Land Tenure & Policy3

1. Approaches of Land Reform
 Land reform is a very complicated process that takes
place at different scales, with different actors, and that
interacts with other processes and in the society
 There are three alternative perspectives/approaches to
design and implement land reform policies. These
approaches are:
◦ State-led (Political economy) Approach to land
reform
◦ Market-Driven (Neo-liberal) Approach to Land
Reform
◦ Actor Oriented Approach to Land Reform

2. 1. State-Led (Political economy)
Approach
 In reality there would be no complete land
reform without a coverage of imposed
type of land reform.
 Political economists favoring state-led land
reforms argue that the solution to the
inequalities in the distribution of wealth
would be alleviated by direct intervention of
state.
 As the poor classes generally lack proper
political representation, the state is
responsible for helping these farmers to
better their position on the market and in

3. Cont……
 The units of analysis are the state policy elites
(policymakers and managers), and the
agencies and organizations responsible for
carrying out public policies.
 Exponents of this approach, see the state as
an institution of governance
autonomous(acting independent) from society
 The state as an independent actor and
independent variable, state-centered scholars
often assume that the state is autonomous in
making policy choices and in transforming
them into authoritative actions,

4. Cont…….
 This approach is widely employed in
most Latin American, Asian and African
countries
 Political economists favoring state-led
land reform see capitalism (free market)
as a force that leads to the exploitation
of the weak and poor
 They argue that the increasing exposure
of the poor to the forces of privatization
and commercialization lead to the

5. Cont…..
 State-led Political economy approaches
to land reform:
◦ Focus on relation between economy and
politics
◦ Focus on power relations and classes
◦ The state, instead of the market, should be
in control
◦ Capitalism weakens production of small
◦ Multiple objectives, beyond efficiency and
productivity

6. Cont….
Criticism and limitations of State-led Land reforms
 According to pro-market critique, state led approach
is:
 Top-down initiatives that cause land reform
programs to miss out important developments on
the ground and fail to enlist support from relevant
actors.
 It relies heavily on the central state and its huge
bureaucracy for implementation through top-down
methods that fail to capture the diversity
 Unable to respond quickly to the actual needs at the
local villages.
 state-led approach has been also criticized by being

7. 2.Market-Led (Neo-liberal) Approach
 This approach centers itself on the workings
of market and profit maximization.
 Market is seen as an ordering mechanism
that can be used to promote development.
 Firms, including farms, operate in the market
and are assumed to maximize profit. They
compete with other firms for resources and
this ensures the optimal use and allocation of
scarce resources.

8. Cont…..
 Neoliberal land policies emerged and became an
important aspect of, mainstream thinking and
development policy agendas in early 1990s by end of
cold war.
 Currently, neo-liberal policies include:
◦ Privatization and individualization of public/
communal lands,
◦ Privatization and individualization of property rights
in state and collective farms in (ex-)socialist and
capitalist settings,
◦ Promotion of land rental markets, and Land sales.

9. Cont….
 Neo-liberal Approaches to Land
Reform
◦ The rule of the market
◦ Privatization
◦ Deregulation
◦ Applying new and improved
technology
◦ Large-scale is the norm

10. Key features of state-led and market-led approaches
to land reform
Issues State-led Market-led
Land Acquisition method Coercive; cash-bonds payments
at below market price
Voluntary; 100% cash
payment based on 100%
market value of land
Beneficiaries Supply-driven;
state-selected beneficiaries
Demand-driven; self-selected
Implementation
method
Statist-centralized; with low degree of
transparency and accountability
Privatized; decentralized; with high degree of
transparency and
accountability
Pace and nature Protracted; politically and
legally contentious
Quick; politically and legally non-contentious
Land prices Higher Lower
Land markets Land reform: cause of/
aggravates land market
distortions; progressive land tax and land
titling program not required
Land reform: cause and effect of land market
stimulation; progressive land tax and titling
program required
Program Sequence;
development and
extension service
Farm development plans after land
redistribution. Protracted, uncertain and post –
land transfer development;
extension service statist centralized= inefficient
Farm development plans
before redistribution.
Quick, certain, and dynamic post-land
transfer
development; extension
service privatized & decentralized = efficient
Credit and
investments
Low credit supply and low
investments
Increased credit and
investments
Exit options Little or None Ample
Financing
Mechanism
State ‘universal’ subsidies;
beneficiaries pay subsidized
land price; dole out mentality among
beneficiaries
Flexible loan-grant
mechanism; co-sharing of
risks; beneficiaries shoulder full cost of land;
farm development cost given via grant
Cost of reform High low

11. 3.Actor Oriented Approach
 Contemporary land reform policies in most
countries are to a large extent shaped either
by the neo-liberal perspective which focuses
on market dynamics or state led political
economy approaches to land reform.
 Both neo-liberal views and political economy
views have however often been criticized by
scholars.
 Actor oriented approach is another alternative
as a remedy to the limitations of neo-liberal
and political economy approaches.

12. Cont…….
 Taking social classes and interest group
formations in society as their units of analysis,
 Advocates of an actor/society-centred
approach identify social mobilization from
below as the key to successful land reform
implementation.
 Currently, land policies that are more human
centered and pro-poor and less driven by
economic prescriptions are being promoted
by different international development and
financial institutions like the World Bank.

13. Cont…….
 According to actor oriented approach, policy makers
must look from the perspective of the actor rather
than assuming external forces (such as the market or
powerful classes) determine the existence or survival
of specific classes.
 Because actors have ‘agency’:
◦ they have knowledge of their own situation,
◦ they can reflect on things that are happening to them and they
can find ways to cope under pressure.
 So even though the market may be a force that
restricts the behavior of peasants, these peasants
may still devise ways to cope with this without
disappearing

14. Cont……
Thank You