ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comparative study of agricultural privatization in Latvia and Lithuania. It focuses on the policy environment and the mechanics of the process of privatization and on competition between involved interest groups. The Baltic countries have been Soviet Republics and not independent states. The process of collectivization of agriculture started at that time and resumed when the Soviet Union regained control over the Baltic territory. In the spring of 1990 the residents of Lithuania as well as the residents of other Baltic Soviet Socialist Republics elected deputies to the Republics’ Supreme Soviets. The process of privatization of agriculture in Lithuania, as well as in the other Baltic countries, began during the Soviet period, in 1989 with the Law of Peasant Farming. The Baltic countries, in particular Latvia, went through a process of fast industrialization and urbanization. Territorial claims against the Baltic countries have not been made by politicians in other neighboring countries.
