R

The three key concepts in this chapter are reconcentration, (re)distributive reforms and restitution. Collectively, these concepts show that understanding whether or not reforms benefit the working people can be s.een by tracing the direction of land control change. Reconcentration shows that many land policies, some of which are even billed as pro-poor, resulted, intentionally or unintentionally, in benefitting elites, and instead of democratizing access to land, these resulted in further reconcentrating land in the hands of the few. The concept of redistributive reforms is the opposite, and here, it is discussed what are the defining features of redistributive policies. Finally, the sheer number of people in the world who would, objectively, require and benefit from land restitution is huge, making this policy one of the most compelling and urgent ones. Unfortunately, it is also the least common, and the few existing restitution policies are interpreted rather in problematic way.