Inalienable Properties
The Political Economy of Indigenous Land Reform
Inalienable Properties explores the contrasting approaches taken by local leaders to property rights and development in four Indigenous communities.
Description
Inalienable Properties explores contrasting approaches to property rights by four Indigenous communities to illustrate how inalienability – restrictions on the ability to buy and sell land – is linked to community leadership and decision-making structures that have long-lasting consequences for communities. Drawing on new research about institutional change in organizational settings, Jamie Baxter explores when and how community leaders have sustained inalienable land rights without turning to either persuasion or coercive force – the two levers of power normally associated with political leadership. He also challenges the view that liberalized land markets are the inevitable result of legal and economic change.
Reviews
Baxter provides a useful summary of this history and the current state of these regimes - not an easy feat given such a complex history and diverse political geography.
- Jonathon Boron, Simon Fraser University