The French Revolution brought a new era in the history of land reform.Reform meant dealing with survivals of the medieval tenures that had left a common heritage in most European countries and, through them, in the colonies. The measures and approaches varied from place to place and period to period.

On the eve of the Revolution, French society was polarized, with the nobility and clergy on one side and the rising business class on the other. The middle class was relatively small, especially in the rural areas. The majority of the peasants were hereditary tenants, either censiers, who paid a fixed money rent, or mainmortables, or serfs, who paid rent in the form of labour services, corvée, of about three days a week. The peasants paid various other feudal dues and taxes, from which the nobility and clergy were exempted. The Revolution overthrew the ancien régime and the feudal order and introduced land reform.

The reform repealed feudal tenures, freed all persons from serfdom, abolished feudal courts, and cancelled all payments not based on real property, including tithes. Rents based on real property were redeemable. Once the law had been passed, however, the peasants seized the land and refused to pay any rents or redemption fees; in 1792 all payments were finally cancelled. Land of the clergy and political emigrants was confiscated and sold at auction, together with common land. The terms of sale, however, often favoured the wealthy, which may explain the rise of a new class of large landowners among the supporters of Napoleon.

The social and political objectives of the reformers were fully realized. The censiers and serfs became owners. Feudalism was destroyed, and the new regime won peasant support. The economic effects, however, were limited. Incentives could not be increased substantially since the peasants already had full security of tenure prior to the reform. The scale of operations was not changed; and no facilities for credit, marketing, or capital formation were created. The major achievements were the reinforcement of private, individual ownership and perpetuation of the small family farm as a basis of democracy. The small family farm has characterized French agriculture ever since.

There were other reforms in most European countries. England resolved its land problems by the enclosure movement, which drove the small peasants into the towns, consolidated landholdings, and promoted large-scale operation and private ownership. Sweden and Denmark pioneered between 1827 and 1830 by peacefully abolishing village compulsion, or imposed labour service, and the strip system of cultivation, by consolidating the land, and by dividing the commons among the peasants. Though influenced by the French Revolution, only after the 1848 revolutions did Germany, Italy, and Spain free the peasants and redistribute the land. Reform in Ireland took a whole century before substantive results were achieved, in the mid-1930s, after Ireland was divided into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. The tenants were converted into owners by subsidized purchase of the land.

The first major Russian reform was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. At the time of emancipation about 45 percent of the land was private property and the remainder was held as allotment land, cultivated in units averaging 9.5 acres (3.8 hectares) by the peasant serfs against rent in kind and labour, payable to feudal lords. In contrast, fewer than 1,000 noble families owned about 175,000,000 acres (70,000,000 hectares) and received rent therefrom. Conflict between such extremes of poverty and wealth caused restlessness among the peasants and rendered reform inevitable. As Tsar Alexander II put it: "It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to await the day when it will begin to abolish itself from below."

The Emancipation Act of 1861 abolished serfdom and distributed allotment land among the peasants. The homestead became hereditary property of the individual, but the field land was vested in the village mir as a whole. The peasant paid redemption through the village authority, while the landlord received state bonds as compensation equal to 75 to 80 percent of the land market value. Though legally freed, the private serf had to ransom his freedom by surrendering a part of the allotment land. In contrast, serfs belonging to the imperial family were emancipated in 1863 and received the maximum amount of land fixed by law. Serfs of the state were emancipated in 1866 and allowed to keep the land they occupied against money rent. The Cossacks received two-thirds of the land, to be held in common, but in lieu of redemption payments they had to serve 20 years in the army. The serfs in mines and households were freed but received no economic assets.

Redemption payments, however, soon proved too burdensome, village restrictions were tight, and the allotment land area declined, all of which led to renewed restlessness and disturbances. Following the revolt of 1905, the government, under Pyotr Stolypin, tried to create middle-class, independent farmers by replacing the village tenure with private ownership, consolidating holdings, and encouraging land purchase by individuals; but the time was too short for effective implementation. The Soviet Revolution overthrew the tsarist regime and introduced the concepts of public ownership and collectivization.

