Study of agrarian structures in Latin America, with particular reference to land tenure systems and agrarian reform programmes - examines the relationship between land tenure and economic development (incl. In respect of productivity, income distribution, investment, etc.), and includes case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru. Maps, references and statistical tables.

As a result of the regional debt crisis, most governments of Latin America in the 1980s entered into a process of profound policy change, from an import substitution oriented strategy to a focus upon export-promotion, with an emphasis upon market liberalisation. According to mainstream economic theory, the effect of this shift would be to favour agriculture. This book, with contributors from Latin America and Europe, surveys the results on agriculture of a decade of policy change, and to produce new and unexpected insights.

The troubled history of democracy in Latin America has been the subject of much scholarly commentary. This volume breaks new ground by systematically exploring the linkages among the historical legacies of large landholding patterns, agrarian class relations, and authoritarian versus democratic trajectories in Latin American countries. The essays address questions about the importance of large landownders for the national economy, the labor needs and labor relations of these landowners, attempts of landowners to enlist the support of the state to control labor, and the democratic forms of rule in the twentieth century.

Working paper on the possible effects of agrarian reform on agrarian structure under different patterns of development and modernization in Latin America - examines the various types of agricultural enterprise and considers whether agrarian reform is more beneficial to the small farmer and rural worker under capitalism or under socialism. References.