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Toward a Framework for the Study of Political Change in the Iberic-Latin Tradition: The Corporative Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Howard J. Wiarda
Howard J. Wiarda
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts.
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Extract

IN the early 1960's a great deal of “scare” literature was produced concerning Latin America. The titles and subtitles of many of the books and articles written during the period help bear this contention out: “The Eleventh Hour,” “Reform or Revolution,” “Evolution or Chaos.” The concern of scholars and public officials, stemming principally from the Cuban revolution, was that Latin America was about to explode in violent upheaval, that unless democratic reforms were quick in forthcoming, the Latin American nations would soon be the victims of Castro-Communist takeovers. The “one-minute-to-midnight” mentality shaped not only a great deal of official thinking and policy with regard to Latin America during the 1960's, but also permeated, in varying degrees of sophistication, the large body of development literature dealing with the area.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , January 1973 , pp. 206 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1973

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References

1 These titles and subtitles are familiar enough in the literature that there is no need to provide the full references. In any case, these examples are cited only as illustrations of a larger genre of literature in which similar themes are expressed.

2 Mander, , The Unrevolulionary Society: The Power of Latin American Conservatism in a Changing World (New York 1969).Google Scholar

3 See especially the two volumes edited by Véliz, Claudio, The Politics of Conformity in Latin America, and Obstacles to Change in Latin America (London 1967 and 1965Google Scholar, respectively); Vega, Luis Mercier, Roads to Power in Latin America (New York 1969)Google Scholar; Landsberger, Harry, “The Labor Elite: Is It Revolutionary?” in Lipset, Seymour M. and Solari, Aldo, eds., Elites in Latin America (New York 1967), 256–300Google Scholar; and Nelson, Joan, Migrants, Urban Poverty, and Instability in Developing Nations (Cambridge, Mass. 1969).Google Scholar

4 For the argument that Spain and Portugal should be included as part of a single Iberic-Latin culture area, see Graham, Lawrence S., “Latin America-Illusion or Reality: A Case for a New Analytic Framework for the Region” (unpub., University of Texas 1969)Google Scholar; also, the numerous writings of Kalman H. Silvert regarding what he terms the “Mediterranean emos,” discussed and cited in full below.

5 Wiarda, “Elites in Crisis” (introductory note). For some additional critiques of the literature of development as it applies to Latin America, see Stepan, Alfred, “Political Development: The Latin American Tradition,” Journal of International Affairs, XX, No. 2 (1966), 223–34Google Scholar; Vanger, Milton I., “Politics and Class in Twentiedi Century Latin America,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XLIX (February 1969), 80–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mercier Vega (fn. 3); Veliz, The Politics of Conformity in Latin America (fn. 3), Introduction; Marsal, Juan, Cambio Social en América Latina: Crítica de Algunas Interpretaciones Dominantes en las Ciencias Sociales (Buenos Aires 1967)Google Scholar; Bodenheimer, Susanne J., The Ideology of Developmentalism: The American Paradigm—Surrogate for Latin American Studies (Beverly Hills 1971)Google Scholar; and Cayer, N. Joseph, “Political Development: The Case of Latin America” (unpub. Ph.D. diss., University of Massachusetts 1972).Google Scholar

6 The development literature of the last decade has largely ignored or dealt only uncomfortably with the place of Latin America in these various schemes. The nations of Latin America can hardly be called “new states”; they are not “non-Western”; they do not often identify or think of themselves as a part of the “Third World”; and mere is considerable doubt as to whether they are “emerging” or “developing.” For an argument parallel to the one offered here—that Latin America should be regarded “as something of a Fourth World, with characteristics of its own which entitle it to be studied in its own right and not forced to conform to whatever generalizations can be made about the Third”—see Miller, J. D. B., The Politics of the Third World (London 1967)Google Scholar, Introduction. See also Martz, John D., “The Place of Latin America in the Study of Comparative Politics,” Journal of Politics, XXVIII (February 1966), 57–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kling, Merle, “The State of Research on Latin America: Political Science,” in Wagley, Charles, ed., Social Science Research on Latin America (New York 1964), 168–213Google Scholar; and Needier, Martin C., “Political Development and Military Intervention in Latin America,” American Political Science Review, LX (September 1966), 66.Google Scholar

7 See Hartz, Louis and others, The Founding of New Societies (New York 1964)Google Scholar, especially the essay, “The Heritage of Latin America,” by Richard M. Morse, 123–77.

