Autocracy and Redistribution

Michael Albertus is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His research interests include redistribution, political regime transitions and regime stability, politics under dictatorship, clientelism, and conflict. Albertus' most recent work has been published in journals such as the British Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Comparative Political Studies, Economics and Politics and Comparative Politics. He has also conducted extensive field research throughout Latin America.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Actors, interests, and the origins of elite splits; 3. A theory of land reform; 4. Measuring land reform; 5. A cross-national analysis of land reform in Latin America; 6. Elite splits and land redistribution under autocracy: Peru's 'revolution from above'; 7. Land reform transformed to redistribution: Venezuela's Punto Fijo democracy and Chávez's Bolivarian revolution; 8. Latin America in comparative perspective; 9. Conclusion.

'This book is an exceptional achievement. It combines theoretical and methodological sophistication with empirical richness. Albertus demonstrates that land redistribution is more likely under dictatorship than democracy and builds a persuasive argument about why that is the case. The book is an outstanding contribution to the literatures on land redistribution, democracies and dictatorships, political economy, and Latin American politics.' Scott Mainwaring, Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame