1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451954103321

Autore

Larsson Tomas <1966->

Titolo

Land and loyalty [[electronic resource] ] : security and the development of property rights in Thailand / / Tomas Larsson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, : Cornell University Press, 2012

ISBN

0-8014-6455-2

0-8014-6408-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white)

Collana

Cornell studies in political economy

Disciplina

333.309593

Soggetti

Land tenure - Economic aspects - Thailand

Economic development - Thailand

Capitalism - Thailand

Electronic books.

Thailand Economic policy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Securitization and Institutional Development -- 2. Capitalizing Thailand -- 3. Weapon of a Weak State -- 4. Conserving Smallholder Society -- 5. Combating Specters and Communists -- 6. Old Solutions, New Challenges -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.