Political Development in Peru Jean Carriere Thesis Submitted to The

c Political Development in Peru Jean Carriere Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, MoGill Univ6~ity, in partial ful filment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Department of Economics and Political Science April, 1967. o @ Jean Carriere 1967 PREFACE This study deals with the political system of Peru in terms of categories of analysis that have not previously been used explicitly in relation to that country. The analysis focuses on a selected number of processes that have been found by contemporary polit ical theorists to be highly relevant for politics in the context of modernization. Although there is no attempt, here, to give a total picture of the deter minants of the political process in Peru, the perspec tive that has been selected should add a new dimension to our understanding of political change in that coun try. It should help us to establish whether the polit ical system in Peru is becoming more or less viable, more or less able to cope with the increasingly complex problems with which it is confronted, more or less ftdeveloped" • I am deeply grateful to Professor Baldev Raj Nayar, of McGill University, for his constant advice and encouragement throughout the research and writing phases for this study. Professor Nayarts graduate seminar in Political Development kindled my interest in this area and provided the inspiration for the concept ual framework. Jean Carriere c McGill University. CONTENTS I. Political Development in Transitional Societies 1 II. Social Mobilization in Peru: A Major Source of Tension 20 lIT. Bottlenecks to Institutionalization: The Armed Forces and the Oligarchy 52 IV. Institutional Weakness in the Face of Rising Political Tensions 65 V. System Performance: Promises for the Future 107 VI. Summary and Conclusion 128 Notes 139 Bibliography 151 o Chapter I Political Development in Transitional Societies After nearly two decades of speculation and re search on the character of politics in the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the term "political development" has come to gain wide currency among scholars, statesmen and policy-makers. Yet, to a large extent, it remains one of the most elusive con cepts in the vocabulary of politics. Whereas economists know what they have in mind when they refer to the notion of development, students of the political process have reached no such consensus and the idea of development, taken in a specifically political sense, remains obscure.l The post-war history of political science as a discipline provides a partial explanation for this lack of conceptual clarity. It has been noted that scholarly interest in the developing areas has been inspired "more by events in world politics than by any indigenous ad vances in political theory.ff2 Since World War II, stu dents of politics have often been baffled by the unfa miliar patterns of political activity displayed by the new nations of Asia and Africa. Also, often for reasons of policy, these political systems have had to be inves tigated, although in general political scientists have 2 o been ill-prepared for the kind of developmental, change oriented analysis necessary for understanding the politi cal evolution of rapidly changing societies.3 As a re sult, approaches to political development have been varied, sometimes conflicting and often inadequate. VarietI of Approaches The term political development has been used to denote, at one time or another, at least ten different phenomena.4 Political development has been viewed as a process involving either modernization, economic growth, administrative rationality, the mobilization of individ uals and, at times, the building of democracy. The con cept has also been dealt with as the politics typical of industrial societies, as the strengthening of the nation state and finally, as one aspect of a multi-dimensional process of social change. Although there are recurring themes among these, this wide variety of approaches gives some idea of the kinds of difficulties which scholars must face whenever discussions of politics within a devel opmental framework are attempted. One particular hazard implicit in these approaches is that of culture and value bias. Some of them view the process of political development as directed at the real o ization of a particular political condition even though 3 c there is clearly no consensus as to what that condition might be.5 Furthermore, many of the approaches imply definitions that are not reversible and do not allow for the possibility of political decay as well as for political development.6 Conceptual approaches are, of course, neither right nor wrong. They are only more or less useful a nalytical devices designed to increase understanding of a selected problem. We need to work out an approach designed to aid in dealing with the problem selected for this study. The purpose here is to evaluate some of the broad consequences social change has for politi cal life in a country - in this instance, Peru - where the life-styles of a large proportion of the population are being transformed at a rapid rate.? Consequently, our perspective needs to be broad so that it encompasses the total political system at the level of the nation state; it needs also to be specifically political in that we are seeking ways of evaluating the viability of the political system rather than that of other social systems. This perspective implies that our approach to political development should be broad enough in scope to embrace all the major factors which influence the political process. It is not sufficient to focus on one part of the political system or on one feature of the 4 political process such as mass mobilization, economic growth, administrative rationality or democracy. We are seeking an overview of the total political system in order to evaluate its viability in the context of rapid social change. Consequently, we need to include in the analysis factors associated with increases in the burdens on the political system as well as factors which affect the capacity of the authoritative structures of government to cope with such burdens. Keeping these points in view, this section seeks to outline an alternative approach to political develop ment which would take in the total political system and would be free, as far as possible, of cultural and value biases. In addition, it should not preclude political decay. Further, to make the approach of greater utility, we would want to see the extent to which it can be quantified. The Crises ox Development Several authors have provided a major theoretical insight into the question of political development by pointing to the Usimultaneity and insistence of demands and problems that mark the political system in a modern izing society_US This is a crucial dimension of the pro blem because developing countries in the contemporary o world appear to be struggling with several different kinds 5 of crises many of which seem to be moving together to wards their point of maximum stress on the political system. Because of this, it is useful to conceive of political development as involving the capacity to cope with several fundamental crises which may arise simul taneously and with which all modernizing states must come to grips.9 First, there is the identity crisis, one which can only be met by what many African leaders have called "nation-building". a process by which a sense of iden tification with and loyalty to the territorially defined nation-state is gradually nurtured. Then, modernizing states must come to grips with a legitimacy crisis. This involves the development of a measure of consensus regarding the ultimate goals of society and the proper role of government in achieving these goals. There can be serious crises of legitimacy in modernizing systems because oftent "all attempts at ruling are challenged by different people for different reasons and no leaders are able to gain a full command of legitimate authority.nlO Peru, as will be demon strated, has long faced a serious legitimacy crisis. Third, the penetration crisis is a result of the difficulties encountered by decision-makers whenever policies reach the implementation stage. Policies and programmes can only be effective if the government is 6 able to reach the people and elicit their support for the achie 'ement of modernizing goals. Thus, the penetration problem is that of "building up the effectiveness of the formal institutions by governments and of establishing confidence and rapport between rulers and subjects.nIl Fourth, a participation crisis is likely to occur whenever, as is the case in most developing countries, the politically relevant stratum of society expands at a relatively rapid rate. Conflict becomes more explicit as pressure groups and political parties emerge, bringing new issues to the public platform, or as political violence begins to spread. The crisis occurs when "there is un certainty over the appropriate rate of expansion of the politically relevant stratum and when the influx of new participants creates serious strains upon the political institutions.tt12 Fifth, the integration crisis refers to the limits placed on the effectiveness of the government as an agent of social change by the lack of structured and integrated inter-actions: 1) among various groupings of interests in the society; 2) among governmental departments and agen cies; and, 3) between interest groups on the one hand and governmental institutions on the other nand. Finally, the distribution crisis involves the ques tion of allocation of wealth, status and power and is likely to occur as a result of widespread inequalities in 7 the distribution of goods, services and other values in the society. In most cases, the more stable, older countries of Europe were able to meet these crises successively as they emerged over a long period of time.

Load more