Throughout the country’s history, agrarian reform in the Philippines has long been a combative issue and one that is often preceded by some form of instability and violence. Used mainly as a tool to garner grassroots support, agrarian reforms were formally institutionalized by setting up regulations on land size and contracts. Despite efforts to integrate the reforms to the markets, including the clustering of small hectares (ha) of land into large corporate estates, the benefits of the Agrarian Reform Program remained elusive under conservative demarcations set by regulations, including the definition of property rights, transformation or maintenance of state structures and the contract limitations to be formed at the production level. Land continues to be redistributed favorably to former landowner elites. This study finds that inequality in land ownership persists as the institutions set de facto political power to the elites. Under this condition, the equitable redistribution of land is an impossibility. The Philippine Agrarian Reform Programs have been hampered by high transaction costs and inadequate credible commitments, thus resulting in the erosion of market forces and elite capture of institutions. Based on agency theory, the existing regulation-based programme, which relies on the state’s power to expropriate, should give away to a more demand-driven, community-led Agrarian Reform Program that gives the parties more space to negotiate and bargain about the final allocation of the land. This involves the promulgation of relational contracts and the creation of more democratic institutions.

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土地改革与民主：菲律宾的经验教训

纵观整个国家的历史，菲律宾的土地改革长期以来一直是一个充满挑战的问题，并且在此之前常常伴随着某种形式的不稳定和暴力。土地改革主要是作为获得基层支持的工具，通过制定土地面积和合同规定而正式制度化。尽管已努力将改革整合到市场中，包括将小公顷的土地集结成大型公司地产，但在法规（包括产权的定义，转型）规定的保守划分下，土地改革计划的收益仍然难以捉摸或维护国家结构以及在生产级别上要形成的合同限制。土地继续被有利地重新分配给了前地主精英。这项研究发现，随着制度赋予精英阶层事实上的政治权力，土地所有权的不平等现象依然存在。在这种情况下，不可能公平地分配土地。菲律宾的土地改革计划由于交易成本高和可信承诺不足而受到阻碍，从而导致市场力量的侵蚀和机构的精英占领。基于代理理论，现有的基于法规的计划（依赖国家的征用权）应放弃以需求为导向，社区主导的土地改革计划，该计划为双方提供了更多的空间来就最终协议进行谈判和讨价还价。分配土地。这包括颁布关系合同和建立更民主的机构。