Professional Group Power in Developing Societies

Abstract

Professions need a certain amount of independence from the state in order to carry out their activities, yet they need the state as well to give them a monopoly to protect their activities. In the developing world, where states are themselves in process of formation, professions have to confront nondemocratic regimes or regimes that are only pseudo-democratic. In these kinds of situations, the development of the independence of professional institutions is a chancy thing, as regimes will often interfere with professional activities where they threaten either the short-term or the long-term interests of these regimes. Added to this set of facts is one other of critical importance - the worldwide success of capitalism is leading to the same pressures everywhere: professions are gradually being reformed in a more capitalistic manner with the professionals working for owners of the means of production rather than working for themselves. In others words, gradual independence from these developing states, if achieved, may soon lead to the dependence of professions on capitalists, who have their own profit motive in mind rather than the development of strong professional institutions. The article illustrates this thesis by referring to long-term historical and sociopolitical developments in Egypt, Indonesia and Mexico. Provisional hypotheses, to be tested in research over the coming years, are given at the conclusion of the article.