By decree in 1918, the Soviets abolished private ownership of land, made farming the sole basis of landholding, and declared collectivization a major objective of policy. Marketing of agricultural products became a state monopoly. In 1929 Stalin embarked on a full course of collectivization, and by 1938 collective farms occupied 85.6 percent of the land and state farms 9.1 percent. Credit facilities and tractor stations supplemented collectivization, while agricultural production was integrated in the national plan for industrialization and development.

The costs of Soviet reform included the destruction of capital and the death of large numbers of kulaks, or rich peasants. Total output and productivity increased, however, and capital formation was made possible through forced saving, taxes, and regulated prices. The peasant received extensive social services such as health care, and education and better working conditions. The objectives of the decree of 1918 have been fully realized.

The Mexican reform of 1915 followed a revolution and dealt mainly with lands of Indian villages that had been illegally absorbed by neighbouring haciendas (plantations). Legally there was no serfdom; but the Indian wage workers, or peons, were reduced to virtual serfdom through indebtedness. Thus, the landlords were masters of the land and of the peons. The immediate aim of reform was to restore the land to its legal owners, settle the title, and use public land to reconstruct Indian villages. The motives were mainly to reduce poverty and inequality and to secure political stability, which was then in the balance. A decree of 1915 voided all land alienations that had taken place illegally since 1856 and provided for extracting land from haciendas to reestablish the collective Indian villages, or ejidos. The 1917 constitution reaffirmed those provisions but also guaranteed protection of private property, including haciendas. Nevertheless, a combination of loopholes, litigation, and reactionary forces slowed implementation, and effective reform came only after passage of the Agrarian Code of 1934 and the sympathetic efforts of Pres. Lázaro Cárdenas.

The reform restored many villages and freed the peons, but land concentration and poverty continued. In 1950, more than 31 percent of the private cropland was owned by fewer than 0.5 percent of the owners. Small-scale operation was retained or encouraged, a fact explaining the decline of output in the early years. More recently, efficiently run farms have been exempted from distribution.

The Japanese reform came immediately after World War II at the insistence of the Allied Occupation Army. The reform was designed to fit the uniquely high literacy rate and advanced industrial level of the country. Although the Meiji government had formally abolished feudalism and declared the land to be the property of the peasants, usurpation of land by the rich and by moneylenders had created classes of perpetual tenants and absentee landlords. In 1943, 66 percent of the land was operated by tenants against rent in kind that averaged 48 percent of the farmers' product, while population pressure resulted in fragmentation of holdings. The social class structure was closely tied to tenure, the owners in each village being at the top of the structure. Conflict between landlords and peasants was widespread.

After the war, the crisis was revived by food shortages, the breakdown of the urban economy, and the return of absentee landlords to the land. The Occupation Army insisted on reform, presumably to democratize the society and rehabilitate the economy. The reform law of 1946 established a ceiling on individual holdings and provided for expropriation and resale of excess land to the tenants against long-term payments. The government compensated the landlords in cash and bonds redeemable in 30 years. Tenants were protected by contract, and rents were reduced to a maximum of 25 percent of the product. The redistributed land was made inalienable, though this restriction was relaxed four years later. The program also provided for marketing and credit cooperatives. An important supplementary measure was the Local Autonomy Law of 1947, which decentralized the power structure and put village affairs in the hands of the villagers.

The Egyptian reform of 1952 followed the revolution that overthrew the monarchy and brought young middle-class leaders to the helm. Though affecting only about 12 percent of the arable land, it was applied thoroughly and touched all aspects of rural life. Egypt had two main forms of tenure: private ownership and waqf, or land held in trust and dedicated to charitable or educational purposes. Waqf land was inalienable, but private land was subject to speculation and concentration. In 1950, 1 percent of the owners had more than 20 percent of the private land, and 7 percent had more than two-thirds. The operating unit was small, with 77 percent of all the holdings occupying less than one acre each. Tenancy was widespread and rents were exorbitant. The peasants were exploited by middlemen who sublet the land to tenants, mediated between them and the market, and extended credit at high rates of interest.

