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Stand and Deliver: Private Property and the Politics of Global Dispossession

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  • Stefan Andreasson

Abstract

Property rights necessarily generate violent, and oftentimes lethal, processes of dispossession. While liberal theorists from Locke to Hayek consider property rights as an essential and emancipatory component of human freedom, they fail to consider societal power asymmetries impeding the ability of property rights to protect the interests of the weak and marginalised. If property rights produce freedom and prosperity, they do so very selectively. More obvious is the ongoing historical process of already propertied classes making ‘clever usurpation into an irrevocable right’ by extending private property regimes along two key dimensions – type and space. Examining various uses of private property over time reveals processes whereby relatively basic notions of private property, enforced by a Weberian state at the local level in the early era of industrialisation, are extended to encompass new and sophisticated forms of property that are enforced globally via international institutions. Two contemporary empirical cases of using property rights are examined in this paper: land reform in Southern Africa (specifically Zimbabwe) and intellectual property rights. In this context of ongoing dispossession, further privatisation and commodification can only exacerbate contemporary problems of marginalisation and dispossession.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Andreasson, 2006. "Stand and Deliver: Private Property and the Politics of Global Dispossession," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54(1), pages 3-22, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:54:y:2006:i:1:p:3-22
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00563.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Katz, Claudio J., 1997. "Private Property versus Markets: Democratic and Communitarian Critiques of Capitalism," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 91(2), pages 277-289, June.
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    4. Wade, Robert Hunter, 2003. "What strategies are viable for developing countries today? The World Trade Organization and the shrinking of ‘development space’," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28239, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Lloyd Sachikonye, 2002. "Whither Zimbabwe? crisis & democratisation," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(91), pages 13-20.
    6. Harvey, David, 2005. "The New Imperialism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199278084, Decembrie.
    7. Lall, Sanjaya, 2003. "Indicators of the relative importance of IPRs in developing countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1657-1680, October.
    8. Ruth Hall, 2004. "A Political economy of land reform in South Africa," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(100), pages 213-227, June.
    9. Sarah Bracking & Graham Harrison, 2003. "Africa, Imperialism & New Forms of Accumulation," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(95), pages 5-10, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Michael Webber, 2012. "Making Capitalism in Rural China," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14446.
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    3. Marc Wegerif & Mohamed Coulibaly & Hubert Ouedraogo, 2025. "Land Tenure Governance in the First Decades of the 21st Century: Progress, Challenges, and Lessons from 18 Countries," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, March.

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