elites in latin america by seymour martin lipset; aldo solari - bell

7/29/2019 Elites in Latin America by Seymour Martin Lipset; Aldo Solari - Bell

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Elites in Latin America. by Seymour Martin Lipset; Aldo SolariReview by: Wendell BellAmerican Sociological Review, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1968), pp. 313-314Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2092414 .Accessed: 24/09/2012 03:16

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BOOK REVIEWS 313

"The topia establishes the characteristics f sta-bility and authority which is conformed to bythe traditional institutions of a given historicalperiod. The relative stability of the topia gradu-ally changes until a point of instability occurs:from here surges the utopia to carry the forms

of collective action and popular exaltation. How-ever, this process does not realize the utopia, butbrings about a new topia, due to the process ofinternal contradiction which is implicit in anyhuman society. There now appears a historical pe-riod during which the old topia no longer existsand the new one has not been established."(p. 22)

This period is the transition phase and when itoccurs, the concept of subversion comes intoplay. In brief, subversion, as defined by Pro-fessor Fals Borda, is the moral attempt ofrational individuals to accelerate change towardsits ultimate goal. And the ultimate goal towardswhich history directs change is a pluralistic so-ciety where freedom means that the creativityof conflict is recognized and subversion is con-sidered moral.

Such a theoretical position represents quite adeparture from earlier writings of the author.It largely springs from his discontent withfunctionalism and equilibrium models of so-ciety. However, to accept rather uncriticallyall the assumptions of historicism, particularly

the holistic conception of social engineering,may also prove unsatisfactory. This book willbe interesting reading for any sociologist con-cerned with societal development, and fortun-ately it is scheduled for publication in English.However, given Professor Fals Borda's confes-sion that the book was written hopefully as aguide to social activists and their role in devel-oping Columbian society (p. 11), it is hopedthat Professor Popper's caution is recalled."Once we realize that we cannot make heavenon earth but only improve matters a little, wealso realize that we can only improve them littleby little."

A. EUGENE HAVENSUniversity of Wisconsin

Elites in Latin America. Edited by SEYMOURMARTIN IPSET nd ALDO OLARI. ew York:Oxford University Press, 1967. xii, 531 pp.$9.50 (Paperback, $2.95.)A seminar held at the University of Monte-

video, Uruguay, in June 1965 has resulted inthis book, the fifteen chapters of which are thecollected efforts of both North and Latin Am-ericans. The book is not particularly well-knit,being a mixed bag of styles and points of view,yet it achieves a measure of integration in itsmajor theme: the recruitment, socialization, andperformance of Latin American elites viewed in

the context of the relationship of value systemsto political, social, and, especially, economic de-velopment.

There are four major sections dividing thebook. The first on economic development and

the business classes contains contributions bySeymour Martin Lipset, who discusses somegeneral problems of the relationships betweenvalues, education, and entrepreneurship; byLuis Ratinoff who gives a useful analysis ofalternative hypotheses concerning the role ofthe middle classes in development; and Fer-nando H. Cardoso who struggles manfully tobridge the gap between some broad statementsabout the industrial elite and some ratherlimited data.

The second section is devoted to functionalelites and contains chapters by Robert E. Scott,Irving Louis Horowitz, Ivan Vallier, FrankBonilla, and Henry A. Landsberger writing re-spectively about political, military, religious,cultural, and labor elites. Also in this section isa chapter on contemporary peasant movementsby Anibal Quijano Obregon. The last two sec-tions deal with education and elite formation,the penultimate one with the university and thefinal one with secondary schools. Here appearchapters by Darcy Ribeiro who, among other

things, calls for the universities to "overhaulthemselves and transform themselves com-pletely into responsible institutions for the re-juvenation of society"; and by Luis Scherz-Garcia, who stresses the need for the univer-sity's independence from external powers andits autonomy as a social institution. In factScherz-Garcia's position is nicely juxtaposedwith Ribeiro's plea and underscores what mightbe lost if the university were to become a directinstrument in national development. Kenneth N.Walker analyzes questionnaire responses con-cerning democratic values of university studentsin Argentina, Colombia, and Puerto Rico;Glaucio Ary Dillon Soares writes on intellec-tual identity and political ideology among uni-versity students with data from Colombia andPuerto Rico; Aldo Solari discusses elite de-velopment in relationship to some general sta-tistics describing secondary education; andAparecida Joly Gouveia analyzes attitudinaldata collected among secondary schoolteachersin four Brazilian states as they relate to orienta-tions toward modernization.