8 Morse, Richard M., “The Strange Career of Latin American Studies,'” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Studies, CCCLVI (November 1964), IIGoogle Scholar; emphasis in original.

9 Morse, , “Recent Research on Latin American Urbanization: A Selective Survey with Commentary,” Latin American Research Review, I (Fall 1965), 41.Google Scholar See also Merryman, John Henry, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and Latin America (Stanford 1969)Google Scholar; and Wiarda, “Law and Political Development” (introductory note).

10 The argument here follows that of Picón-Salas, Mariano, A Cultural History of Spanish America (Berkeley 1968), 39–40.Google Scholar

11 Hamilton, Bernice, Political Thought in Sixteenth-Century Spain (Oxford 1963).Google Scholar

12 See especially the analysis in Lewy, Guenter, Constitutionalism and Statecraft During the Golden Age of Spain: A Study of the Political Philosophy of Juan de Mariana, S.J. (Geneva 1960), 49–50.Google Scholar

13 Ibid. See also Hamilton (fn. II), Introduction and Conclusion.

14 Newton, Ronald, “On [Functional Groups,] [Fragmentation,] and [Pluralism] in Spanish American Political Society,” Hispanic American Historical Review, L (February 1970), 12.Google Scholar

15 Whitaker, Arthur P., ed., Latin America and the Enlightenment (Ithaca 1961).Google Scholar

16 Dealy, Glen, “Prolegomena on the Spanish American Political Tradition,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XLVIII (February 1968).Google Scholar

17 These questions form the common threads in the writers considered in Crawford, W. Rex, A Century of Latin American Thought (New York 1966)Google Scholar, Introduction.

18 Hale, Charles A., Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821–1853 (New Haven 1968).Google Scholar

19 Anderson, Charles W., “Toward a Theory of Latin American Politics,” Occasional Paper No. 2, Graduate Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University (February 1964)Google Scholar; incorporated into his book, Politics and Economic Changes in Latin America (Princeton 1967), chap. 4.

20 See the discussion by the editor, Silvert, Kalman H., in Expectant Peoples: Nationalism and Development (New York 1967), 360.Google Scholar

21 The literature is remarkably extensive even though much of it is largely ignored. For Spam, see the flawed but useful study by Wilson, Francis G., Political Thought in National Spain (Champaign, Ill. 1967)Google Scholar, as well as the original writings of the authors mentioned. For Portugal, there are also numerous historical writings, some of the best written by the present premier, Marcello Caetano. The literature for the Latin American nations is also extensive; see, among others, Picón-Salas (fn. 10); Crawford (fn. 17); and Davis, Harold E., ed., Latin American Social Thought (Washington, D.C. 1963).Google Scholar A volume that shows the parallels and continuities in these various national traditions is Pike, Fredrick B., Hispanismo (Notre Dame 1971).Google Scholar

22 For the relationship of this Iberic-Latin heritage to contemporary political movements, see especially Anderson, Charles W., The Political Economy of Modern Spain: Policy-Making in an Authoritarian System (Madison 1970).Google Scholar For some early and formative efforts, see Wiarda, Howard J., Dictatorship and Development: The Methods of Control in Trujillo's Dominican Republic (Gainesville 1970)Google Scholar; Wiarda, , The Brazilian Catholic Labor Movement: The Dilemmas of National Development (Amherst 1969)Google Scholar; and Schmitter, Philippe C., Interest Conflict and Political Change in Brazil (Stanford 1971).Google Scholar For some intriguing comparisons, see Sarti, Roland, “Fascist Modernization in Italy: Traditional or Modern?” American Historical Review, LXXV (April 1970), 1029–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Ehrmann, Henry, Politics in France (Boston 1968)Google Scholar, chaps. I and II.

