On the necessity of a land reform in Spain (1931-36). Some critical considerations

Land reform in Spain is usually considered as something negative, being this approach reinforced by both the shortness and the violent interruption of the Second Spanish Republic regime. This paper analyses some of the dissenting literature in Spanish agrarian reformism. We first refer to those opinions which, despite their critical nature, do not question the importance of the land problem in the thirties, and afterwards we analyze those which tend to minimize it. Most works belonging to the first category are primarily concerned with criticizing productivism. More specifically, they have focused on demonstrating the logic and the efficiency of large estates while maintaining a certain degree of skepticism about the idea of land redistribution as a driver of agricultural development. On the other hand, most investigations belonging to the second field of literature argue that markets were relatively efficient and therefore land reform was unnecessary or even counter-productive. Our goal is to demonstrate the feasibility and appropriateness of the Spanish land reform in the political context of the thirties.