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Mexican Political Elites 1935-1973: A Comparative Study
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
Scholars are increasingly using biographical data to study political elites in an attempt to penetrate the mysteries of the decision-making process. Determining why and how decisions are made is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks to attempt for not only do decision-makers intentionally obfuscate the process but often do not understand it themselves. Unable to penetrate the minds of the participants or to observe directly decisions being made, scholars often turn to studying the decision-makers (elites) themselves by identifying who they are. Biographical data are used because they form at least part of the definition of an individual; they are relatively easy to obtain; they can be coded and put in machine-readable form; and they lend themselves to statistical analysis. On this basis, the scholar can at least describe an elite group, infer why decisions were made, and suggest who future elites might be (assuming that the recruitment system is based on these variables and does not significantly alter in the future).
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1975
References
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5 This assertion is based on Camp interviews with former public officials in Mexico, May-June, 1974.
6 This list could conceivably be extended but as it stands it is comprehensive in our opinion.
7 See Mabry, Donald J., Mexico’s Acción Nacional: A Catholic Alternative to Revolution (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1973).Google Scholar
8 Based on the list of political elites above.
9 Our data was gathered from biographical dictionaries, newspapers, magazines, personal interviews and correspondence, and official sources. The method of collection and the sources are described in Camp, Roderic A., Mexican Political Elites, 1935–1973 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1975).Google Scholar
10 Mabry, , Mexico’s Acción Nacional, 143–144.Google Scholar This data was supplemented by further research into biographical dictionaries.
11 Drake, Paul, using a much smaller sample in his study of “Mexican Regionalism Reconsidered,” Journal of Inter-American Studies & World Affairs, (July 1970),CrossRefGoogle Scholar concluded that over time presidential home states are overrepresented among PRI elites. However, Camp has found that only during and immediately after a presidential term is his home state overrepresented among PRI elites. In the case of Puebla, that was only true of President Manuel Avila Camacho (1940–46), in whose administration 8% of the elites came from Puebla followed by 6% in the next administration (1947–52), as compared with an average representation in PRI elites of 3.7% from 1935–1973. President Gustavo Diáz Ordaz, however, did not favor his home state (Puebla), appointing only 3% during his administration compared to an average figure of 3.7% elites from Puebla from 1935–73. See “A Reexamination of Political Leadership and Allocation of Federal Revenues in Mexico, 1934–1973,” paper prepared for delivery at the 5th National Latin American Studies Conference, San Francisco, California, November 14–17, 1974.
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14 Camp, “The Middle -Level Technocrat.”
15 We recognize that UNAM has been the degree source for most university-educated Mexicans but we believe that UNAM still supplies a disproportionate share of Mexican elites. For evidence of this see the article on “Education and Career Contacts of Mexican Governors since Cárdenas,” Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs (November 1974).
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