23 The reference is to Hartz, Louis, The Liberal Tradition in America: An Interpretation of American Political Thought Since the Revolution (New York 1955).Google Scholar Various fragments for a similar study of Latin America may be found in the work of many of the scholars cited here: Adams, Anderson, Dealy, Graham, Hale, Mc-Alister, Morse, Newton, Silvert, Véliz, and others. Many of these writings and ideas are brought together in Howard J. Wiarda, ed., Political Development: The Latin American Experience (tentative title, forthcoming).

24 Patrimonialism was one of Weber's forms of traditional authority. See Bendix, Reinhard, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait (Garden City, N.Y. 1962), 334–60.Google Scholar For a fascinating application to the Portuguese-Brazilian tradition, see Faoro, Raymundo, Os Donos do Poder: Formação do Patronato Político Brasileiro (Pôrto Alegre 1958).Google Scholar See also Glassman, Ronald, Political History of Latin America (New York 1969).Google Scholar

25 Sarfatti, Magali, Spanish Bureaucratic-Patrimonialism in America (Berkeley 1966);Google Scholar and McAlister, L. N., “Social Structure and Social Change in New Spain,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XLIII (August 1963), 349–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Newton, (fn. 14), 26.Google Scholar

27 Dealy (fn. 16); Beezley, William H., “Caudillismo: An Interpretive Note,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, XI (July 1969), 348Google Scholar; and Borda, Orlando Fals, “Marginality and Revolution in Latin America, 1809–1969,” Studies in Comparative International Development, VI (1970–1971), 63–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Dean, Warren, The Industrialization of São Paulo, 1880–1945 (Austin 1969).Google Scholar

29 Yare, Jane-Lee Woolridge, “Middle Sector Political Behavior in Latin America,” (unpub., University of Massachusetts 1971).Google Scholar

30 This phenomenon may help to explain the differences between Henry Lands berger, who today proclaims Latin American labor to be conservative, and Víctor Alba and Robert J. Alexander, who, drawing their evidence from an earlier period before labor had consolidated its position, proclaim it to be revolutionary.

31 Morse, (fn. 9), 41Google Scholar; see also Morse's essay in Hartz (fn. 7), and his “Toward a Theory of Spanish American Government,” Journal of the History of Ideas, xv (1954), 71–93.

32 Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), Social Development of Latin America in the Post-War Period (United Nations, April 15, 1964), 6.Google Scholar

33 See Véliz, Claudio, “Centralism and Nationalism in Latin America,” Foreign Affairs, LIXVII (October 1968), 68–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Powell, John D., “Peasant Society and Clientelist Politics,” American Political Review, LXIV (June 1970), 411–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 The analysis here draws heavily on the excellent discussion of corporatism in Petras, James, Political and Social Forces in Chilean Development (Berkeley 1969), esp. pp. 5, 199–203, 209–19, and 247–48.Google Scholar See also the Introduction in Johnson, John J., ed., Continuity and Change in Latin America (Stanford 1964).Google Scholar

35 The definition used here is derived from Faoro (fn. 24), and Erickson, Kenneth P., Labor in the Political Process in Brazil: Corporatism in a Modernizing Nation (unpub. Ph.D. diss., Columbia University 1970).Google Scholar

36 See Crozier, Michel, The Bureaucratie Phenomenon (Chicago 1964).Google Scholar

37 The concepts of the “ruling class” and “circulation of elites” are derived from the Italian sociologists, Mosca and Pareto. See also Fals Borda (fn. 27).

38 See Payne, James L., Labor and Politics in Peru (New Haven 1965).Google Scholar

39 Petras (fn. 34).

40 Erickson (fn. 35), chaps. I-II; Payne, James L., Patterns oj Conflict in Colombia (New Haven 1968).Google Scholar

41 See Graham, Lawrence S., Civil Service Reform in Brazil: Principles versus Practice (Austin 1968)Google Scholar, and Scott, Robert E., “The Government Bureaucrats and Political Change in Latin America,” Journal of International Affairs, xx, No. 2 (1966), 289–308.Google Scholar

42 Erickson (fn. 35); Faoro (fn. 24).

43 The argument here and in the following paragraph is derived from Anderson (fn. 19), Morse (fns. 7, 8, 9), and the ECLA study (fn. 32).

