Privatization: The Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove?

Abstract

Property rights can be either collective or individual; they can denote different types of entitlement to use or benefit from a property; they can set different periods for the exercise of those entitlements; and they can incorporate or be free from restrictions on alienation. In the neo-liberal context, however, property rights understood as full individual title are considered the best means to increase investment and achieve social equity. This article evaluates the transformation of social property (i.e. that held by agrarian communities) into private property in Mexico. In particular, it examines how the implementation of this change in the urban periphery has transformed the social relations of property between ejidatarios and the low-income population and paved the way for development of a formal land market. In principle, the growing involvement of real estate capital in the land market on the urban periphery can yield economic benefit for the holders of agrarian land rights, but the findings of this study suggest that the prospect of their obtaining lasting gain is an illusion. The legal instruments created to facilitate the individualization of social property do not facilitate the capitalization of rural assets. On the contrary, they lead to a process of dispossession by which communities lose their land to the market, supporting the process of capitalist accumulation in urban areas. In addition, they hinder both the regularization of informal settlements and access to urban land by the poor.