Land Rights: The 1990's Property Rights Rebellion.

• Author: Libecap, Gary D.

This excellent collection of articles on various aspects of the conflict between government and private property rights is part of the Political Economy Forum Series, edited by Terry Anderson. A central theme of all the books in the series is the importance of private property rights, limited government, and markets for ensuring individual liberty and promoting economic welfare. This book, edited by Clemson economist Bruce Yandle, is no exception. It contains nine chapters on property rights 'to land, how they have been abridged by government, and how alternatives might restore the sanctity of private property.

The first chapter, "The Property Rights Movement: How It Began and Where It Is Headed," is by Nancie G. Marzulla. She begins by describing the origins of the modern property-rights movement. Marzulla sees a turning point in 1964, when the Department of the Interior announced a moratorium on claiming desert land for farming. In response the Sagebrush Rebellion was born, and by 1978 the department had repealed some of its regulations. But the extension of government controls continued, especially through enactment of key environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Acts, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("Superfund"), the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Further, state and local governments exacerbated the effects of these regulations of private property through enactment of additional public health and safety laws, zoning requirements, and licensing restrictions.

Marzulla describes the mobilization of property-rights advocates during the Reagan Administration and their success through 1988. She notes that Reagan's appointees to the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, and the Interior Department were very property-rights oriented and his Supreme Court appointee, Antonin Scalia, was a strong advocate of property rights. Further, Reagan issued Executive Order 12630, which required a "Takings Impact Analysis" of most government regulations to prevent unnecessary takings and to compensate property owners. These successes, however, ended with the Bush and Clinton administrations. Both appealed to the environmental lobby and ignored the property-rights movement. Marzulla, however, takes heart in the recent rise. of grassroots...