44 Adams, , The Second Sowing: Power and Secondary Development in Latin America (San Francisco 1967).Google Scholar

45 Anderson (fn. 19).

46 Newton, (fn. 14), 27.Google Scholar

47 This is the special merit of Erickson's study (fn. 35), and of Schmitter (fn. 22).

48 See Silvert's, “National Values, Development, and Leaders and Followers,” International Social Science Journal, xv (1964), 560–70Google Scholar; “The Politics of Social and Economic Change in Latin America,” in Halmos, Paul, ed., The Sociological Review Monograph: Latin American Sociological Studies (Keele, Staffordshire, February 1967), 47–58Google Scholar; Expectant Peoples (fn. 20), 358–61; The Conflict Society: Reaction and Revolution in Latin America (New York 1966), chaps. 1, 2, and 17; and Man's Power (New York 1970). 59–64 and 136–38.

49 The discussion here is derived from Wiarda, , “Elites in Crisis” (introductory note), 25–30 and 50ff.Google Scholar For further evidence, see the documents and essays collected in Petras, James and Zeitlin, Maurice, eds., Latin America: Reform or Revolution? (New York 1968)Google Scholar, and in Horowitz, Irving L., Castro, Josué de, and Gerassi, John, eds., Latin American Radicalism (New York 1969).Google Scholar

50 Hamilton, (fn. 11), 158.Google Scholar

51 See the discussion in Adams (fn. 44).

52 Netti, J. P. and Vorys, Karl von, “The Politics of Development,” Commentary, XLVI (July 1968), 52–59.Google Scholar One cannot help but be reminded of Japan, where many traditional patterns have similarly been retained at the same time that more modern features have been absorbed. See also Lloyd, and Rudolph, Susanne, The Modernity of Tradition (Chicago 1967).Google Scholar

53 These questions are explored in Wiarda, “Elites in Crisis” (introductory note).

54 The interpretation here is derived from Morse (fn. 31).

55 For a somewhat parallel argument, see Johnson, Kenneth L., “Causal Factors in Latin American Instability,” Western Political Quarterly, XVII (September 1964), 432ff.Google Scholar

56 Erickson, (fn. 35), 3, 26, 98, 339Google Scholar; Mander (fn. 2).

57 See especially Chalmers, Douglas A., “Crisis and Change in Latin America,” Journal of International Affairs, XXIII, NO. 1 (1969), 76–88Google Scholar; Anderson, Politics and Economic Change in Latin America (fn. 19); and Hirschman, Albert O., Journeys Toward Progress: Studies of Economic Policy-Making in Latin America (New York 1965).Google Scholar

58 It is not coincidental that Kalman H. Silvert's title, “The Conflict Society,” stems chiefly from his research in Argentina. On the same theme, see also John son, Kenneth L., Argentines Mosaic of Discord, 1966–1968 (Washington 1969)Google Scholar, and Ortigueira, Roberto, “La disintegración, estado normal de países en desarrollo,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, v (October 1963), 471–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar, also based on the Argentine example. One is also reminded of Ortega y Gasset's perceptive España Invertebrada, published in 1922. The Italian experience may provide an additional example of this syndrome.

59 On praetorian societies, see Huntington, Samuel P., Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven 1968)Google Scholar, chap. 4. For an application to Latin America, see Roett, Riordan, “The Quest for Legitimacy in Brazil: The Dilemma of a Praetorian Army,” paper prepared for the 1970Google Scholar Annual Conference of the Midwest Association for Latin American Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. A good general discussion is Eisenstadt, S. N., “Breakdowns of Modernization,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, XII (July 1964), 345–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also see his Modernization: Protest and Change (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1966).