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.

About the Author

Tomas Larsson is Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge.

Reviews

In this excellent book, Tomas Larsson seeks to explain the origins of effective formal property rights to land in Thailand.... His highly original approach to the question is a model of concise, analytically-driven historical research... Land and Loyalty makes an original and stimulating contribution not just to the understanding of land rights in Thailand but to much broader debates over political economy, development, and state formation. It makes a sophisticated set of arguments without sacrificing readability, and it is packed with fascinating historical detail.

-- Derek Hall * Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde [Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia] *

Is the rhetoric that 'farmers are the backbone of the Thai nation' still relevant today? Larsson offers a nuanced analysis of the emergence of the Thai state very much in conversation with recent critical scholarship examining how and why appeals to such rhetoric continue to legitimize the disparate work and goals of multiple state and non-state actors within Thailand.... While written for a broader political economy of development audience, the detailed archival work and innovative arguments mean that this book should be required reading for scholars with an interest in agrarian history as well as those with interest in the relationships between the Thai state and its 'backbone.'.

-- Vanessa Lamb * Journal of Southeast Asian Studies *

This book is a valuable addition to the slight literature on land policy in Thailand. The narrative on the making of land policy extends significantly beyond earlier studies and has many new revelations. Larsson points up his arguments by comparisons with parallel cases in Japan, Burma, and the Philippines.

-- Chris Baker * Asian-Pacific Economic Literature *

This book is well-written, clearly organized, and based on a hefty array of sources, including court and government documents. The nuanced argument is carefully traced throughout the book. The emphasis on perceived security concerns to fend off colonial, capitalist and communist threats is warranted.... I strongly recommend Land and Loyalty to scholars of property rights and state formation. This is a good book to think with.

-- Janet C. Sturgeon * Pacific Affairs *

With Land and Loyalty: Security and the Development of Property Rights in Thailand, political scientist Tomas Larsson presents an original and provocative study on thehistorical origins of Thailand's property rights regime.

-- Keith Barney * Journal of Asian Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801450815
Author Tomas Larsson
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 21mm