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Measuring the Impact of Land Reform Policy in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Donald C. Williams
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Extract

The imperative to regulate and redistribute land has become almost universal to governments in the developing world. In Africa, this kind of policy has been couched in impressive language that justifies increasing regulatory control as the only viable way to revolutionise the productive use of land for national development. Land reforms often signify one element of a larger trend involving the expansion of the state at the expense of other forms of societal authority. As such, they represent the frontier of a widening struggle over legitimacy and control between ‘state’ and ‘society’. Scholars from a wide variety of intellectual traditions have recently shown increasing interest in exploring the nature and impact of the state. However, the overall utility of such an approach in helping us to understand political developments in Africa has often been hindered by the absence of empirical data.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 587 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

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