Land reforms by country

Agrarian reform and land reform have been a recurring theme of enormous consequence in world history. The goal of this page is to compare and contrast the different land reforms that were done (or attempted) around the world.

Getúlio Vargas, who rose to presidency in Brazil following the Brazilian Revolution of 1930, promised a land reform but reneged on his promise.

A first attempt to make a national scale reform was set up in the government of José Sarney (1985–1990), as a result of the strong popular movement that had contributed to the fall of the military government. According to the 1988 Constitution of Brazil, the government is required to "expropriate for the purpose of agrarian reform, rural property that is not performing its social function" (Article 184). However, the "social function" mentioned there is not well defined, and hence the so-called First Land Reform National Plan never was put into force.

Throughout the 1990s, the Landless Workers' Movement has led a strong campaign on favor of fulfilling the constitutional requirement to land reform. They also took direct action by forceful occupation of unused lands. Their campaign has managed to get some advances for the past 10 years, during the Fernando Cardoso and Lula da Silva administrations.

It is overseen by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform.

Land in Bolivia was unequally distributed — 92% of the cultivable land was held by large estates - until the Bolivian national revolution of 1952. Then, the MNR government abolished forced peasantry labor and established a program of expropriation and distribution of the rural property of the traditional landlords to the Indian peasants. A unique feature of the reform in Bolivia was the organization of peasants into syndicates. Peasants were not only granted land but their militias also were given large supplies of arms. The peasants remained a powerful political force in Bolivia during all subsequent governments. By 1970, 45% of peasant families had received title to land. Land reform projects continued in the 1970s and 1980s. A 1996 Agrarian Reform Law increased protection for smallholdings and indigenous territories, but also protected absentee landholders who pay taxes from expropriation. Reforms were continued at 2006, with the Bolivian Senate passing a bill authorizing the government redistribution of land among the nation's mostly indigenous poor.

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