Land Power Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies

'A must-read' THOMAS PIKETTY 'Captivating' DARON ACEMOGLU 'Important' FRANCIS FUKUYAMA An award-winning political scientist shows that a society's path to prosperity, sustainability, and equality depends on who owns the land. For millennia, land has been a symbol of wealth and privilege. But the true power of land ownership is even greater than we might think. In Land Power, political scientist Michael Albertus shows that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment. Modern history has been defined by land reallocation on a massive scale. From the 1500s on, European colonial powers and new nation-states shifted indigenous lands into the hands of settlers. The 1900s brought new waves of land appropriation, from Soviet and Maoist collectivization to initiatives turning large estates over to family farmers. With the establishment of cooperatives in North Africa, the