Economics
The Political Economy of Land Reform in Post-Colonial States
Quick fact
Despite being a former colony with massive land inequality, Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1970s promoted land reform to the Amazon frontier, but only to relieve social pressure in the Northeast—shifting the problem, not solving it.
Why this is interesting
Why do some post-colonial nations split up vast estates while others never manage to touch land distribution? The answer lies not in economics alone, but in a tangle of political bargains and historical grudges.