Unlikely Expropriators: Why Right-Wing Parties Implemented Agrarian Reform in Democratic Brazil

Abstract

What motivated right-wing and conservative parties to endorse a policy of land expropriation and redistribution in Brazil? I argue that urban-dominated right-wing parties endorsed agrarian reform in order to: (i) reduce crime in wealthier metropolises by reversing rural–urban migration; and (ii) gain competitive advantage against left-wing challengers. To test this argument I conduct process tracing, analysing over 500 elite statements about agrarian reform, drawn from archival, interview and survey data. In addition, I model land expropriations at the municipal level and show how right-wing administrations disproportionately expropriated land in the states of origin of migrants and, within those, in localities where the Left was more competitive. My results portray how two externalities of inequality – crime and competition with the Left – motivated conservative support for agrarian reform in Brazil.

Transformative Pathways of Agrarian Reform: Comparative Bibliometric Insights of Southeast Asia and Indonesia Cases

“…This influential faction, led by a member of Congress named Ronaldo Caiado (from the PSD party, later renamed PFL), was the driving force behind the formation of the União Democrática Ruralista (Rural Democratic Association, UDR). Their primary objective was to block progressive land-related legislation (López, 2023), ensuring that agrarian reform initiatives never succeeded.…”

“…The MST has engaged in various struggles in its history, including collaborating with other organizations to pressure for the establishment of the Programa Nacional de Reforma Agrária (PNRA) in 1985 under Sarney's leadership, although this program's ambitions to assist 1.4 million landless farmers (see Table 3) were ultimately unrealized (Robles, 2018). The MST's public support grew significantly following the mid-1990s massacre of farmers (López, 2023). During Cardoso's presidency, in response to the massacre and as part of the Agrarian Reform program "Compromisso de todos" (Agrarian Reform is Everyone's Commitment), the MST carried out extensive land occupations.…”