Introduction

This is a study of the struggle over land reform policy in Brazil during the 1960s. Its primary purpose is to provide insight into the workings of the Brazilian political system in general and the policy process in particular at a time when Brazil was undergoing a major crisis of regime. In this sense, this volume is not so much a study of agriculture and agrarian reform as it is a policy analysis in which land reform functions as an especially sensitive lens through which the workings of the political system can be examined. For this reason, matters such as rural social conditions and agricultural productivity are touched on only tangentially and for the limited purpose of providing a backdrop against which the agrarian struggle developed. Similarly, although the treatment of rural social structure and movements is more detailed, its primary purpose is to enhance our understanding of the impact of social actors on the policy process. Consequently, this is not primarily a study of peasant movements, or even, in any explicit sense, of rural development and politicization, although both have an important bearing on the issue. Discussion of the nature and significance of the Land Statute which was ultimately enacted by the military government in 21964, is undertaken more to assess its impact on the political system and on the distribution of power, rather than on rural development.