This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.

This book shows that land redistribution - the most consequential form of redistribution in the developing world - occurs more often under dictatorship than democracy. It offers a novel theory of land reform and tests it using extensive original data dating back to 1900.

Social Movements, Law and the Politics of Land Reform investigates how state and rural social movements are struggling for land reform against the background of a re-emergence of constitutional promises and projects in much of the developing world.

Originally published in 2004. The book examines the possibility of resolving past and continuing social injustices that are rooted in colonial or some such other similar experience of states from a variety of perspectives. First the issue is examined from an international law perspective, which evaluates the validity of counter claims to title to land in affected SADC states. Secondly the issue is examined from a human rights perspective, which privileges promotion for the respect of the inherent dignity of all persons. Thirdly, the issue is examined from victimology and psychology schools of thought in order to understand both the effect and impact on stakeholders of the operative dynamics in conflicts that arise from long standing social injustices that are connected to colonial or some such other similar historical experience of States. The book proposes humwefficiency as a model for resolution of this type of conflict. This model targets preservation of the inherent dignity of all stakeholders by combining international human rights morality with local intuition about land ownership and use. In this sense, the book takes human rights theory beyond politics and utopia, and applies it to foster new social engineering technologies for the resolution of social injustices and promotion of social justice. This is justified by the fact that the human rights culture has evolved in a considerably short period of time to become the dominant culture of the world.

Using empirical case materials from the Philippines and referring to rich experiences from different countries historically, this book offers conceptual and practical conclusions that have far-reaching implications for land reform throughout the world. Examining land reform theory and practice, this book argues that conventional practices have excluded a significant portion of land-based production and distribution relationships, while they have inadvertently included land transfers that do not constitute real redistributive reform. By direct implication, this book is a critique of both mainstream market led agrarian reform and conventional state-led land reform. It offers an alternative perspective on how to move forward in theory and practice and opens new paths in land policy research.

This book is an examination of post-colonial land reforms across various African states. One of the decisive contradictions of colonialism in Africa was the distortion of use, access to and ownership of land. Land related issues and the need for land reform have consistently occupied a unique position in public discourse in Africa. The post-colonial African states have had to embark on concerted efforts at redressing historical grounded land policies and addressing the growing needs of land by the poor. However, agitations for land continue, while evidence of policy gaps abound. In many cases, policy change in terms of land use, distribution and ownership has reinforced inequalities and affected power and social relations in respective post-colonial African countries. Land has assumed major causes of structural violence and impediments to human and rural development in Africa; hence the need for holistic assessment of land reforms in post-colonial African states. The central objective of the text is to identify post-independence and current trends in land reform and to address the grievances in relation to land use, ownership and distribution. The book suggests practicable policy options towards addressing the land hunger and conflict, which could derail the ‘moderate’ socio-economic achievements and political stability recorded by post-colonial African nation-states. The book draws its strength and uniqueness from its adoption of country-specific case studies, which places the book in context, and utilizes field studies methodology which generate new knowledge on the continental land question. Taking a holistic approach to understanding Africa’s land question, this book will be attractive to academicians and students interested in policy and development, African politics, post-colonial development and policy, and conflict studies as well as policy-makers working in relevant areas.

Monograph on political system relationships to land reform agricultural policy in Brazil - analyses rural area social structure, peasant movements, the agricultural sector and role of landowner elites in the political development policy of the presidency, political behaviour of interest groups and efficacy of Brazilian democracy. Bibliography pp. 239 to 251.