Land reform and agrarian reforms have become synonymous, indicating that reform programs have become more comprehensive and encompass much more than the reform of land tenure or land distribution. Reform movements have recurred throughout history, as have the crises they are intended to deal with, because reform has rarely dealt with the roots of the crises. Reform has served as a problem-solving mechanism and therefore has only been extensive enough to cope with the immediate crisis. Reformers have often faced hard choices: to promote and sustain private ownership with inequality or to institute public or collective ownership with equality but with restrictions on the individuals’ private interests; to spread employment by supporting labour-intensive, low-productivity techniques or to promote high productivity through capital-intensive, efficient methods; to pursue gradual “repair and maintenance” reform that is basically ineffective or to promote revolutionary, comprehensive, effective but disruptive reform. In capitalist reforms these contradictions have usually been resolved in favour of the first set of options; in socialist reforms, in favour of the second. Land tenure reform seems to have been of little significance in creating substantive economic change, although it has been important for improving the status of peasants and maintaining social and political stability. Most reforms have narrowed the gap between reform beneficiaries and other farmers through land redistribution and tenancy control, but only the comprehensive socialist reforms have narrowed the gap between agriculture and other sectors of the economy.

Land redistribution programs have had limited success for several reasons. They often have deprived the farm of the former landlord’s contributions without providing a substitute. They have inhibited mobility of labour by giving the peasant a stake in the land, though only in the form of an inefficient minifarm. They frequently have threatened large, efficiently run farms and therefore have had to be compromised. They have provided compensation for the expropriated land and hence left wealth and income distribution largely unaffected. They have been conditional upon peasant participation in social and political activity and cooperative organization, even though the peasant was unprepared for these activities. Moreover, the redistribution of land has rarely been fortified by protective measures that could prevent reconcentration of ownership and the recurrence of crises. Nevertheless, major efforts have been expended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and other international bodies and by governments to devise viable frameworks for solving agricultural and rural problems emanating from defective agrarian structures.

The philosophy and logic of land reform are presented in A. Whitney Griswold, Farming and Democracy (1948, reissued 1963), a lucid scholarly analysis of the political significance of various farm structures and a discussion of the family farm as a cornerstone of democracy; Folke Dovring, Land and Labor in Europe in the Twentieth Century, 3rd rev. ed. (1965), an examination of the political and ideological bases of land policy since the French Revolution; Elias H. Tuma, Twenty-Six Centuries of Agrarian Reform: A Comparative Analysis (1965), a synthesis of theory and history, with an attempt to formulate a general theory of agrarian reform, and “Agrarian Reform in Historical Perspective Revisited,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 21:3–29 (1979), which updates and retests the author’s earlier theory; Erich H. Jacoby, Evaluation of Agrarian Structures and Agrarian Reform Programs (1966), a checklist of administrative and organizational changes that contribute to reform success; and Doreen Warriner, Land Reform in Principle and Practice (1969), a provocative discussion of the evolution of reform and conflict between theory and practice.

More recent works discussing the same issues include World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, The Peasants’ Charter (1981), a declaration of principles and program of action by most of the nonsocialist developing countries; John D. Montgomery (ed.), International Dimensions of Land Reform (1984), an overview of how such issues are handled by international agencies; Ingrid Palmer, The Impact of Agrarian Reform on Women (1985), an examination of fertility, health, and nutrition; John P. Powelson, The Story of Land: A World History of Land Tenure and Agrarian Reform (1988), a good starting place for study, with a comprehensive bibliography; Demetrios Christodoulou, The Unpromised Land: Agrarian Reform and Conflict Worldwide (1990), an excellent resource list and a fine study of the circumstances which render land reform necessary; M. Riad El-Ghonemy, The Political Economy of Rural Poverty: The Case for Land Reform (1990), a convincing argument for reduced land concentration; and Solon L. Barraclough, An End to Hunger?: The Social Origins of Food Strategies (1991), a study placing land reform issues for developing countries in the broader world context.

Reforms in the ancient world are addressed in W. Warde-Fowler, “Notes on Gaius Gracchus,” English Historical Review, 20:209–227 and 417–433 (1905); E.G. Hardy, “Were the Lex Thoria of 118 bc. and the Lex Agraria of 111 bc Reactionary Laws?,” Journal of Philosophy, 31:268–286 (1910); Ivan M. Linforth, Solon the Athenian (1919, reprinted 1971); and W.J. Woodhouse, Solon the Liberator: A Study of the Agrarian Problems in Attica in the Seventh Century (1938, reprinted 1965).

