This book examines the history of reforms and major state interventions affecting Russian agriculture: the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the Stolypin reforms, the NEP, the Collectivization, Khrushchev reforms, and finally farm enterprise privatization in the early 1990s. It shows a pattern emerging from a political imperative in imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet regimes, and it describes how these reforms were justified in the name of the national interest during severe crises - rapid inflation, military defeat, mass strikes, rural unrest, and/or political turmoil. It looks at the consequences of adversity in the economic environment for rural behavior after reform and at long-run trends. It has chapters on property rights, rural organization, and technological change. It provides a new database for measuring agricultural productivity from 1861 to 1913 and updates these estimates to the present. This book is a study of the policies aimed at reorganizing rural production and their effectiveness in transforming institutions.

Access to land and property is vital to people's livelihoods in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas in Africa. People exert tremendous energy to have land claims recognized as rights with a variety of political, administrative, and legal institutions. This book provides a detailed analysis of how public authority and the state are formed through debates and struggles over property in the Upper East Region of Ghana. While scarcity may indeed promote exclusivity, the evidence from this book shows that when there are many institutions competing for the right to authorize claims to land, the result of an effort to unify and clarify the law is to intensify competition among them and weaken their legitimacy. The book explores how state divestiture of land in 1979 encouraged competition between customary authorities and how the institution of the earthpriest was revived. Such processes are key to understanding property and authority in Africa.

Why do some political leaders create and strengthen institutions like title registries and land tribunals that secure property rights to land while others neglect these institutions or destroy those that already exist? How do these institutions evolve once they have been established? This book answers these questions through spatial and temporal comparison of national and subnational cases from Botswana, Ghana, and Kenya and, to a lesser extent, Zimbabwe. Onoma argues that the level of property rights security that leaders prefer depends on how they use land. However, the extent to which leaders' institutional preferences are translated into actual institutions depends on the level of leaders' capacity. Further, once established, these institutions through their very working can contribute to their own decline over time. This book is unique in revealing the political and economic reasons why some leaders unlike others prefer an environment of insecure rights even as land prices increase.

The articles in this volume deal with compulsory acquisitions of land and compensation.The issue of compulsory acquisition form a human rights perspective is also addressed. - Les articles du present volume traitent de l'acquisition forcee et de l'indemnisation, y compris dans la perspective des droits de l'homme. - En el presente volumen se trata el tema de la adquisicion por expropiacion y la compensacion, asimismo desde la perspectiva de los derechos humanos."

In the mid-1930s the Mexican government expropriated millions of acres of land from hundreds of U.S. property owners as part of President Lazaro Cardenas's land redistribution program. Because no compensation was provided to the Americans a serious crisis, which John J. Dwyer terms "the agrarian dispute," ensued between the two countries. Dwyer's nuanced analysis of this conflict at the local, regional, national, and international levels combines social, economic, political, and cultural history. He argues that the agrarian dispute inaugurated a new and improved era in bilateral relations because Mexican officials were able to negotiate a favorable settlement, and the United States, constrained economically and politically by the Great Depression, reacted to the crisis with unaccustomed restraint. Dwyer challenges prevailing arguments that Mexico's nationalization of the oil industry in 1938 was the first test of Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy by showing that the earlier conflict over land was the watershed event.

Dwyer weaves together elite and subaltern history and highlights the intricate relationship between domestic and international affairs. Through detailed studies of land redistribution in Baja California and Sonora, he demonstrates that peasant agency influenced the local application of Cardenas's agrarian reform program, his regional state-building projects, and his relations with the United States. Dwyer draws on a broad array of official, popular, and corporate sources to illuminate the motives of those who contributed to the agrarian dispute, including landless fieldworkers, indigenous groups, small landowners, multinational corporations, labor leaders, state-level officials, federal policymakers, and diplomats. Taking all of them into account, Dwyer explores the circumstances that spurred agrarista mobilization, the rationale behind Cardenas's rural policies, the Roosevelt administration's reaction to the loss of American-owned land, and the diplomatic tactics employed by Mexican officials to resolve the international conflict.

Access to land and property is vital to people's livelihoods in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas in Africa. People exert tremendous energy and imagination to have land claims recognized as rights with a variety of political, administrative, and legal institutions. This book is dedicated to a detailed analysis of how public authority and the state are formed through debates and struggles over property in the Upper East Region of Ghana. While scarcity may indeed promote exclusivity, the evidence from this book shows that when there are many institutions competing for the right to authorize claims to land, the result of an effort to unify and clarify the law is to intensify competition among them and weaken their legitimacy. The book particularly explores how state divestiture of land in 1979 encouraged competition between customary authorities and how the institution of the earthpriest was revived. Such processes are key to understanding property and authority in Africa.

Exploring an issue of international significance, this collection of essays addresses the reconciliation of the pre-existing, inherent rights of indigenous peoples with those held and asserted by the state. Focusing upon the Maori tribes of New Zealand, topics include the historical origins of the Ngati Apa decision--one of the most controversial modern decisions on Maori rights--how the Foreshore and Seabed Act (FSA) compares with schemes created in other countries with indigenous inhabitants, how the FSA has led to major changes in the country's political landscape, and how it stacks up against international human rights and environmental laws. This detailed study also explores New Zealand's legislation and how it has undermined the rights of Maori tribes, tipping the reconciliation process too far in favor of the state.

