Strong property rights tend to be considered a crucial condition for almost all that is good, including economic growth, peace, state capacity, even democracy. However, not all types of property rights institutions are considered capable of achieving these purposes. It is often assumed or argued that property rights – or at least the right kind of property rights – are liberal ownership rights, which can only be held by individuals, are transferable and allocable only through market forces, and are secure from state expropriation or intervention.

In this chapter, we chronicle the “activation” (Levitsky and Murillo 2014) of individual property rights in Mexico, driven by liberal ideology and enabled by increased state capacity, with indigenous groups resisting the elimination of their collective rights and wealthy landowners (hacendados) pushing to turn the process to their advantage through biased enforcement.