ABSTRACT
The specter of paternalism haunts the literature, not only that of international agencies but also that of some private proponents of agrarian reform. Among the private agencies, Cornell at Vicos was interested in anthropological research, while Oxfam and the American Institute of Free Labor Development have political axes to grind. A number of international conferences on agrarian reform were initiated by the Wisconsin faculty during the 1950s. The implementation of land reform, the Bank argues, requires political will more than funding. In examining the Bank's meager participation, it is difficult to distinguish between support for agrarian reform and loans for agricultural development that might have been made in any event. The United Nations, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank reports as well as the Inter-American Committee of Agricultural Development studies leave no doubt that agrarian reform is deemed an integral process to be undertaken by the state in Third World countries.
