Constitution and State-owned territory: Two opposite cases

Abstract

Whereas in Mexico the state owns almost no land, in the United States it owns more than a quarter of the country. This text tries to understand this apparent paradox. In Mexico, thanks to Article 27 of the Constitution, in principle, the state had enormous power to define property rights, but was left almost landless, while in the United States, private property is a foundation of the social pact, and yet its state managed to acquired a quarter of the land in the country.