Twists and turns of land reform in Latin America: From predatory to intermediate states?

Abstract

Land reform has significantly evolved over time in Latin America. In the early decades of the 20th century, the ‘agrarian question’ involved different national paths of agrarian capitalism and their contributions to industrialization. Later in the century, agriculture played a secondary role, while market‐led reforms were implemented from the early 1990s in the region. The agrarian question is now related to a new range of global and national inequalities, whereas the land problem remains unresolved. This paper deals with the role of the state and social dynamics in understanding the twists and turns of Latin America's land reforms from the 1900s to the Global Era.

Transformative Pathways of Agrarian Reform: Comparative Bibliometric Insights of Southeast Asia and Indonesia Cases

“…While a wave of leftist politics has swept through various countries in the region, only Nicaragua, as part of the "Pink Tide" movement, has distinguished itself by successfully implementing more equitable land distribution policies. In Nicaragua, a significant portion of the territory is controlled by small and medium-sized producers, which differs from the general situation in other countries (Botella-Rodríguez & González-Esteban, 2021). This contrast highlights the varying approaches to agricultural resource management and agrarian politics among Latin American nations.…”

“…This initiative led to Cardoso reallocating 20 million hectares of land to resettle 540,704 landless farming families, averaging around 67,588 families per year (Robles, 2018). (Robles, 2018) In the Latin American region, most countries often find themselves influenced by personal agendas, and they have not attained a level of autonomy comparable to that seen in developing East Asian countries (Botella-Rodríguez & González-Esteban, 2021). Several countries in this region have developed complex agrarian systems that support capitalist-oriented agriculture rather than providing benefits to farmers (Bennewitz, 2017).…”

“…In alignment with a neutral perspective, the United Nations (UN) document characterizes agrarian reform as "an integrated programme of measures designed to eliminate obstacles to economic and social development arising out of defects in the agrarian structure" (Milošević, 2022). Agrarian reform embodies a comprehensive approach, encompassing not only land redistribution but also state support, credit provision, seed distribution, and broader agricultural development initiatives, distinguishing it from the predominantly land-focused term of land reform (Lanzona, 2019;Botella-Rodríguez & González-Esteban, 2021). These definitions collectively convey that agrarian reform encompasses a comprehensive transformation to overcome impediments to economic and social agricultural development, encompassing changes in ownership, increased production, and state-supported initiatives.…”

Land Regularization and Technical Efficiency in Agricultural Production: An Empirical Study in Andean Countries

“…The Gini coefficient for land ownership in the region is alarmingly high, reaching 0.79 on average, with Central America averaging at 0.75 and South America at 0.85 (Guereña, 2016). By the beginning of the twentieth century, the predominant land regime in the region was a latifundia system wherein the few rural elites dominated land ownership by means of large estates whose agricultural production was facilitated by the labor of the large majority of small peasant farmers and landless rural workers (Botella-Rodríguez & González-Esteban, 2021). Against the backdrop of political upheaval across the region caused by the general discontent and severe poverty of peasant farmers, which in some countries resulted in government overthrow or civil war, the period of 1930 to 1970 was characterized by the implementation of wide-reaching land reforms.…”