/Issue31/article862.html Narco News] (two of the first google hits). The government is a large land owner too- the definitation in the lead is a bit narrow. It really should say that land reform is the redistribution of public or privately held land for use by small farms and so on --User:Petaholmes 00:44, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) ==Land reform for poverty alleviation and food security== Good material to expand this section can be found here [http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/006/j0415T/j0415T00.htm] ==Urban analogue== I believe there is an urban anaolgue to this that could get an article and should be linked to, but I don't know the term and don't know if we have an article. Under French law, and probably under some others, there is apparently a statute intended to prevent real-estate speculators from hoarding empty apartments and allows the government (I think at the city level) to intervene and expropriate the property. If anyone knows anything about it, I'd appreciate it. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 07:06, Oct 25, 2004 (UTC) Here are some things I could come up with: *There is a process called restitution which covers the expropriation of property by the for a price, this article covers some detail [http://www.fig.net/pub/athens/papers/ts17/TS17_1_Grover_Flores.pdf]. It seems to be realtively common in former communist states [http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/2003/31415.htm]. Resitituion isn't covered in the Property law article. *In the early part of the 20th century the French instituted a system of land development planning whereby the national government coordinated and planned land-use and development in consultation with local government. It grouped land for similar purposes - agriculture, housing, wooded reserves, conservation of existing open spaces. This planning system was modelled on Baron Haussmann's famous restructuring of Paris between 1853 and 1869. It was a system much admired and imitated throughout Europe. The government had the power to acquire land cheaply for public purposes, including housing. There were taxes on unearned improvements in land value [http://www.population.org.au/pressrm/pub/landspec.htm]. *In some American states there are laws that make it possible to force the sale of vacant urban property [http://www.prcno.org/AcqPopfaq.html].--User:Petaholmes 08:11, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC) Interesting. These probably deserve articles of their own... -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 18:11, Oct 25, 2004 (UTC) Someone with familiarity with land reform in the United States should add something. My understanding is that a series of late 19th century land reforms resulted in squatting rights, basically if you live on a piece of land and no one stops by to assert their ownership by collecting rent (even a token one) or to demand you leave for some fixed period then you can apply for a title to the land. The period is usually between 7-10 years. Plus, there is also the system of title insurance which facilitates easy exchange of property. Basically a homeowner pays $1000-2000 a year to an insurance company that investigates the property when you first buy it, and defends your title. If they fail to defend your title they refund you the full purchase price, or at least your morgage if you have a minimal policy. Often a country engaging in land reform has many conflicting titles to the same land, so anyone selling a title to the land can't demand its full value because the new owner has to contend with the possibility that another title holder might show up some day. And, the lack of clear titles means no insurance company is willing to sell title insurance at reasonable rates. --User:Zenyu 00:06, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
L
LA | LB | LC | LD | LE | LF | LG | LH | LI | LJ | LK | LM | LN | LO | LP | LR | LS | LT | LU | LW | LX | LY | LZ |Words begining with Land_reform:
Land_Reform
Land_reform
Land_reform
Land_reforms
Land_Reforms_Ordinance
Land_reform_in_Ireland
Land_reform_in_Zimbabwe
Land_reform_in_Zimbabwe
Land_Reform_Ordinance
These materials are based on Wikipedia and licensed under the GNU FDL
YouTube.com videos better site than Turbo Tax 2007
