On the Demise of Oligarchic Parliamentarism in the Semi-Periphery: A Balkan-Latin American Comparison

Abstract

This paper focuses on peripheral capitalist societies which (a) acquired their political independence relatively early and had already in the 19th century adopted parliamentary forms of political representation; (b) experienced a considerable degree of capitalist industrialization during the inter-war and post-war periods.

A fundamental dimension for understanding the structure and functioning of political institutions in the above societies has to do, not only with the mode of expansion and structure of industrial capitalism but also with its timing: with the fact that in all these formations the transition from oligarchic to broader forms of political representation precedes rather than follows their industrialization.

Three distinct forms of transition are identified: urban populism from above (the Latin American Southern Cone pattern), peasant populism from below (the pattern in interwar Northern Balkan societies) and political inclusion through a transformation of clientelistic networks (the Greek pattern).