On March 6, 2025, Michael Albertus, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, presented his research at CDDRL’s weekly seminar. His talk, based on his book Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies, examined how land ownership shapes political and economic hierarchies across history and in contemporary societies. Tracing land’s role as a source of power, Albertus analyzed how its distribution affects governance, social stratification, and conflict.

The talk analyzed land’s historical trajectory as a determinant of power. Sedentary societies emerged around 10,000 BC, followed by the development of permanent agricultural towns and the plow around 5,000 BC. By 3,000 BC, conflicts over land were already shaping political landscapes, as seen in Mesopotamian disputes. By 70 BC, Roman law had formalized land transactions, establishing legal frameworks that would influence future ownership systems. Throughout history, land has not only provided economic sustenance but has also been a critical tool for political control, determining who wields power in society.

A central argument of Albertus’s talk was the concept of the “Great Reshuffle,” a period of significant transformation in land ownership patterns over the past two centuries. Driven by population growth, state-building, and social conflict, this process has reshaped the global distribution of land, often exacerbating existing inequalities. Albertus identified four primary consequences of this upheaval: the reinforcement of racial hierarchies, gender disparities in land rights, economic underdevelopment, and environmental degradation.

To illustrate these dynamics, Albertus presented several case studies. He examined land dispossession in the United States, focusing on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation in Palm Springs, California, where a checkerboard pattern of land ownership — rooted in U.S. federal policies — has marginalized Indigenous communities for over a century. He then turned to gender disparities in Canada’s settlement policies, referencing Georgia Binnie-Clark’s Wheat and Woman, which highlighted how women could buy and work land but were systematically excluded from government land grants, reinforcing gendered economic inequalities.

Albertus next analyzed Hugo Chávez’s 2001 Land Law in Venezuela as an example of state-led land redistribution. While intended to address historical inequalities, such policies often face resistance from entrenched elites and implementation challenges that limit their effectiveness. In contrast, South Africa’s post-apartheid land restitution programs have been politically significant but uneven in economic impact, as many beneficiaries struggle to secure long-term gains from reclaimed land. Finally, he discussed land conservation as a form of redistribution, using Chile’s Patagonia National Park as an example of land repurposed for ecological preservation rather than economic exploitation.

Albertus concluded by looking to the future, warning of a “Coming Global Reshuffle” driven by climate change and population growth. He presented projections suggesting that rising global temperatures will render some lands uninhabitable while making others newly viable for agriculture. These changes are likely to fuel new disputes over land, intensify migration pressures, and reshape geopolitical dynamics. Maps and population models from recent studies illustrated how shifting environmental conditions will impact territorial competition in the coming decades.