Title: Career Patterns of Mexico's Political Elite
Abstract: HE ANALYSIS of the distribution of power in societies is an enterprise where it is difficult to proceed sine ira et studio and to pierce through the screen of one's prejudices and biases. A recent article by J. L. Payne about the Oligarchy Muddle in studies on Colombia' may serve to illustrate this point. Payne recognize[s] the possibility that certain groups may be relatively well-off simply as a result of events, and attitudes beyond their control. He refuses however to recognize that in such constellations an oligarchy takes advantage of an unequal distribution of power, since no one has done anything to bring about or to maintain those conditions, events and attitudes. Payne's failure to analyse the reality of power stems aside from his apparent commitment to Colombia's political status quo from the inadequacy of this conceptualization of power. For him, power is the ability to do something, to cause a certain state of affairs. Then he proves that no one is causing anything: hence no power, no oligarchy, etc. This, so to speak, is a secularized version of the doctrine of the divine origin of authority, according to which the edge a landowner has (e.g., over his peon) is the simple result of events, attitudes beyond his control.
Publication Year: 1971
Publication Date: 1971-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 6
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