To assess corporatist interest intermediation as a mechanism of social control in Venezuela and Mexico, we compare the political attitudes and behavior of workers exposed to corporatist controls to those of other workers. Specifically, the politicization of workers who belong to unions dominated by hegemonic political parties is compared to that of workers affiliated with “autonomous unions” and to that of nonunionized workers. Using survey data collected in 1979 and 1980, it is found that workers who belong to official unions are not more likely to be system supportive than other workers. This pattern holds in both regime settings and for both strategic and nonstrategic industries. We discuss the implications that these findings have on the renegotiation of incorporative bargains between labor movements and hegemonic parties.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BALOYRA, E. (1979) “Criticism, cynicism and political evaluation: a Venezualan example.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.73, 4: 987-1002.
2.
BOECK, A. (1972) Organized Labor and Government Under Conditions of Economic Scarcity: The Case of Venezuela. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida.
3.
BORTZ, J. (1977) “El salario obrero en el Distrito Federal, 1939-1975.”Investigación Económica4 (October-December): 129-170.
4.
BROWNING, H. and B. ROBERTS (1980) “Urbanization, sectoral transformation and the utilization of labor in Latin America.”Comparative Urban Research8, 1: 86-103.
5.
CAMACHO, M. (1980) La clase obrera en la historia de México; el futuro immediato. Mexico, D.F.: UNAM/Siglo XXI.
6.
CAMERON, D. (1978) “The expansion of the public economy: a comparative analysis.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.72, 4: 1243-1261.
7.
COLEMAN, K. M. and D. NELSON (1984) “State capitalism, state socialism and the politicization of workers,” in Carl Beck Papers in Soviet and East European Studies. Pittsburgh: Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh.
8.
COLLIER, R. B. and D. COLLIER (1979) “Inducements versus constraints: disaggregating corporatism.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.73, 4: 967-986.
9.
CÓRDOVA, A. (1979) “La política de masas y el futuro de la izquierda,” in P. G. Casanova and E. Florescano (eds.) México, hoy. Mexico, D.F.: Siglo XXI.
10.
DAVIS, C. L. (1983a) “Political regimes and the socioeconomic resource model of political mobilization: some Venezuelan and Mexican data.”J. of Politics45, 2: 422-448.
11.
DAVIS, C. L. (1983b) “The effects of economic crises during the 1970s on changing levels and bases of regime support in Mexico.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Political Science Association, Houston, TX.
12.
DAVIS, C. L. (1984) “The labor aristocracy thesis and the political quiescence of labor in Latin America.”Social Sci. Q.65 (June).
13.
DAVIS, C. L. and K. M. COLEMAN (forthcoming) Political Control and Working Class Mobilization: Venezuela and Mexico.
14.
DAVIS, C. L.K. M. COLEMAN , O. LOZADA de IZCARAY, and F. IZCARAY (1980) “Ideology and belief systems: social and political structures as determinants of working-class politicization in Venezuela and Mexico.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, Bloomington, IN, October 16-19.
15.
de JANVRY, A. (1981) The Agrarian Question and Reformism in Latin America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
16.
ELLNER, S. (1979) “Accíon Democrática—Partido Comunista de Venezuela: rivalry on the Venezuelan left and in organized labor, 1930-1948.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico.
17.
ERICKSON, K. (1977) The Brazilian Corporatist State and Working-Class Politics. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
18.
FAGAN, S. (1974) “The Venezuelan labor movement: a study in political unionism.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
19.
HAMILTON, N. (1982) The Limits of State Autonomy: Post-Revolutionary Mexico. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
20.
HANDELMAN, H. (1979) “Unionization, ideology, and political participation within the Mexican working-class,” in M. A. Seligson and J. A. Booth (eds.) Political Participation in Latin America: Politics and the Poor, Volume 2. New York: Holmes and Meier.
21.
HIBBS, D. (1977) “Political parties and macroeconomic policy.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.71, 4: 1467-1487.
22.
JELÍN, E. (1974) La protesta obrera. Buenos Aires: Editorial Nueva Visión.
23.
KARL, T. (1982) “Petroleum and political pacts: the transition to political democracy in Venezuela.” Working paper no. 107. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
24.
KAUFMAN, R. R. (1977) “Corporatism, clientelism and partisan conflict: a study of seven Latin American countries,” pp. 109-148 in J. M. Malloy (ed.) Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America. Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press.
25.
KLECKA, W. (1980) Discriminant Analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
26.
Latin America Weekly Report (1984) “Venezuela labor: muted but growing unease in CTV.” WR-84-11 (March 16): 5.
27.
LESTIENNE, B. (1981) El sindicalismo venezolana. Curso de formación socio-politica, no. 26. Caracas: Centro Gumilla.
28.
MERÁZ, F. (1982) “La Quina, Artífice de la Recepcion a NMH en su Gran Feudo Petrolero.”Excélsior (March 21): 1, 19A.
29.
MIDDLEBROOK, K. (1982) “The political economy of Mexican organized labor, 1940-1978.” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University. (University Microfilm no. 9216198)
30.
OROZCO, L. (1978) “Exploitación y fuerza de trabajo en México: los trabajadores transistorios.”Cuadernos Políticos16 (April-June): 65-74.
31.
PURCELL, S. K. (1981) “Mexico: clientelism, corporatism and political stability,” in S. N. Eisenstadt and R. Lemarchand (eds.) Political Clientelism, Patronage and Development. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
32.
ROXBOROUGH, I. (1984) Unions and Politics in Mexico: The Case of the Automobile Industry. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
33.
SIGELMAN, L. (1984) “Doing discriminant analysis: some problems and solutions.”Pol. Methodology10, 1: 67-80.
34.
SILVA MICHELENA, J. A. and H. R. SONNTAG (1979) El proceso electoral de 1978. Caracas: Editorial Ataneo de Caracas.
35.
SPALDING, H., Jr. (1977) Organized Labor in Latin America. New York: New York Univ. Press.
36.
STEPAN, A. (1978) The State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
37.
STEPHENS, E. H. (1980) The Politics of Workers Participation: The Peruvian Approach in Comparative Perspective. New York: Academic Press.
38.
STEPHENS, J. D. (1979) The Transition from Capitalism to Socialism. London: Macmallan.
39.
STEVENS, E. (1974) Protest and Response in Mexico. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
40.
TREJO DELARBRE, R. (1979) “El moveimiento obrero: situación y perspectivas,” in P. G. Casanova and E. Florescano (eds.) México, hoy. México, D.F.: Siglo XXI.
41.
VAUGHAN, M. and L. RAMIREZ (1980) “The resurgence of popular democracy in Mexico in the 1970s.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, Bloomington, IN, October 16-19.
42.
VALENZUELA, J. S. and A. VALENZUELA (1976) Chile: Politics and Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press.
43.
ZAPATA, F. (1979) “La organización sindical” in R. Katzman and J. L. Reyna (eds.) Fuerza de Trabajo y Movimientos Laborales en América Latina. México, D.F.: El Colegio de México.
