The four pillars of successful land reform: can revolutionary Nepal stand up?

The continued failure of land reform has been one of the most contentious issues in the political economy of Nepal for over half-a-century. Civil war (1996-2006) ended with cross-party commitments to implement 'scientific' land reform and end feudalism, putting the issue firmly back in the spotlight. Moving beyond traditional land reform debates this paper determines whether the necessary foundations are in place to provide a platform for successful pro-poor redistributive reform. Through the analytical lens of Borras and McKinley's (2006) '4 Pillars' paradigm, Nepal is assessed vis-à-vis the four fundamental elements of contemporary state-society driven redistributive reform: a beneficiaries-led movement, pro-reform political consensus, productivity-enhancing support to agriculture and an overarching pro-poor growth-oriented development strategy. Provisional exploration exposes less than solid foundations, with beneficiaries providing the only robust support. Nepal's land reform cannot balance on a single pillar and the new democratic republic faces a considerable challenge to underpin its commitments.