Tierra, democracia y capitalismo: La improbable convergencia (el caso latinoamericano, con enfasis en Brasil)

Contemplando sobre todo la historia rural brasilena, el articulo sugiere que la llamada cuestion agraria clasica estaria siendo superada en America Latina por la convergencia de tres grandes procesos de transformacion: cambios sociales, particularmente la aceleracion de la urbanizacion; cambios politicos, en especial la consolidacion democratica en la mayor parte de los paises de base agricola mas significativa. El articulo presenta brevemente el debate sobre la cuestion agraria y la reforma agraria y sintetiza la evolucion del "ideal democratico" en el periodo contemporaneo. Posteriormente se introducen evidencias empiricas sobre las principales transformaciones economicas de la agricultura brasilena en el marco de la reciente expansion capitalista. La convergencia citadad significa, en concreto, que los temas asociados a la cuestion agraria, como la reforma agraria o los conflictos agrarios, can encontrando gradualmente su ocaso historico. Por tanto, se sugiere que una hipotetica reaparicion de la cuestion agraria en America Latina, si ocurriese, estaria fundada en una logica politica nueva, escasamente relacionada con el apsado del continente. Focussing particularly on the Brazilian rural historym the article suggests that the so-called classical agrarian question would be observing its passing in Latin America. This might be the case in face of the convergence of three broad and transforming processes: social changes, especially the faster pace of urbanization; political changes related to processes of democratic consolidation in the vast majority of the region and, finally, the recent economic intensification mostly experienced in countries with strong agricultural sectors. Debated about the agrarian question and on land reform are briefly introduced as well as a synthesis about the evolution of analyses about the "democratic ideal" in contemporary times. In the third part empirical evidences about economic changes in the Brazilian agriculture are also offered under the context of its recent capitalist expansion. The mentioned convergence concretely means that issues related to the agrarian question, land reform and on agrarian conflicts are gradually approaching their historical demise. As a result, it is suggested that a hypothetical re-emergence of the agrarian question in Latin America, if it eventually happens, will be anchored in an entirely new political logic, hardly in association with the agrarian past of the continent.