Description:
Tomas Larsson argues that institutional underdevelopment may prove, under certain circumstances, a strategic advantage rather than a weakness and that external threats play an important role in shaping the development of property regimes.
Brief description: Tomas Larsson is Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge.
Review Quotes:
In this excellent book, Tomas Larsson seeks to explain the origins of effective formal property rights to land in Thailand.... His highly original approach to the question is a model of concise, analytically-driven historical research... Land and Loyalty makes an original and stimulating contribution not just to the understanding of land rights in Thailand but to much broader debates over political economy, development, and state formation. It makes a sophisticated set of arguments without sacrificing readability, and it is packed with fascinating historical detail.
--Derek Hall "Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde [Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia]"