Land taxation as a tool to ensure sustainable development of rural areas in the context of decentralization

The article considers land taxation as one of the tools to ensure the sustainable development of rural areas in the context of decentralization. Included land tax and rent for land plots of state and communal property and a single tax for agricultural producers as land tax payments has been proposed. It was found that the land fee is the second-largest source of tax revenues to local budgets. It was revealed that during 2009–2020 there is a tendency to increase revenues from land fees to local budgets of Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on the fact that there is an increase in rent payments by legal entities and individuals in parallel with a decrease in its share in the payment for land, which is caused by an increase in land tax revenues during the analyzed period by 4.5 times. It was found that the largest amounts of revenues from land fees are payments from legal entities (86–88 % of the total revenues). It was found that the number of revenues from land tax and rent for land plots of state and communal property paid by individuals increased 4.5 times, and the number of revenues from similar taxes from legal entities increased 3.6 times. As a result of the study, attention is focused on the fact that since 2015 the payment for land has been transferred from the status of a national tax to a local one. It is proved that to tax the regulation of agricultural land use and promotes the development of agriculture and rural areas in 1998, a fixed agricultural tax was introduced. It was found that the number of receipts of the single tax paid by agricultural producers in 2015 increased 17 times compared to 2014. The sharp increase is caused by the introduction of the annual indexation of the tax base for agricultural enterprises, and a threefold increase in tax rates is justified. To achieve the goals of sustainable development of rural areas, it is proposed to carry out such measures as the application of increasing coefficients for irrational use of agricultural lands, provision of benefits for organic agricultural producers, implementation of the full inventory of agricultural lands, improvement of normative monetary valuation of land use for land and/or the single tax of the fourth group for the implementation of measures for the protection and reproduction of land resources, which will increase employment in rural areas, overcome poverty, develop social infrastructure, ensure the livelihood of rural residents, food, economic and environmental security, reduce destructive effects on the environment, protection and reproduction of natural resource potential.

Origins of the Mass Party

This book argues that the mass party emerged as the product of two distinct but related “primitive accumulations”—the dismantling of communal land tenure and the corresponding dispossession of the means of local administration. It illustrates this argument by studying the party central to one of the longest regimes of the 20th century—the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in Mexico, which emerged as a mass party during the 1930s and 1940s. I place the PRI in comparative perspective, studying the failed emergence of Bolivia’s Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) (1952–64), attempted under similar conditions as the Mexican case. Why was party emergence successful in one case but not the other? The PRI emerged as a mass party in areas in Mexico where land privatization was more intensive and communal village government was weakened, enabling the party’s construction and subsequent absorption of peasant unions and organizations. Ultimately, the overall strength of communal property-holding and concomitant traditional political authority structures blocked the emergence of the MNR as a mass party. Where economic and political expropriation was more pronounced, there was a critical mass of individuals available for political organization, with articulatable interests, and a burgeoning cast of professional politicians that facilitated connections between the party and the peasantry.

The Failure of Party Formation in Bolivia

This chapter explores the role of persistent traditional agrarian structures on party organization. Land privatization was considerably less extensive in Bolivia when compared to Mexico. Through agrarian census materials and archival evidence of attempted electoral mobilization and peasant union construction, the chapter show how the regions in the country with relatively higher levels of communal land tenure and strong traditional authority structures were places where it was essentially impossible for the MNR to establish sustainable links to a mass base. In regions with less communal property holding, the MNR developed close links to existing and emerging peasant unions. Ultimately, these regions were not large enough as in the Mexican case to sustain stable party formation.

Indigenous Communities of the Lhaka Honhat (Our Land) Association v. Argentina

On February 6, 2020, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court) declared in Lhaka Honhat Association v. Argentina that Argentina violated Indigenous groups’ rights to communal property, a healthy environment, cultural identity, food, and water. For the first time in a contentious case, the Court analyzed these rights autonomously based on Article 26 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) and ordered specific restitution measures, including actions to provide access to adequate food and water, and the recovery of forest resources and Indigenous culture. The decision marks a significant milestone for protecting Indigenous peoples’ rights and expanding the autonomous rights to a healthy environment, water, and food, which are now directly justiciable under the Inter-American human rights system.

Towards Safeguarding Rural Communities’ Social and Economic Interests Through Communal Property Law

South Africa’s incessant Corporate Law Reforms do offer vast opportunities for rural communities to be actively involved in their own social and economic development. This article discusses the practicability of using a private company to promote and develop social and economic interests of rural communities. The fundamental question is: what constitute proper administration and socio-economic development in a rural context? It takes into account, the fact that the post-1994 democratic dispensation has made some effort to develop and strengthen the constitutional property rights, and the social and economic development of the previously disadvantaged rural communities. This encompassed the idea of, somewhat, relying on civil society institutions to manage and develop property rights of rural communities. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the success thereof is dubious since the development and operation of civil society institutions in these communities are constantly under threat and undermined by the tenacity of conflicts between administrators and the traditional leadership. It is asserted that there is an incessant need to resolve fundamental aspects relating to law, application of legal norms and achievement of social justice in a rural context.

