Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies
Conversations with award winning political scientist Dr. Michael Albertus
I’m thinking a lot about land lately. As a historian, one of the things that becomes immediately apparent is how the desire for land motivates people and government to transform their own lands or obtain new lands through diplomacy, economic exchange, or warfare. But land doesn’t just sit there, does it? It gives meaning to life. It informs who we are via our connections to it. It provides for us in terms of food, but also of labor and even in terms of spirituality. Ask almost anyone who they are and they will tell you where they are from. The land makes us who we are on so many levels.
But land is hotly contested these days, isn’t it? Do nations seek out new lands? Do they expand their empires and if so, what do those new spaces allow them to do? How do we as a species confront the fact that there are over 8 billion of us on the planet and that unlike our population, the lands available to support us do no increase? Can we undo some of the damage that has been wrought upon the earth’s grasslands, mountains, forests, streams, and waters? These are some of the things I am thinking about.
Fortunately for us, there is Dr. Michael Albertus, who is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Mike just wrote a new book entitled Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How that Determines the Fate of Societies. I invited Mike on to talk about all the questions I had, plus a bunch more he posed in his new book, such as how land ownership intersects with social hierarchies, racial dynamics, and identity. We also talk about the historical evolution of land ownership, the implications of what he calls the Great Reshuffle, as well as ongoing contestations over land rights, the importance of co-stewardship, and actually some global wins where land has been used as a solution to social and environmental issues.
About our guest:
Michael Albertus is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He studies how countries allocate opportunity and well-being among their citizens and the consequences this has for society, why some countries are democratic and others aren't, and why some societies fall into civil conflict.
His newest book in press, Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies (Basic Books, 2025), examines how land became power, how it shapes power, and how who holds that power determines the fundamental social problems that societies grapple with. He is also the author of Property without Rights: Origins and Consequences of the Property Rights Gap, Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy, Coercive Distribution, and Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform. Autocracy and Redistribution and Property Without Rights both won several book awards.
You can find Mike on Blue Sky at mikealbertus.bsky.social
If you’re interested in more of his work, he also has a substack which I recommend. It’s called The Good Society.
This is a really cool and timely conversation and I hope you like it.
Hey, thanks for being here.
Jason