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RURAL SOCIAL HISTORY
Land, Protest, and Politics: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for Agrarian Reform in Brazil. By Gabriel Ondetti. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2008. Pp. xviii, 281. Maps. Tables. Figures. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $60.00 cloth.
The Landless Movement (Movimento Sem Terra, MST) became one of Brazil's most influential grass roots social movements at a time when similar organizations struggled to survive. The end of authoritarian military rule in 1985 produced a new environment in which social movements strained to maintain the attention and support of constituents and policy makers alike. Gabriel Ondetti seeks to explain the emergence and rise of the MST from 1978 to 2006.
To make his case, Ondetti surveys four schools of social movement theory that seek to explain why and how these organizations emerge, thrive, and/or dissipate: Grievance/Discontent, Organizational Capacity, Activist Strategy, and Political Opportunity Theory. He then provides a cogent narrative of the MST's history through the first mandate of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula). The narrative approach is suited to his efforts to understand why MST experienced growth while many other social movements experienced decline from 1985-1994. He then explores three other periods in MST's history: takeoff (1995-1999), decline (20002002), and resurgence (2002-2006). Each chapter concludes by evaluating...