This volume explores how recent reforms to Mexico's agrarian legislation changed the ejido's traditional role as the principal economic and political agent in the countryside. Based on field studies in Chiapas, Jalisco, Oaxaca, and Yucatan, the authors demonstrate how variations in historical contexts and local sociocultural conditions have had a major impact on the efficacy of agrarian reforms, and they offer examples of enabling and constraining contexts for government efforts to implement new agrarian policies. These authors' findings challenge our expectations grounded in neoliberal economic theory; free market forces have not destroyed the ejido. Instead, the ejido's role has been redefined - and sometimes strengthened in intriguing and often unexpected ways.