Agrarian Capitalism, Property Rights, and Rural Class Behavior

Abstract

The research examines the relationship between class behavior and agrarian capitalism. Agrarian capitalism is a mode of production in which the forms of production vary according to the internal distribution of property rights and market involvement. Property rights are defined as appropriated advantages to dispose of valued goods for gain: land, labor, capital goods, the technology of husbandry and the enterprise produce. Bundles of these rights define enterprise types. Two general hypotheses are tested: the greater the engagement of the enterprise in the market, the greater the potential for political activity: the greater the alienation of property rights from the cultivator/worker, the more likely the commitment to redistributive politics. Additional hypotheses are tested by Latent Variable Path Analysis with data from Argentina between 1908 and 1946.