The paper proposes a broad argument that the end of state-led development from the 1970s coincided with (i) the final wave of major redistributive land reform, and its place within transitions to capitalism, that lasted from about 1910 to the 1970s, and (ii) the beginnings of contemporary 'globalization'. Self-styled 'new wave' agrarian reform in the age of neo-liberalism, centred on property rights, is unlikely to deliver much on its claims to both stimulate agricultural productivity and reduce rural poverty. Keywords: agrarian question, agrarian transition, land reform, globalization, neo-liberalism, agrarian political movements.