The revolutionary reformers aimed at abolishing feudalism, recruiting peasant support, promoting economic development, and bringing the villagers back into the stream of national life. The Agrarian Reform Law of 1952 put a ceiling on individual holdings at 200 faddans (one faddan = 1.038 acres), later reduced to 100 faddans, with special allowance for male children. The excess land was expropriated and distributed to the peasants in parcels not exceeding five faddans. Compensation was given in bonds, while land recipients had to repay in annual installments. The new owners were obligated to join cooperatives for production, marketing, and credit. Tenancy conditions were also regulated, with contract replacing traditional terms; rent could not exceed 50 percent of the product, nor could a tenant hold more than 50 acres, to avoid subletting. An interesting feature of the reform was the special attention given to college graduates by allowing them up to 20-faddan parcels.

The reform was enforced quickly and had a great impact on the morale of the peasants. The economic effects, however, were minor since agriculture was intensive and land yield high. Producer cooperatives served only to offset the impact of distribution on the scale of operation. Some increases in yield have been claimed, but the evidence is still inconclusive. Furthermore, little capital was redirected into productive investment since the compensation bonds were not negotiable. Peasant savings remained limited, income increments being spent mostly on consumption. Finally, underemployment in agriculture has remained widespread. The defects of the agrarian structure continue to prevail, and relatively large ownerships exist, while certain groups in Egypt are calling for reversal of the reform.

The model of Japan's reform has been attempted in Southeast Asia, especially in Taiwan, South Korea, and South Vietnam, all influenced by American experts and by the anti-Communism of the respective governments. The objectives were to sustain the political order, raise living standards, and promote some degree of economic development. The reforms began with regulation of tenancy, restriction of rent, and the institution of written contract for leases, following which tenants were to be transformed into owners. Taiwan's reform was implemented between 1949 and 1953, in three stages. First, rents, which had sometimes reached 70 percent of the product, were reduced to 37.5 percent. Next, tenant-farmed public land was sold to the tenants. Finally, tenant-farmed private land was bought by the government and resold to the tenants.

The Vietnamese reform was introduced in 1955. Rents were reduced to a maximum of 25 percent of the product. A ceiling of 247 acres (100 hectares) was put on individual holdings, however, and only the excess land was subject to redistribution in parcels of 7.4 to 12.4 acres (three to five hectares) to the tenants. The collapse of the South Vietnamese regime and the unification of South and North Vietnam ended that reform and replaced it with the socialist model of North Vietnam.

The reform in Taiwan, as in South Vietnam prior to unification, was supplemented by other measures described as community development, such as adult education, credit facilities, improved technology, and other social services. Though land consolidation was attempted, the scale of operation was little affected. The main effect seems to have been the regulation of tenancy and the redistribution of rent incomes. An innovation of Taiwan's reform was the partial compensation of landlords with industrial shares in public enterprises, which helped them and helped industry.

Taiwan's reform has been hailed as a major success, in both economic and political terms. Some observers, however, are unwilling to reach such a conclusion until restrictions are removed and the peasants have a free choice of tenure and farm organization.

South Korea's land reform (under the Land Reform Law of June 1949) roughly followed the Japanese model by removing tenancy, creating small ownerships, implementing the law thoroughly and promptly, and depending heavily on nonagricultural (basically industrial) employment to absorb labour and supplement rural income. Like the Japanese and Taiwanese reforms, Korea's successful reform was generously supported by foreign aid.

The Philippines introduced a reform program in 1963, which aimed primarily at replacing share tenancy with lease contracts and eventually with ownership, and at revitalizing agriculture through extension services. By the mid-1980s the program had given titles to about 400,000 tenants and secure leases to another 600,000, but the economic viability of the new units has been uncertain because of their small scale and the lack of supplementary facilities. The main effects initially were seed improvement, greater use of fertilizers, and an increase in contractual tenancy. To combat the negative effects of small-scale farming, the Philippine government has resorted to what it calls the "compact farm," which is a voluntary grouping of small farms to be operated under one management as one consolidated farm. The problem of surplus labour, however, remains to be solved.

