Suchergebnisse

The agrarian question today the politics of poverty and inequality -- Rural development and social movements -- The politics of agrarian reform in Brazil : historical background -- Agrarian reform under sarney and Collor de Mello-Franco -- Agrarian reform under Cardoso -- Agrarian reform under Lula da Silva and Rousseff -- Co-operative experiences -- Popular agrarian reform

This article examines Brazil's experience in agrarian reform from 1985 to 2016. After more than three decades of agrarian reform, Brazil remains a country with highly skewed landownership. Peasant-led agrarian reform efforts have had limited impact in changing this situation. Agrarian reform remains an unfulfilled political promise, and this situation continues to create tensions and conflicts in the countryside. The main reason for the persistence of skewed land concentration is the State's support of agribusiness. Successive post-1985 democratic governments have encouraged the opening of new agricultural frontiers by providing generous economic incentives. Land redistribution has been offset by further land possession; that is, the expansion of small-scale agricultural farming has been counterbalanced by the expansion of large-scale, capital intensive agriculture. Agribusiness has not only undermined agrarian reform efforts but has also generated a growing dependency on a socially and environmentally destructive monoculture agricultural economy. Moreover, Brazil's current political and economic crisis has further undermined the struggle for agrarian reform.

The Politics of Agrarian Reform in Brazil examines the interrelationships among peasant mobilization, agrarian reform and cooperativism in contemporary Brazil. Specifically, it addresses the challenges facing peasant movements in their pursuit of political and economic democracy. The book takes as a point of reference the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), the most dynamic force for progressive social change in Latin America today. Robles and Veltmeyer argue that the MST has effectively practiced the politics of land occupation and the politics of agricultural cooperativism to consolidate the food sovereignty model of agrarian reform. However, the rapid expansion of the corporate-led agribusiness model, which is supported by Brazil's political elite, has undermined the MST's efforts. The authors argue that despite intense peasant mobilization, agrarian reform remains an unfulfilled political promise in Brazil.

Comprehensive and interdisciplinary, the thoroughly updated and revised second edition of Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America is an engaging critical analysis of the major political, economic, social, and ecological conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Expert chapter authors describe and analyze the economies and trading relations, politics and state policies, social inequalities and social injustices, indigenous communities, gender relations, influence of religion, wide array of social movements, and social ecology of the societies in this important region of the world.