Democratization and Land Reform Accomplishment in the Philippines

Abstract

Does democratization lead to land reform accomplishment? In the literature, there is no consensus. Three possibilities exist: democracy causes increased land redistributions, is merely correlated with it, or is not associated with the transfer of physical assets at all. To choose between possibilities, I conduct a detailed qualitative analysis of land-tenure patterns and reform initiatives from colonial times to the present. I also compile a dataset from original and secondary sources in order to report Philippine land-redistribution accomplishment. I have descriptive statistics of accomplishment from 1960 to the present and more comprehensive data from 1972 to 2003. The descriptive statistics that I collected show a pattern that is consistent with a positive relationship between democracy and land redistribution. I then turn my attention to the mechanism. Is it plausible that elections explain reform? Do peasants insist upon land transfers? I find evidence to suggest that this is, in fact, the case. My first set of results tests whether land transfers are correlated with agricultural population. Due to data limitations, this analysis is conducted in cross section. Consistent with the idea that a democratic government would be responsive to the interests of the public, results show that the government redistributed a greater share of the targeted land in provinces in which a greater share of the population worked in agriculture. My second set of results exploits the availability of time-series cross-sectional data for leaseholds. My analysis shows that as agriculture becomes more important to the regional economy — and to regional voters — the government responds by increasing the rate at which leaseholds are created above the rate that might be expected from the rate seen the previous year.