The politics of agrarian change in Bolivia's soy complex

Abstract

This paper analyses the politics of agrarian change in Bolivia in the context of the development and expansion of the soy complex in Santa Cruz. It attempts to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and role of the state in relation to agrarian change through what is referred to here as the state-society-capital nexus. From an "agrarian" to a "productive" revolution in the countryside, this paper situates the rise of the Movement Toward Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) to state power and its ability to maintain control over the state apparatus by balancing both accumulation and legitimation interests through its neo-extractivist development strategy. As extractivist rents fall with the commodities bust and smallholders' exclusion becomes more apparent, the MAS' overextension in facilitating capital accumulation is beginning to show signs of a legitimacy crisis. The politics of agrarian change remain as contested as the dynamics within the state-societycapital nexus.

The agrarian political economy of left‐wing governments in Latin America: Agribusiness, peasants, and the limits of neo‐developmentalism

“…Evo Morales' first 3 years were indeed very tense years of open confrontation with the landed oligarchy of that region. But after this initial conflict, which Morales managed to defuse, the state decided to support agribusiness in that region through institutional protection of large properties and the registration of more land to them (McKay, forthcoming). As a consequence, the area planted with soybean soared, multiplying by eight between the end of the 1990 and 2013 (Webber, this issue).…”

Beyond property: Rural politics and land‐use change in the Colombian sugarcane landscape

“…The nature and role of governmental institutions, mechanisms, and arrangements, referred to by McKay () as the state–society–capital nexus, have been crucial to the described agrarian change. In fact, the development of the sugarcane industry and the transformation of the old hacienda landscape was the result of the government's application of liberal doctrines, expressed in different reports contracted by the Colombian government to U.S. agencies and individuals: the Chardon Report in 1929 that recommended the scientific technification of agriculture; the Currie Mission of the World Bank in 1950 that proposed progressive taxation and punishment of the unproductive latifundia; and the Lillienthal plan, which in 1954, sought regional industrialization based on the adaptation of land, electrification, and transport infrastructure.…”

Land grabs, farmworkers, and rural livelihoods in West Africa: some silences in the food sovereignty discourse

“…In all of these developments, the role of national elites cannot be overstatedthe state, local agricultural entrepreneurs and traditional authorities who operate on their own and in diverse partnerships with foreign elites to facilitate land deals (Keene, Walsh-Dilley, Wolford, & Geisler, 2015). Many of such partnerships for agricultural land investments tend to put control in the hands of landholding and capitalist elites (McKay, 2017), often to the disadvantage of peasant livelihoodsa condition which food sovereignty movements actively resist.…”