Various other reforms have been introduced in Southeast Asia, but the only innovative program has been that of Malaysia. The program in Malaysia has been highly organized and development oriented. It tries to promote social and economic objectives by emphasizing the production of rubber and palm oil for export and gradually transforming the landless into hereditary tenants on newly reclaimed and settled plantations. A typical plantation covers 4,500 to 5,000 acres (1,800 to 2,000 hectares) of jungle land and absorbs about 400 families. The land is cleared and planted by contract, and a village is constructed, with all the necessary services, before the settlers arrive. Each house has a quarter of an acre for a household garden. Cropland is divided in blocks of 120 to 200 acres (48 to 80 hectares), to be worked by a team of 15 to 25 people until the plants have matured. Upon maturation, each settler receives a share by lottery and a lease title for 99 years. This tenure arrangement precludes alienation, subdivision, or subleasing; it thus protects the tenant farmer and sidesteps the Islamic laws of inheritance, which tend toward fragmentation of the land.

Except for the early example of Mexico, reform in Latin America has been recent and appears to have come only in response to the threat of social and political instability and mounting international pressures. Reform in Latin America after World War II must be seen against a background of rapidly increasing population and of extreme contrasts between plantation economies and small units; high concentration of land ownership, income, and power and dire poverty; modern farming and relatively backward cultivation methods; and nationalism and extensive foreign ownership of land. In addition, Latin-American society is complicated by its ethnic mixtures and by dependence on staple trade items such as sugar, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, and beef cattle.

Reform in Latin America has reflected the ideologies and objectives of the regime in power. Brazil has had several attempts at reform. The measures have been indirect and relatively mild, the most important being taxation of idle land and large plantations and reclamation and settlement of the Amazon region, with provisions for credit and tenancy protection. The results have been modest, however, largely because of the physical and biological hardships faced by settlers in the tropical Amazon environment.Peru has deviated by creating collective administrations of the nationalized feudal estates. The title resides in the nation, and the estates are run by the Agricultural Societies of Social Interest (sais) , a mechanism devised to avoid breaking up economically efficient enterprises rather than to modify the tenure institutions.

At the other end of the Latin-American spectrum is theCuban reform that followed the revolution of 1958. Cuba retained private ownership but reduced it substantially in favour of the public sector. As proclaimed a few months before the overthrow of the old regime, the reform aimed at the elimination of latifundia tenure, expropriation of land owned by foreign companies, higher standards of living for the peasantry, and national economic development. It began by setting a ceiling of 30 caballerías (one caballería = 33 acres, or 13.4 hectares) on individual holdings, with a maximum of 100 caballerías if economic operations required such a scale. All foreign-owned land was nationalized. Public land on which rice and cattle were raised was converted into state farms, and the peasants became permanent wage workers on these farms. Sugar plantations were converted into cooperatives to avoid their subdivision into small uneconomic units. Before long the ceiling on individual holdings was lowered to five caballerías, and all such holdings became private family farms. The rest were nationalized, and the expropriated owners were compensated with a pension for life. The reform was supplemented by the organization of national farmer associations; people's stores; credit, housing, and educational facilities; and the production of machinery and fertilizers. In 1963 a major reorganization of state farms took place; they were subdivided on the basis of crop specialization into smaller operational units of about 469 caballerías.

Effects of the reform were comprehensive and immediate. The tenure institutions were radically changed in favour of public ownership, while minifundia and tenancies were abolished. Socially and politically, the reform realized the objectives of the reformers. Economically, the government claimed higher yields of sugarcane, vegetables, and fruit, but this claim has been disputed by foreign observers.

