Land Ownership and the Social System

This is a fundamental inquiry in "alternative economics" concerned with land tenure. It holds that land should be treated as a public utility and community resource, not a private commodity. It holds that public ownership of land and, for privates uses, its management on long-term leases, can be, under optimum policies, a superior framework for reconciling legitimate private interests with equally legitimate societal interests. In practice, however, optimum policies are often not followed. This book examines in detail a long record of practical experience in order to identify both potential advantages and potential difficulties of such public-leaseholdsystems of land tenure. It brings together detailed data and expert views on municipal ownership of land, in Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland; on provincial ownership of mineral rights in Canada; and on public ownership of agricultural land, beyond grazing lands, in Saskatchewan and Hawaii. It also focuses on problems of inner-cities in the United States. It holds that a very large factor in these problems, including school systems, is extreme economic segregation in residential patterns, which has cultural consequences. It traces a deep-seated connection between residential patterns and the type of land tenure. To place credit-card orders: Visit web-site at http//www.atlasbooks.com/marktplc/00706.htm. Or telephone toll free 1-800-247-6553.Stauber, Leland G. is the author of 'Land Ownership and the Social System' with ISBN 9780962072017 and ISBN 096207201X.