Appropriation and distribution of land transformed North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. This title integrates the often violent history of European colonization and the ensuing emergence of property rights with an exploration of the growth of democracy and the market economy.

The rights of minorities are becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of enlargement of the European Union, yet there are remarkably few treaties dealing with minority rights under international law. One of these is the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. This volume provides the first expert commentary on the Convention, which is the principal international document establishing minority rights in a legally binding way. Many minority rights such as those to political participation, non-assimilation, and the use of native languages are not incorporated in other major Human Rights agreements. The Convention is therefore often taken to be the leading standard in the international law of minority rights. This commentary offers a detailed article-by-article analysis of the Convention, by a group of international legal experts in minority rights. Their commentary draws upon the Convention's negotiating history and implementation practice, in addition to examining the pronouncements of the Advisory Committee, which is the implementation body attached to the treaty. It offers a clear sense of the concrete meaning of the provisions of the Convention to scholars, students, and members of minority rights groups.

The British Columbia Treaty Process was established in 1992 with the aim of resolving the outstanding land claims of First Nations peoples in British Columbia. Since that time, two discourses have been prominent within the treaty negotiations taking place between First Nations and the governments of Canada and British Columbia. The first, that of justice, asks how we can remedy the past injustices that were imposed on BC's First Nations through the removal of their lands and forced assimilation. The second, that of certainty, asks whether this historical repair can occur in a manner that provides a better future for all British Columbians. In Between Justice and Certainty, Andrew Woolford examines the interplay between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal visions of justice and certainty in the first decade of the BC Treaty Process and poses the question: Is there a space between justice and certainty in which modern treaties can be made? treaty documents, he argues that the goal of certainty is overriding the demand for justice in the treaty process, and suggests that greater attention to justice is necessary if we are to initiate a process of reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in BC. Between Justice and Certainty is recommended reading for sociologists, anthropologists, historians, political scientists, and legal scholars interested in how we deal with past injustices, as well as for anyone wishing to learn more about the BC Treaty Process.

The rights of minorities are becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of enlargement of the European Union, yet there are remarkably few treaties dealing with minority rights under international law. One of these is the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. This volume provides the first expert commentary on the Convention, which is the principal international document establishing minority rights in a legally binding way. Many minority rights such as those to political participation, non-assimilation, and the use of native languages are not incorporated in other major Human Rights agreements. The Convention is therefore often taken to be the leading standard in the international law of minority rights. This commentary offers a detailed article-by-article analysis of the Convention, by a group of international legal experts in minority rights. Their commentary draws upon the Convention's negotiating history and implementation practice, in addition to examining the pronouncements of the Advisory Committee, which is the implementation body attached to the treaty. It offers a clear sense of the concrete meaning of the provisions of the Convention to scholars, students, and members of minority rights groups.

This vivid behind-the-scenes account of Israeli rule in Jerusalem details for the first time the Jewish state's attempt to lay claim to all of Jerusalem, even when that meant implementing harsh policies toward the city's Arab population.

The authors, Jerusalemites from the spheres of politics, journalism, and the military, have themselves been players in the drama that has unfolded in east Jerusalem in recent years and appears now to be at a climax. They have also had access to a wide range of official documents that reveal the making and implementation of Israeli policy toward Jerusalem. Their book discloses the details of Israel's discriminatory policies toward Jerusalem Arabs and shows how Israeli leaders mishandled everything from security and housing to schools and sanitation services, to the detriment of not only the Palestinian residents but also Israel's own agenda. "Separate and Unequal" is a history of lost opportunities to unite the peoples of Jerusalem.

A central focus of the book is Teddy Kollek, the city's outspoken mayor for nearly three decades, whose failures have gone largely unreported until now. But Kollek is only one character in a cast that includes prime ministers, generals, terrorists, European and American leaders, Arab shopkeepers, Israeli policemen, and Palestinian schoolchildren. The story the authors tell is as dramatic and poignant as the mosaic of religious and ethnic groups that call Jerusalem home. And coming at a time of renewed crisis, it offers a startling perspective on past mistakes that can point the way toward more equitable treatment of all Jerusalemites.

The Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, is the last frontier in Brazil. The settlement of large and small farmers, squatters, miners, and loggers in this frontier during the past thirty years has given rise to violent conflicts over land as well as environmental duress. "Titles, Conflict, and Land Use" examines the institutional development involved in the process of land use and ownership in the Amazon and shows how this phenomenon affects the behavior of the economic actors. It explores the way in which the absence of well-defined property rights in the Amazon has led to both economic and social problems, including lost investment opportunities, high costs in protecting claims, and violence. The relationship between land reform and violence is given special attention.
The book offers an important application of the New Institutional Economics by examining a rare instance where institutional change can be empirically observed. This allows the authors to study property rights as they emerge and evolve and to analyze the effects of Amazon development on the economy. In doing so they illustrate well the point that often the evolution of economic institutions will not lead to efficient outcomes.
This book will be important not only to economists but also to Latin Americanists, political scientists, anthropologists, and scholars in disciplines concerned with the environment.
Lee Alston is Professor of Economics, University of Illinois, and Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Gary Libecap is Professor of Economics and Law, University of Arizona, and Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Bernardo Mueller is AssistantProfessor, Universidade de Brasilia.

