Más allá del teorema de la imposibilidad política de la reforma agraria

Abstract

El autor se propone explorar vías para entender las condiciones políticas que alivien la pobreza mediante la reforma agraria. Argumenta que la visión tradicional de la reforma agraria y sus políticas, prácticamente imposibles dentro de las configuraciones políticas típicas, es demasiado limitada. El enfoque económico tradicional es la intersección entre los derechos sobre la tierra, la agricultura y la pobreza, debe ampliarse para incorporar cambios tecnológicos resultado de la revolución biológica, así como la importancia de los sistemas ecológicos que soportan tanto a la agricultura como a las estrategias de supervivencia de los pobres. El enfoque político tradicional de las clases agrarias necesita ampliarse para incluir "nuevos movimientos sociales" y sus aliados nacionales e internacionales. Argumenta que el método más seguro para abatir la pobreza en las sociedades rurales es la redistribución de tierras, pues aunque existan otras medidas para aliviar la pobreza, están más sujetas a distorsiones inducidas por la desigualdad y que uno de los principales factores de ésta es la inequitativa distribución de la tierra. Herring concluye que la agenda política de reformas en pro de los pobres debe conservar los elementos centrales del proyecto agrario y a la vez reconocer el potencial de coaliciones más grandes en pro de los pobres. Estos elementos incluyen integridad ambiental y regeneración, derechos de la mujer, derechos humanos, supervivencia cultural y democratización. Aunque el análisis no pretende reemplazar clases por política de identidad posmodernista, sí enfatiza la realidad de las nuevas posibilidades de coalición.

The purpose of this piece is to explore how we might go about understanding the political conditions for poverty alleviation via agrarian reform. It argues that the traditional conceptualization cf agrarian reform and its politics -which presents a near impossibility in typical political configurations- is too limiting. The traditional economic focuson intersection of landed rights, agriculture and poverty needs broadening to incorporate technological change enabled by the biological revolution and the importance of ecological systems that support both agriculture and survival strategiesof the poor. The traditional political focus on agrarian classes needs broadening to incorporate new social forces interested in the correlates of agrarian inequality and the social correlates of land-based inequality - "new social movements" and their domestic and international allies. The argument nevertheless reaffirms the importance of classic agrarian reform in its dual contributions to direct relief of poverty and democratizing effects which enable other pro-poor re forms to work The surest wav to poverty reduction in most rural societies is reformation of the property system. Though there are other roads to government action to alleviate poverty, ail are subject to distortions induced by inequality, a major component of which is skewed distribution of property. Asset re-distnbution also enables social democracy, and even populist distributive programs work better with social democracy than without. Social democracy is, however, not a direct policy choice; there is much historical contingency at work. Aconundrum of land reform policy generally is that it is a statist project -as all policy is- and as such has often increased state power and patronage in ways that are inconsistent with reform objectives. Without reform of the state, its alleged beneficianes are seldom the driving force and may become its victims. Yet it is agrarian reform, particularly in its expanded conceptualization,which enables more broadly based rural power vis-a-vis the state by changing the incentive structure of state operatives thmugh altering the rural distnbution of power. Thus, a policy agenda for pro-poor reform must retain elements of the venerable core of the agranan project and yet recognize the potential of larger coalitions for the poor. These elements include environmental integrity and regeneration, women's lights, human rights,cultural survival anddemocratization. This analysis is not meant to replace class with postmodernist identity politics, but rather to emphasize the reality of new coalitional possibilities.