Land and Loyalty

Tomas Larsson

Description

Domestic and international development strategies often focus on private ownership as a crucial anchor for long-term investment; the security of property rights provides a foundation for capitalist expansion. In recent years, Thailand's policies have been hailed as a prime example of how granting formal land rights to poor farmers in low-income countries can result in economic benefits. But the country provides a puzzle: Thailand faced major security threats from colonial powers in the nineteenth century and from communism in the twentieth century, yet only in the latter case did the government respond with pro-development tactics.In Land and Loyalty, Tomas Larsson argues that institutional underdevelopment may prove, under certain circumstances, a strategic advantage rather than a weakness and that external threats play an important role in shaping the development of property regimes. Security concerns, he find, often guide economic policy. The domestic legacies, legal and socioeconomic, resulting from state responses to the outside world shape and limit the strategies available to politicians. While Larsson's extensive archival research findings are drawn from Thai sources, he situates the experiences of Thailand in comparative perspective by contrasting them with the trajectory of property rights in Japan, Burma, and the Philippines.

Sujets

• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Tailandia
• Development studies
• Political economy
• Thailand
• Southeast Asia
• History of Asia
• Central
• Thaïlande

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801464089
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

LANDANDLOYALTY

Avolumeintheseries CornellStudiesinPoliticalEconomy editedbyPeterJ.Katzenstein

Alistoftitlesinthisseriesisavailableat www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Landand Loyalty SecurityandtheDevelopment of Property Rights in Thailand

TomasLarsson

CORNELLUNIVERSITYPRESSITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2012 by Cornell University

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,orparts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2012 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Larsson, Tomas, 1966–  Land and loyalty : security and the development of property rights in Thailand / Tomas Larsson.  p. cm. — (Cornell studies in political economy)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801450815 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Land tenure—Economic aspects—Thailand. 2. Economic development— Thailand. 3. Capitalism—Thailand. 4. Thailand—Economic policy. I. Title. II. Series: Cornell studies in political economy.  HD890.55.Z63L38 2012  333.309593—dc23 2012001130

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Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Contents

ListofFiguresandTables Acknowledgments

1 . Securitization and Institutional Development 2 Thailand. Capitalizing 3 of a Weak State. Weapon 4 . Conserving Smallholder Society 5 Specters and Communists. Combating 6 . Old Solutions, New Challenges

Notes Bibliography Index

vii

ix xi

1 15 30 73 108 147

153 171 201

FiguresandTables

Figures 2.1.  Poverty incidence, 1962–2002 2.2.  Conceptual framework linking land rights, growth, and confict 2.3.  Land sales and new mortgages registered in Thailand, 1955–2000 2.4.  Agricultural credit from financial institutions 2.5.  Fertilizer consumption in Thailand, 1961–2000 2.6.  Per capita GDP in Thailand, 1820–2000 3.1.  Map of central Siam and the twentyfourhour zone 3.2.  Government expenditure on land administration, 1904–5 to 1919–20 3.3.  Government expenditure on land administration, as percentage of total, 1904–5 to 1919–20 3.4.  Per capita GDP in Japan and Thailand, 1820–1940 4.1.  Registered mortgage instruments for immovable property in Burma, 1910–51 5.1.  Area under title in Thailand, 1955–2000 5.2.  Clashes between insurgents and Thai security forces, 1965/66–85 5.3.  Number of employees in the Department of Lands, 1955–2000 5.4.  Phibun Songkhram officiates at title deed distribution ceremony, September 1953 5.5.  Thailand’s Polity2 score, 1950–2000 5.6.  A model of institutional change 5.7.  Populationagricultural land ratios in Thailand and the Philippines, 1961–2001

ix

16

19

21 22 22 28 41

60

61 71

103 109

114

119

120 131 133

140