Property is a common denominator in human conflict as well as a useful tool for international studies. In order to apply property theory as a key to the analysis of human struggle, a broad definition of the term has to be accepted. Property is more than the things people own; it is the mass of rights and duties that associate persons with things, especially land. Arrogation of property is usually the precursor to the violation of human rights, but Geoff Demarest argues that the crusade for human rights has become a chase after symptoms that ignores the calculus of violated property rights underlying most murder and theft. A better understanding of property dynamics can help us achieve strategic designs, pacific or not. He seeks to restart international studies at the point of property, and in so doing, to find a mechanism for interpreting property changes, including those brought about by new technologies.

Exploring the political process by which property rights are defined and enforced in two traditional states in colonial Ghana, this work features case studies which ask how colonial institutions transformed indigenous political and economic life, and how colonization and decolonization affected prospects for future economic development and stability in Africa. The introductory chapter outlines a theory of the transformation of property rights system. The remaining empirical chapters refine this theory through a detailed analysis of the transformation of property rights within an African context. These chapters draw explicitly on rational choice theories to analyze indigenous actors' attempts to redefine and enforce property rights to land by reinventing the traditions of their respective communities. These theories try to help readers to understand why property rights systems across Africa remain fluid and insecure.

In this book, Gopal Sreenivasan provides a comprehensive interpretation of Locke's theory of property, and offers a critical assessment of that theory. Locke argued that the appropriation of things as private property does not violate the rights of others, provided that everyone still has access to the materials needed to produce their subsistence. Given that, the actual appropriation of particular things is legitimated by one's labor. Holding Locke's theory to the logic of its own argument, Sreenivasan examines the extent to which it is really serviceable as a defense of private property. He contends that a purified version of this theory - one that adheres consistently to the logic of Locke's argument while excluding considerations extraneous to it - does in fact legitimate a form of private property. This purified theory is defensible in contemporary, secular terms, since nothing to which Locke gives an ineliminable theological foundation belongs to the logical structure of his argument. The resulting regime of private property is both substantially egalitarian and significantly different from the traditional liberal institution of private property.

Into Kurdistan is a journey through the lives of a people without a country. Part travelogue and part political commentary, it portrays both the pride and the oppression of the Kurdish people. Sheri Laizer recounts the drama of a family living close to the border, hearing gunshots and wondering if a favoured son will make it home at night. She shares the companionship of Kurdish women in the mountains, washing in the melted snow. She captures the ambiguity of Kurdish intellectuals entwined in the cultural life of Turkey, a country which refuses to acknowledge the very existence of Kurdish identity. And she paints a vivid picture of the centuries of tradition behind the people who have given the Middle East some of its greatest heroes, from Saladin onwards. Into Kurdistan uncovers the recent atrocities in Iraq, and the systematic persecution suffered by the Kurds in Turkey. In a marvellous blend of political commentary, folktale and sympathetic observation, Sheri Laizer helps us understand the people behind the headlines.

Today, about 1 billion people are estimated to live in 'slums' worldwide. This number will only grow and urban poverty worsen unless radical measures are taken. While it is generally acknowledged in the international development debate that breaking the circle of poverty requires multiple strategies, there is renewed attention for approaches that centre on the issue of tenure security. This means landholders are protected against involuntary removal from the land on which they reside, unless through due process of law and payment of proper compensation. The prevailing approach to the provision of tenure security is land registration. And while the land registration approach currently dominates policy, there has been little research into the effects of registration, particularly in urban areas. What research has been conducted, contests the benefits of this approach. As a result, we witness increasing interest in alternative approaches which generally combine protective administrative or legal measures against eviction with the provision of basic services and credit facilities. The author describes and analyses the extent to which formal, semiformal, and informal tenure arrangements that can be found in kampongs (typical low-income settlements) in Indonesia provide tenure security to the country's urban poor, particularly since 1998, when Indonesia embarked on an ambitious political and legal reform programme. The author reviews the current legal framework that applies to urban land tenure in Indonesia. In addition, based on rich material that was acquired through empirical research in the city of Bandung, there are a number of case studies presented in which the urban poor's tenure security was put to the test. Finally, drawing on statistical data, the author analyses the urban poor's perceptions regarding their tenure security and whether and, if so, how this influences their housing investment behaviour. Following this analysis, the author evaluates the socio-economic benefits of current approaches to attaining tenure security. And with these findings, there are policy suggestions and contributions to theory formation presented to further the current international development debate on tenure security. This is a volume in the series of the Meijers Research Institute and Graduate School of Leiden University. The study is a part of the Law School's research programme on Securing the rule of law in a world of multilevel jurisdiction and was conducted as part of a research project of theVan Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Development.