Institutional traps of land reform in the context of land ownership changes

Abstract

The article considers topical issues of institutional support of land reform in Ukraine in the context of changes in ownership of land. The purpose of the research is to disclose the essence and significance of land ownership institutions to avoid institutional traps associated with the change of forms of land ownership at the final stage of land reform in Ukraine. It is shown that agricultural land is the largest natural wealth of Ukraine, so it should be used as rationally as possible. It is proved that the land reform was to be carried out as successfully as possible in the transition to market relations. The need to transform old and create new institutions or "rules of the game" in land relations, in particular, property institutions on agricultural land, is justified. It is noted that among these institutions there are also those that produce negative results; V.M. Polterovich defines them as institutional traps. It is found that institutional traps were caused by the uncritical application of the theory of neoliberalism on total deregulation of economic, including land, relations during the implementation of land reform in Ukraine. Institutional traps that appeared as a result of the transformation of popular land ownership into communal and private land, in particular, such as: violation of constitutional norms on universal land ownership; the appearance of dissonant norms of land ownership; overestimation of the land appropriation transaction and the background of underestimation of the transaction for its effective use; legalization of illegally obtained and purchased land plots; transfer of land from state property to communal to simplify their privatization schemes; theft of subsoil under the form of acquisition of land plots; increase of land fraud from registration of land owners and tenants; activation of land raiding; underestimation of land value due to infringement of ownership; understatement of the role of the state in protecting the ownership of land. Ways of avoidance and smoothing of institutional traps associated with transactions to change forms of ownership of land are proposed. The emphasis is on the transactions of effective use of agricultural land, and not the transaction of ownership of them. Key words: land reform, market turnover of agricultural land, institute, institutional trap, form of ownership of land (state, communal, private).