IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v29y1998i1p81-106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modernizing Insecurity: The Land Titling Project in Honduras

Author

Listed:
  • Kees Jansen
  • Esther Roquas

Abstract

The Honduran land titling project (the Proyecto de Titulación de Tierra para los Pequeños Productores), initiated in 1982, was intended to enhance security in land rights, to facilitate credit and to improve agricultural productivity. This study explores how the project has operated in one village, and concludes that it has attained none of its objectives; instead, it has triggered new sources of land conflicts, thus adding to the existing complex of local rules and laws. The authors argue that the failure of the project is not solely a consequence of the organizational incapacity of the bureaucracy, as some evaluations suggest, but that it is rooted in mistaken assumptions about the social organization of property rights and the causes of insecurity. The land titling project is founded on a contradiction: although based on the ideology of the capitalizing family farm in the context of a withdrawing state, its implementation actually requires strong and repressive state intervention. Rather than reducing insecurity in property rights, the project has merely ‘modernized’ the sources which can be used to contest rights in land.

Suggested Citation

  • Kees Jansen & Esther Roquas, 1998. "Modernizing Insecurity: The Land Titling Project in Honduras," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 81-106, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:29:y:1998:i:1:p:81-106
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.00071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00071
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-7660.00071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vlad Păunescu & Divyani Kohli & Alexandru-Iulian Iliescu & Mircea-Emil Nap & Elemer-Emanuel Șuba & Tudor Sălăgean, 2022. "An Evaluation of the National Program of Systematic Land Registration in Romania Using the Fit for Purpose Spatial Framework Principles," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-24, September.
    2. Nygren, Anja, 2005. "Community-based forest management within the context of institutional decentralization in Honduras," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 639-655, April.
    3. Ma, Xianlei & Heerink, Nico & van Ierland, Ekko & Lang, Hairu & Shi, Xiaoping, 2020. "Decisions by Chinese households regarding renting in arable land—The impact of tenure security perceptions and trust," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    4. Benito Arruñada & Marco Fabbri & Michael Faure, 2022. "Land Titling and Litigation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(1), pages 131-156.
    5. Macours, Karen, 2002. "Insecurity of Property Rights and Matching in the Tenancy Market," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24931, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Boucher, Stephen R. & Barham, Bradford L. & Carter, Michael R., 2005. "The Impact of "Market-Friendly" Reforms on Credit and Land Markets in Honduras and Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 107-128, January.
    7. Rampa, Alexis & Lovo, Stefania, 2023. "Revisiting the effects of the Ethiopian land tenure reform using satellite data. A focus on agricultural productivity, climate change mitigation and adaptation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    8. Broegaard, Rikke Brandt & Vongvisouk, Thoumthone & Mertz, Ole, 2017. "Contradictory Land Use Plans and Policies in Laos: Tenure Security and the Threat of Exclusion," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 170-183.
    9. Deininger, Klaus & Chamorro, Juan Sebastian, 2004. "Investment and equity effects of land regularisation: the case of Nicaragua," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 101-116, March.
    10. Bouquet, Emmanuelle, 2009. "State-Led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change: Land Titles, Land Markets and Tenure Security in Mexican Communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1390-1399, August.
    11. Deininger, Klaus & Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Holden, Stein & Zevenbergen, Jaap, 2008. "Rural Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process, Initial Impact, and Implications for Other African Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1786-1812, October.
    12. Tongwei Qiu & Xianlei Ma & Biliang Luo, 2022. "Are private property rights better? evidence from the marketization of land rentals in rural China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 875-902, May.
    13. Rohini Pande & Christopher Udry, 2005. "Institutions and Development:A View from Below," Working Papers 928, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    14. Ma, Xianlei & Heerink, Nico & van Ierlan, Ekko & Lang, Hairu & Shi, Xiaoping, 2015. "Impact of Tenure Security and Trust on Land Rental Market Development in Rural China," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212219, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Sitko, Nicholas J. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Hichaambwa, Munguzwe, 2014. "Does Smallholder Land Titling Facilitate Agricultural Growth?: An Analysis of the Determinants and Effects of Smallholder Land Titling in Zambia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 791-802.
    16. Deininger, Klaus & Hilhorst, Thea & Songwe, Vera, 2014. "Identifying and addressing land governance constraints to support intensification and land market operation: Evidence from 10 African countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 76-87.
    17. Bezabih, Mintewab & Kohlin, Gunnar & Mannberg, Andrea, 2011. "Trust, tenure insecurity, and land certification in rural Ethiopia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 833-843.
    18. Krul, Kees & Ho, Peter & Yang, Xiuyun, 2021. "Land titling as a conflict remedy or driver? Analyzing institutional outcomes through latent and manifest conflicts in China’s forest sector," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    19. Ravi Bhandari, 2006. "Searching for a Weapon of Mass Production in Nepal," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 22(2), pages 111-143, June.
    20. You, Heyuan & Zhang, Jinrong & Song, Yan, 2022. "Assessing conflict of farmland institutions using credibility theory: Implications for socially acceptable land use," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    21. Shunran Wang & Fangping Rao & Xianlei Ma & Xiaoping Shi, 2022. "Farmland Dispute Prevention: The Role of Land Titling, Social Capital and Household Capability," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:29:y:1998:i:1:p:81-106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.