An Institutional Transactions Approach to Property-Rights Adjustment: An Application to Spanish Agriculture

Abstract

European agriculture is undergoing major institutional changes, which are of great relevance to our understanding of the role of agriculture in rural development. They are also taking place in contexts in which agricultural development seems to be continuing within the traditional modernisation paradigm. This is the case for agriculture in Spain. The authors develop a theoretical scheme based on the concepts of institutional transactions and institutional arrangements which may be relevant across a variety of contexts. This approach is applied through an analysis of Spanish agriculture, concentrating on (a) changes introduced through the regulation of the environmental impacts of agriculture, (b) new schemes for the control of food quality and altered relations in the food-marketing chains, and (c) shifts deriving from changes to the major support mechanisms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Spanish agriculture is becoming increasingly embedded in the food-production process, and this is associated with a dissipation of property rights from the production sector. The analysis illustrates the usefulness of the approach, although identification of the specific nature of some institutional transactions remains uncertain. Applications in other countries and at more local levels will facilitate regional and international comparisons of the restructuring processes underway in differing contexts.