Methodology of Application of Modern Technologies in Land Inventory of Territorial Communities

The article defines that the land inventory allows to form land plots of state and communal property, to fill the State Land Cadastre with information about objects and subjects of land relations and to eliminate existing errors. The aim of the article is to improve the procedure of conducting the land inventory in Ukraine, taking into account modern technologies within the current regulatory framework. The methodology of land inventory using modern technologies has been developed, which includes the following components: surveying of the inventory object, topographic and geodetic works, vectorization of its territory using remote sensing data, project works, creation of a consolidated inventory plan, development of technical documentation, its state expertise, adjustment and approval, entering data into the State Land Cadastre. It is established that an effective method of implementation of topographic and geodetic works during updating of the cartographic materials is a combined method, which includes the use of aerial images with simultaneous geodetic surveying of complex areas. The use of geoinformation technologies and remote sensing data is allowed to optimize the duration and frequency of land inventory. In particular, the classification of land should be performed in the attribute tables. Ways to solve problems of protection and rational use of the lands of the inventory object have been developed. They include registration of land plots without cadastral numbers; control of compliance of land and environmental legislation, taking into account the results of land inventory for updating statistical cadastral information and making changes of the State Land Cadastre data.

Establishment of legal regulation in the field of identified the status of territorial communities as subjects of communal ownership on land

The article examines the formation of communal land ownership law, formation of legal regulation in the field of consolidating the status of territorial communities as subjects of communal property, the impact of decentralization of powers processes on resolving the issue of the legal regime of territorial communities’ lands and united territorial communities’ lands, determination of scientific approaches to the formation of the model of communal land ownership law in Ukraine. It is updated the legislator’s inconsistency in determining the principles of building the institution of communal land ownership law, lack of a well-founded concept of communal property law, legislative contradictions of approaches to the creation of sustainable local self-government in Ukraine, based on the priority of land interests of territorial communities. Scientific attention is paid to preconditions for determining the constitutional status of territorial communities, legislative consolidation of the grounds for the formation of communal land ownership in the state, solving the problem of the definition of «communal land ownership law» absence in current legislation. Focused attention on legitimization of the powers to exercise the communal property law through the solution of the issue of land and legal competence of territorial communities, improvement of their status as subjects, who exercise the right of communal ownership of land directly or through local governments, the exercise of the right of communal ownership of land in the ways specified in the land law. According to the study it is established that the Constitution of Ukraine has provided the necessary prerequisites for the formation of a fundamentally new land system in the field of communal property on the land of communities. An important scientific task in modern conditions is improving the legal regulation of land and legal competence of territorial communities as subjects of communal land ownership for the sustainable development of territories. It is determined that the acceleration of administrative and land reforms will contribute to the full legitimization of the united territorial communities and the formation of territorial communities as equal subjects of land ownership. Keywords: territorial communities, decentralization, local government reform, communal land ownership

The Question of Sharing: Thomas Jefferson and the Idea of Communal Property

Drawing from archival research, this article explores Thomas Jefferson’s understanding of property and his embrace of a political community defined by communal sharing. Tracing the evolution of Jefferson’s view on property holdings from the Anglo-Saxons to the American colonies to his speculative vision of ward republics, this paper argues that fears concerning economic and property inequities in the early republic compelled the principal author of the Declaration of Independence to endorse small, communal experiments. Importantly, this reading of Jefferson problematizes strict liberal or republican interpretations of his thought, further calling into question the philosophical heritage of the American republic. By evaluating personal letters from 1804 to 1824, this article offers an alternative reading of Jefferson, one that carefully showcases his wholly original, compelling, and radical democratic thinking. The significance of this heterodox interpretation has far-reaching implications on our understanding of the foundational principles of the early republic as well as how we address the issue of economic inequality in the modern-day United States.

Hutterites in Moravia

The Hutterites endured generations of persecution, forced migration, as well as loss of property and legal recourse often resulting in desperate poverty. Although plagued by internal conflicts from the beginning, they represented the most radical and most creative form of communal support in the sixteenth century. While religion was the reason for their suffering, it was also the reason for their resilience. As recorded in The Chronicle, Hutterites highlighted their trials and tribulations, as well as their successful reconciliation with other factions. Their leaders, such as Jacob Hutter, Peter Riedemann, and Peter Walpot provided the theological rationale for the practice of the community of goods, which required the total sharing of goods to care for the entire community. The surrender of all temporal goods was a requirement to join the Hutterite colonies (Bruderhof). This practice of communal property became the central marker of Hutterite piety as designated leaders managed the collective resources to alleviate the needs of their community.

Kształtowanie się pojęcia mienia komunalnego samorządu terytorialnego stopnia podstawowego

The article presents the genesis and evolution of shaping the institution of municipal property of local government. The shaping of the legal institution of municipal property was presented against the background of the systemic change as a result of the changes and reforms initiated as a result of the 1989 ‘round table’, which also defined the principles of building a new local government system based on the legal and systemic model of European local self-government (municipal ) and its guiding principles. As a result of the introduced statutory regulations, in 1990, the first degree of local self-government was introduced, equipping communes (cities) and their associations as well as established legal entities with communal property. It should be mentioned that the acquisition of communal property, apart from the civil legal nature, also had a significant systemic significance guaranteeing the local government political, political and economic independence. The work presents the legal status of communal property, the procedure for its acquisition and the procedure of enfranchisement of communal entities under the first degree of local authority.