Property Rights and Poverty: Political Argument in Britain, 1605-1834

Redistributing land rights is a tricky subject and one that easily becomes controversial as recent experience has shown. This new book calmly examines the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of land redistribution.

A new understanding of the causes and consequences of incomplete property rights in countries across the world.

A renowned economist argues for the importance of property rights in "the most intelligent book yet written about the current challenge of establishing capitalism in the developing world" (Economist) "The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph," writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its hour of crisis." In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up one of the most pressing questions the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail? In strong opposition to the popular view that success is determined by cultural differences, de Soto finds that it actually has everything to do with the legal structure of property and property rights. Every developed nation in the world at one time went through the transformation from predominantly extralegal property arrangements, such as squatting on large estates, to a formal, unified legal property system. In the West we've forgotten that creating this system is what allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth. This persuasive book revolutionized our understanding of capital and points the way to a major transformation of the world economy.

Property Rights in the Late Medieval Discussion on Franciscan Poverty contributes to our understanding of the history of the concept of individual natural rights by tracing the controversies surrounding the Franciscan ideal of absolute poverty from the 1250s to the 1320s. Virpi Makinen, Th.D., analyzes the complex legal, moral, and theological arguments for and against the Franciscan ideal of giving up all rights over property - an ideal that the Franciscans argued was in perfect imitation of Christ and the Apostles. Makinen pays particular attention to the concepts of rights, especially to the distinctions between dominion (dominium), right (ius) and factual use (usus facti). She discusses the arguments made by both the defenders of the Franciscan claim of apostolic poverty (Bonaventure and Bonagratia of Bergamo) and the attackers, most of whom were secular clerics (such as William of Saint-Amour, Gerard of Abbeville, Henry of Ghent, and Godfrey of Fontaines). Makinen then analyzes the support the Order received from the papacy, and how this support was undermined by Pope John XXII's vehement attack on the Franciscans in the 1320s. The book shows how the debate concerning Franciscan poverty gave rise to a new language of rights, which paved the way to the idea of individual natural rights.

To improve their well-being, the poor in developing countries have used both collective action through formal and informal groups and property rights to natural resources. Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: Insights from Africa and Asia examines how these two types of institutions, separately and together, influence quality of life and how they can be strengthened to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. The product of a global research study by the Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, this book draws on case studies from East Africa and South and Southeast Asia to investigate how collective action and property rights have contributed to poverty reduction. The book extends the analysis of these institutions beyond their frequently studied role in natural resource management by also examining how they can reduce vulnerability to different types of shocks. Essays in the volume identify opportunities and risks present in the institutions of collective action and property rights. For example, property rights to natural resources can offer a variety of advantages, providing individuals and groups not only with benefits and incomes but also with assets that can counter the negative effects of shocks such as drought, and can make collective action easier. The authors also demonstrate that collective action has the potential to reduce poverty if it includes more vulnerable groups such as women, ethnic minorities, and the very poor. Preventing exclusion of these often-marginalized groups and guaranteeing genuinely inclusive collective action might require special rules and policies. Another danger to the poor is the capture of property rights by elites, which can be the result of privatization and decentralization policies; case studies and analysis identify actions to prevent such elite capture.