Motoki Takahashi

According to convetional development studies, property rights, which determines people’s access to resources, provides agents with security and incentives for economic activities . These justifications of property rights have rarely been questioned. In the case of the modern property right system, however, individuality and exclusiveness are essential and hence tensions often occur between agents with different stakes, when the system is newly introduced. Since the modern property right system is introduced by underpinning of the state power, people who had seldom been affected by the state power come to be under the influence of the state politics, no matter whether they like it or not. Inter-group tensions and competitions over the state power, especially “tribalist” conflicts can be regarded as outcomes of the said situation brought about by premature introduction of the modern property right system. Research will be conducted to verify applicability of these hypotheses to contemporary African societies where scarcity of land is deepening and land grab are widely taking place, with focus on Kenya, which has already introduced individual land ownership system.