Land reform in Kiravia

Land reform in Kiravia was a process that unfolded mainly during the 20th century AD as part of the agricultural policy of both the Kiravian Remnant and Kiravian Union. Both governments pursued land reform more or less concurrently, but proceeding from different ideological bases and utilising different methods to implement their desired reforms.

Kiravian Union

Land reform in the Kiravian Union was motivated by core socialist principles mandating the democratisation of the means of production. However, there were differences of opinion within the ruling Kirosocialist Party over the proper manner of land reform: Members from the Convist and social-nationalist wings of the party favoured seizing large estates and subdividing them into smallholds in which farmers would be given life tenancy or usufruct rights; members from the Devinist wing favoured comprehensive collectivisation of agriculture, extending even to existing smallholds and pastoral operations. The former position would prevail after the Swimming Pool Coup, except in South Kirav, which would be extensively collectivised even after the fall of the Devinite faction from primacy.

Sydona

Sydona had a much deeper entrenchment of proper fœdalism than did Great Kirav or the Overseas Regions, an much of its land belonged to the Elamite Order or other religious institutes suppressed by the Sydosocialists. As such, the scope of land reform and collectivisation in Sydona was much wider an its effects more dramatic in Sydona than on the Mainland or in the Remnant.

Kiravian Remnant

Land reform in the Kiravian Remnant was ideologically justified by the incorporation of Georgist economic theories into the platform of the ruling Renaissance Party and was further conditioned by the distributist ideals of its junior partner, the Christian Democrats. Politically, it faced opposition from elements of the Kiravian Old Right and the United Empire Loyalists on Æonara, but the laws were forced through by Séan Kæśek during the period of martial law and were eventually accepted as fait accompli after the end of martial law once permanent compensation funds were established.

Land reform in the Remnant was targeted at Æonara and Sarolasta, where large plantations and similarly-sized "supply estates" occupied much of the arable land. It was deemed unnecessary in the Remnant's temperate territories and in Saint Kennera, which were settled mainly by smallholders. Less ambitious, more gradual land reform would be implemented in the Krasoa Islands in the 1960s.

Æonara

Land reform began in 1949 with the in 1949, Field Rent Control Act, which capped farm rents at 37.5% of yields. This was followed by the Cultivator Tenancy Act of 1950, which allowed for farm rent forgiveness by Prime Executive proclamation during natural disasters, promoted farmers' associations, and strengthened tenant farmers' protections against eviction. The Cultivator Tenancy Act helped to accelerate acquiescence to land reform by making large landholdings more of a financial liability. Collegial ordinances began to be issued in 1951 to effect the sale of arable land owned by the General Land Bureau (that is, federal revenue land) to former tenant farmers so that they might become owner-cultivators.

Confiscatory land reform and the breakup of large estates by government fiat would not begin until 1953. Such measures were opposed by members of the Kiravian Old Right, the United Empire Loyalists, the Æonaran timocracy, and (to a more limited extent) former landowning emigrés from the Mainland standing on principle. On the other hand, they were supported by the core cadre of the Renaissance Party, the Freesoil Councils (the Party's cultivators' wing), the UAP, and the Christian Democrats, to say nothing of the Æonaran tenant farmer populace.

Monocrop plantations producing certain cash crops - most importantly coffee - were exempt from most reforms. In addition to ensuring minimal disruption to the business model of an important export-oriented part of the agricultural sector during a crucial economic transition, this limitation on land reform helped to blunt much of the political opposition to land reform by demobilising the influential coffee planters (many of whom were Empire Loyalists) against the reform legislation.