臺灣農村土地改革再省思

A Reappraisal of Taiwan's Land Reform

黃樹仁(Su-Jen Huang)

《台灣社會研究季刊》 47期 (2002/09) Pp. 195-248

https://doi.org/10.29816/TARQSS.200209.0005

摘要

本文檢討臺灣土地改革的原因與後果。我們發現，臺灣土地改革的原因，並非所謂國民黨外來政權犧牲臺灣地主，而是大陸變色之際，與土地改革無關的原因正巧使土地改革陣營在國民黨內抬頭，以及國家崩潰的威脅使國家終於克服支配階級的反對而向被支配階級讓步。許多國民黨人並不支持臺灣土地改革。即使最後被迫妥協，也在立法過程中努力降低地主損失。
其次，大陸時代的國民黨政府，不僅缺乏土地改革的意志，也完全缺乏實施土地改革所需的戶政、地政、執法等基礎行政能力。來臺後則繼承日本殖民政府建立的現代基礎行政能力，方能實施土地改革。
說後果言，土地改革與臺灣農業發展並沒有因果關係。土地改革發生在戰後臺灣農業復甦期間，以致於使人誤以為促進農業發展。
土地改革不僅未促進農業發展，也未必促進均富與政治穩定。實施耕者有其田時徵收的土地絕大多數是共有地，多數共有地主持分極小而貧窮。土地改革事實上是促進均富者少，窮人之間財產轉移者多。土地被徵收而心懷不滿的共有地主人數遠多於獲得土地的原佃農，土地改革促進政治穩定的效果很值得懷疑。

關鍵字

國家危機 ； 基礎行政能力 ； 農業發展 ； 均富

並列摘要

Taiwan's land reform was not motivated, as is usually asserted, by the Nationalist settler state's intention to appease tenants at the expense of native landlords. Rather, it was caused by the ascension of the land-reform advocators to power within the Nationalist regime for reasons unrelated to land reform, and by the state's conceived need to appease dominated class at the expense of dominant class as the state was on the verge of collapse. Many mainlander leaders in the Nationalist regime actually opposed land reform in Taiwan, and worked to reduce the damage to Taiwanese landlords.
While ruling the mainland, the Nationalist regime lacked not only motivation, but also the capability of carrying out land reform. After coming to Taiwan, it acquired the infrastructural power of modern state built by the Japanese colonial regime, and hence the capability to carry out land reform.
The land reform did not contribute to Taiwan's agricultural development. The land reform occurred while Taiwan's agriculture was recovering from the war-time disturbance, therefore appeared as a cause of agricultural development.
As the land distributed to tenants come mostly from small co-owners rather than big landlords, the effect of 'land to tiller' policy was more of property-transfer among poors than equalization of wealth. As the victims were much more numerous than beneficiaries, the land reform probably did not promote political stability either.

並列關鍵字

state crisis ； infrastructural power ； agricultural development ； equalization of wealth

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