Other Latin-American reforms fall between those of Brazil and Cuba, though closer to the former than to the latter in comprehensiveness and thoroughness. For example, the reform in Costa Rica has overlooked land concentration and income inequality and concentrated on the squatters, or parásitos, who in 1961 numbered between 12,000 and 16,000 people. The reform aimed at legalizing existing squatter holdings, preventing further squatting, and conserving virgin land. Even this modest program was implemented very slowly. As late as 1973, 7.3 percent of the landholdings comprised 67 percent of the total agricultural land. Colombia has had reform programs for at least 30 years, but concentration of ownership, fragmented holdings, backward methods of cultivation, inequality of income distribution, and widespread poverty have remained characteristic; in 1970, 4.3 percent of the holdings contained 67.4 percent of the total area.

Chile undertook various reform programs before achieving concrete results. In 1962 a program was enacted to encourage settlement of new land, but only about 1,000 families were settled. A comprehensive reform was introduced in 1965 with three main objectives: to make the agricultural workers owners of the land they had cultivated previously, to increase agricultural and livestock production, and to facilitate social mobility and peasant participation in political life. The Chilean reform was unique in its method of implementation. Once the plantation had been designated for expropriation and the prospective owners selected, they were organized into asentamientos, or settlement groups. The group elected a committee to take charge of settlement. The members cultivated the land as a team for three to five years. Meanwhile they received training and guidance in social participation, decision making, and modern farming. Upon completion of the transition period, the land was divided among those who had shown promise, to be held outright and without restriction. All new owners were obligated to join cooperatives, the form of these being determined by the members. The socialist regime that came into office in 1970 expedited the expropriation process and the creation of settlement groups or cooperative farms under peasant committees. By 1972 all the potential land, which had been in farms larger than 200 acres (80 hectares), had been expropriated and reallocated. The new regime that took over in 1973 decided, however, to privatize the land and reverse much of the reform by returning large areas to the former owners, dissolving the cooperatives, and creating private ownerships in their place. Most of the reverse changes had been completed by 1979. Nevertheless, most of the excess land in farms of more than 200 acres remained in the hands of the reform beneficiaries. Owners of less than 12 acres (five hectares) were hardly affected; those who owned between 12 and 50 acres (five and 20 hectares) benefitted most. In the final analysis, less than 15 percent of the agricultural land was affected by the reform between 1965 and 1979 under three regimes.

Attempts to reform the agrarian structure have been made in most other countries, with varying degrees of seriousness. India and Pakistan have concentrated on abolishing intermediaries who prevailed as survivals of traditional and feudal tenures. In India the tenants have become hereditary holders, with the title vested in the state. India has left reform to the states and emphasized peaceful and compensatory methods; hence the results have varied from one state to another. Pakistan, following the revolution of 1958, enacted a reform that made most of the tenants owners. In both countries, however, small-scale farming has persisted, while Pakistan has continued to tolerate and protect owners of up to 500 acres (200 hectares). In neither country has fragmentation been effectively reduced or have capital formation and cultivation methods significantly advanced.

In contrast, after the Communists came to power in China, private ownership was eliminated and the peasants were organized in village communes. Extensive supplementary measures have been tried, and the role and organization of the commune have varied according to the pressures on the economy. The most recent innovation in China's agriculture has been the "production responsibility system," which allows the commune to contract with its members for quotas of output; the members are free to sell the surplus on the open market. The change is seen as an incentive generator, but land cannot be rented, bought, sold, or used except as authorized by the commune. The effects of China's agrarian policy on peasant living conditions and the Chinese economy have been generally accepted as positive, genuine, and impressive.

In 1962 Iran made owners of most of the former sharecroppers, in the classic tradition of Western-type reform, mainly to create political stability. Given Iran's revolution of 1979, however, the reform evidently was not sufficient to sustain the old social order. Reform was also introduced in Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Libya, and other countries of the Middle East and North Africa following independence or revolution. Most of these reforms were influenced by the Egyptian example, with the state playing a major role. In all cases emphasis has been placed on farm cooperatives, although they have been largely ineffective.

Conclusions