In some ways the book is a disappointment.The writing is not succinct. Statements are oftenovergeneralized. There is a paucity of good,relevant data, and what data are presented arenot always skillfully analyzed or interpreted.Polemical style and ideological stance sometimescreep into the text in lieu of explanations and


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314 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

theory. Apparent contradictions sometimes endin murky complexities rather than clear resolu-tion. But it is only fair to the authors to pointout that most of them caution the reader re-garding the limitations of their materials. Also,

these criticisms may simply reflect the state ofthe art when dealing, as most of these authorsdo, with such general questions of both theoryand social importance at the macrosociologicallevel.

From the latter point of view, the book con-tains much that is useful not just for the socialscientist interested in Latin America, but foranyone interested in studying whole societies,elites, value systems and change. If the au-thors haven't given us definitive answers, theyhave chosen to grapple with the big questions.

WENDELL BELLYale University

Economic Organizations and Social Systems.By ROBERT A. SOLO. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. xiii, 505 pp. $8.75.In this book, Mr. Solo has attempted a com-

prehensive description and analysis of econo-mies. Some sections of his analysis concern theimpact of economic form on the social environ-

ment, others concern the social preconditionsnecessary for economic development.Three individual and quite unrelated parts

comprise this work. Part one postulates thateconomies in general can be viewed as includingthree major building blocks or forms.

(1) The centralized market-directed form(2) The centralized political-directed form(3) The organizational market-negotiated

formThese are systematically described and analyzed

with regard to their impact on resource alloca-tion, potentional for economic progress, andimpact on the social environment.

Part two then analyzes the American economyas consisting of four forms of economic func-tion; two new forms being added. The four are:

(1) decentralized market-directed(2) organizational market-negotiating(3) decentralized market-segmented(4) price regulated public utility

The analysis deals primarily with interrelation-ships among economic

variables,but also in-

cludes discussion of the correspondence betweenthe economic forms and such social variables asmotivation for efficiency, recruitment of leader-ship elites, and quality of social life.

Part three devotes itself to the relationshipbetween social systems and economic develop-ment. We learn that the differential economicdevelopment of entire societies must be under-

stood in different terms from those that will ac-count satisfactorily for increments of economicgrowth within societies. Cases of the SovietUnion, Mexico, and Puerto Rico are given asexamples, and their degrees of success explained

in terms of cultural rather than economic vari-ables.The dust jacket of this book states that "by

combining the discipline of the economist withthe materials and tools of the sociologist, Mr.Solo has forged a fresh and individual view ofsocieties and their economies." We learn alsothat the book is controversial. What we havehere, then, is the world view of an apostateeconomist. And if it is controversial, it is soonly in the world of economists where advanc-ing exogenous factors as the primary explana-tion of economic issues is heresy.

The strength of this work is that it considersinteresting and important topics in a system-atic way. It is written in reasonably good style.Much of what the author puts forward makesgood sense to this reviewer. The best sectionsare those that relate the political economy tothe growth of the Research and Developmentestablishment. These sections adduce empiricalevidence for the assertions made.

But the sociologist must judge this book

not on its economics, but on the author's abil-ity to employ sociological insights in under-standing the relationship between economicform and social systems. And this is not done.For example, a discussion of the cultural ele-ments that influence the economic developmentof -countries makes not even passing mention ofMcClelland's work on national achievementmotivation. Weber gets one line. This of itselfdoes not mean that the book is bad, just thatthe claim about the use of sociological materialsis untrue.

An important weakness of the book lies in itsdeductive approach and the tendency to treatbroad and complex topics inadequately. Forexample, six pages are alloted to the "economyof autonomous organizations as a social environ-ment." The informing spirit is that of W. H.Whyte, and Packard. We learn that, "the groupis powerful, but a multiplicity of groups pro-tects the individual . . . Life manifests neitherthe clear hard values of individualism, nor dedi-cation to the goals of the community. Instead of

self-interest and self-responsibility thereis con-

vention ... Thought is shaped by ... yearningfor the comfort of uniformity . . ." (p. 202) Myargument with this sort of thing is not that it isnecessarily wrong, but that it is, an irrelevantgeneralization resting on a shaky deductiveframework. Another example concerns ". . . thedebilitation and distortion of managerial moti-vation in regulated companies." "When the pri-

elites in latin america by seymour martin lipset; aldo solari - bell

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