Elias H. Tuma, European Economic History: Tenth Century to the Present (1971), summarizes the agrarian reform history of most countries of Europe since the Middle Ages. Early French reforms are examined by Marc Bloch, French Rural History: An Essay on Its Basic Characteristics (1966; originally published in French, 1931); and Georges Lefebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution: 1789, bicentennial ed. (1989; originally published in French, 1939). Reform in tsarist Russia is addressed in Geroid T. Robinson, Rural Russia Under the Old Régime: A History of the Landlord-Peasant World and a Prologue to the Peasant Revolution of 1917 (1932, reissued 1969).

Any study of recent decades must begin with Progress in Land Reform: Sixth Report (1976), issued jointly by the United Nations, its Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the International Labour Organisation; and with two publications from the FAO, Review and Analysis of Agrarian Reform and Rural Development in the Developing Countries Since the Mid-1960s (1979?), and Land Reform, Land Settlement, and Cooperatives (semiannual), which offers feature articles, summaries of recent reform legislation, and a comprehensive bibliography of new literature.

Summaries and analyses of reform over broad regions can be found in Jean Le Coz, Les Réformes agraires: de Zapata à Mao Tsé-toung et la F.A.O. (1974), which compares the Soviet model with the Chinese, and with reform in Latin America and the Middle East, and highlights the role of the FAO in reform implementation; V.E. Stanis, Socialist Transformation of Agriculture: Theory and Practice (1976; originally published in Russian, 1971), covering reform in eastern Europe after World War II; Russell King, Land Reform: A World Survey (1977), a good summary for the general reader, with references; David A. Preston (ed.), Environment, Society, and Rural Change in Latin America: The Past, Present, and Future in the Countryside (1980), a collection of essays, pessimistic as to the efficacy of most reform; Ajit Kumar Ghose (ed.), Agrarian Reform in Contemporary Developing Countries (1983), covering developments in agrarian reform through the early 1980s, with illustrations from the field; M. Riad El-Ghonemy (ed.), How Development Strategies Benefit the Rural Poor (1984), an FAO summary of reform programs; and Peter Utting, Economic Reform and Third-World Socialism: A Political Economy of Food Policy in Transitional Societies (1992), a lucid introduction to certain economic aspects of land reform in socialist economies.

Studies of specific countries and regions which also highlight important theoretical trends include Maurice H. Dobb, Soviet Economic Development Since 1917, 6th ed. (1966); George Yaney, The Urge to Mobilize: Agrarian Reform in Russia, 1861–1930 (1982); John Yin, Infrastructure of the Soviet Agriculture (1991); Eric J. Hooglund, Land and Revolution in Iran, 1960–1980 (1982); Elias H. Tuma, Economic and Political Change in the Middle East (1987); Asghar Schirazi, Islamic Development Policy: The Agrarian Question in Iran (1993); Kenneth M. Luno, The Pasha’s Peasants: Land, Society, and Economy in Lower Egypt, 1740–1858 (1992), providing historical perspective; James Brow and Joe Weeramunda (eds.), Agrarian Change in Sri Lanka (1992); James Putzel, A Captive Land: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines (1992), a detailed and erudite study; John O. Haley and Kozo Yamamura (eds.), Land Issues in Japan: A Policy Failure? (1992); William Hinton, The Great Reversal: The Privatization of China, 1978–1989 (1990), discussing the mixture of collective and private approaches to land-use practices; Vivienne Shue, Peasant China in Transition: The Dynamics of Development Toward Socialism, 1949–1956 (1980), a close study of the initial stages of agricultural development and state control of the rural economy; Anthony Y.C. Koo, Land Market Distortion and Tenure Reform (1982), concentrating on Taiwan and Southeast Asia; Laura J. Enríquez, Harvesting Change: Labor and Agrarian Reform in Nicaragua, 1979–1990 (1991), an unusual and particularly valuable work because of its revolutionary setting; Steven E. Sanderson, Agrarian Populism and the Mexican State: The Struggle for Land in Sonora (1981), covering 1917–76, with much discussion of the national situation; and Roger Bartra, Agrarian Structure and Political Power in Mexico (1993), illuminating the debate over small-scale agriculture versus other, more corporate forms.

Some excellent sources on African land-reform issues and policies which have not been widely available until recently are Essy M. Letsoalo, Land Reform in South Africa: A Black Perspective (1987), an essential majority perspective; Fred T. Hendricks, The Pillars of Apartheid: Land Tenure, Rural Planning, and the Chieftaincy (1990), which covers some of the homeland issues; Michael De Klerk (ed.), A Harvest of Discontent: The Land Question in South Africa (1991), which details the controversial South African situation; and Thomas J. Bassett and Donald E. Crummey (eds.), Land in African Agrarian Systems (1993), a collection of essays covering much of the continent.