POLI 227 Lecture Notes - Demographic Transition, Informal Sector, Progressive Tax
19 Jul 2012
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Example: egypt in 1951: the political base of the military leftist coup was industrial workers, and its opponent were large landowners and business owners. Land reform was a way to please their base and disadvantage their opponents. If landowners need to give land up, landowners try to cheat the system by registering their land under various family members, or by bribing officials. The medium landowners emerge as the strongest group. Land reform benefits the poor peasants who get land, but it puts the middle peasants in the best position. The party machinery in egypt got captures by the conservative middle peasants, and poor peasants didn"t capture it because they lacked resources and education, and large landowners didn"t capture it because they were locked out by the regime. Example: nicaragua in 1972 has significant land reform under the sandinistas. Over 60% of the income was going rural landowners; when most of the population were rural farmers, not land owners.
