City growth and community-owned land in Mexico City

Abstract

Sixteen years after the promulgation of the reforms to Article 27 that regulates land tenure in Mexico, there is consensus among political authorities, public officials, private investors, and scholars that the outcomes have been completely different than were predicted. In spite of the important changes produced in the legal status, internal organization, and governmental interactions of the agrarian communities, these changes have not translated into a massive privatization of ejido lands, and the incorporation of social land into urban development is far below what was expected. Furthermore, new forms of illegal social land sales emerged as a response to the privatization initiative. In addition to the economic and legal arguments typically used to explain this phenomenon, this research identifies three key factors that also have a strong influence in the ejidos' behavior towards land privatization: the hindering effect of community participation on privatization; the permanence of a clientelistic relationship between ejidos and government; and agrarian communities' cultural attachment to land. These factors reflect the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the ejidos, something that the ideologues did not take into account when they defined the mechanisms for land liberalization. Key words: urban expansion, Mexico City, ejidos, Article 27, informal market, regularization, clientelism.