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    The Functional Elites of QuitoAuthor(s): Emily M. NettSource: Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1971), pp.112-120Published by: Center for Latin American Studies at the University of MiamiStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/174750 .

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    EMILY M. NETTDepartment of SociologyUniversityof EvansvilleEvansville, Indiana

    THE FUNCTIONALELITESOF QUITO*W s/ / hen the educated nativesof the capital city of Ecuadorarequestionedabout social class and thepower structure f theircountry, he answer omes unhesitatingly nd with ittlevaria-tion. Everyone,and of course the educatedare as yet few in number,knowswho is who and what s what.Thesamplerof randomopinioncon-cludesthattherealpower s no longer n Quitobut in the portof Guaya-quil.Thishas beendocumentedby Diaz,l whoclaims thatthe traditionalaristocracyodayownsonlyabout50 percentof sierranacreage,most ofit impoverishedndruined,andthatthis class s declining teadilywiththegrowthof variouscoastal"bourgeoisie"lasseswhichstemfromthecom-

    mercialandbanking nterestsof the coast. Politically, oo, according oLang,2 he coastal nfluences undermininghat of the sierra, he deposi-tionof themilitary unta n 1966 beingattributableo pressuresrom theGuayaquil ommercial ligarchy.Furthermore,t is generallybelieved hattheeligiblemembersof theold upper class, formerly he source of politicaland intellectualeaders,are not actingin these capacitiesrelativeto priormodernization rendsset in motion since World War II. Membersof the Quito upperclass* Partial funds for the research reported in this paper were provided by aFaculty Research Grant, Texas Southem University, Houston, Texas, 1967-1968.1 A. Diaz, "Cambiossociales de las clases dominantesdel Ecuador,"Revistamexicanade sociologia 25 (1963): 721-736.2 Norris G. Lang, "Plutocrats,Managers, and Workers: An Analysis of theSocial Organizationof a Coastal Ecuadorian Plantation." (Doctoral dissertation,Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 1969).

    112

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    THE FUNCTIONAL ELITES OF QUITO 113maystill exercisesome authoritybehindthe scene, mostlyblocking andpreventing rograms riginating lsewhere,but their eadership ontribu-tions to the affairsof the country are negligible,according o popularbelief.The purposeof this paperis to focus on questionsstemming romthe secondof these widelyheld opinions,that is: the Quitoupper classinfluenceon the elites is declining. t mustbepresumed hat the consensusof educatedquite-nos egarding he power structureof the nation is atleastanapproximationf the situation.The coastal-sierra plitis a politi-cal reality,althoughundoubtedly grossoversimplifications an explana-toryconcept.The division s certainlymorethan a matterof conservativeversus iberalpolitics today,as Blanksten3 oints out. Perhaps he inter-nationaleconomic nterest heoryof Lang4combinedwith the legitimacyvacuumtheory of Needler5contributes o a better understanding f thepowersituation.At anyrate,thesedata on functional litesin Quitoarepresentedwiththe knowledge hat their ultimate nterpretationequiresaframeworkwhich s knownmostlyby conjecture.Ecuadoris a countrywhich should by no means be considered"typical" f Latin America, f indeedanysuchcountryexists. Perhaps tis typicalof the "witnesspeople"as describedby Ribeiro,6but if so, it isdistinguishable y at least the followingthree characteristics:ts geo-graphic solation,its size, and its primarilyagriculturalconomicbase,which has taken the form of monoculture.These variablesare all re-flected n the appearance nd structure f thecapital.Quitotodayis con-sideredone of the most beautifuland conservative apitalcities of LatinAmerica, houghnot the most traditional ity in Ecuador.It is relativelyquiet, colonialin style of architecture, nd its streetsare crowdedwithbarefootIndians n nativedress.The factors mentioned or the countryas a wholehavespecial significanceor Quitowhencombinedwith someothersalso in evidence n mostLatinAmericancities.The politicalin-stabilityof thenationalgovernmentt houses,the influxof illiterateruralmigrantswithout corresponding mploymentopportunities, nd the re-markablypersistentremnantsof feudalism would all seeminglyhave

    3 George I. Blanksten, "Ecuador: The Politics of Instability," in PoliticalSystemsof Latin America, Martin C. Needler, ed. (Princeton,New Jersey: D. VanNostrandCompany,Inc., 1964).4 Lang, "Political Instability: The IndustrialElite of Coastal Ecuador"(pre-sented to the Third Annual Conference on Latin America, University of Houston,1968).5 Martin Needler, Anatomy of a Coup d'Etat:Ecuador 1963 (Washington:Institutefor the ComparativeStudyof Political Systems,1964).6 Darey Ribeiro, "Universitiesand Social Development," in Elites in LatinAmerica, Seymour Lipset and Aldo Solari, eds. (New York: Oxford Press, 1967).

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    114 JOURNALFINTER-AMERICANTUDIES NDWORLD FFAIRS

    given special advantages to the members of the traditional upper class inmaintaining what Lenski7 originally termed "status crystallization" andwhat Whiteford8 identified in his study of the traditional unchangingColombian city, Popayain,as a lack of "incongruitiesin the possession ofthe symbols of social status"among the upper class.On the other hand, modernization, to be understood in Eisenstadt's9meaning of increasing separation of roles held by individuals, a high levelof technology and specialization and intensification of power in centralagencies which is accompanied by rationality and populism, is occurringeven in the sierra of Ecuador. Silvert'0 has characterizedthe rate of eco-nomic development of the country as "average" for Latin Americancountries.To the extent that both forces toward traditionality and modernityare operating,the following hypotheses are suggestedfor Quito:1. Members of the upper class participate in the sociocultural lifeof the city as elites to a lesser extent than formerlybut to a greater extentthan they are required to do where modernization is taking place rapidlyor has alreadybeen accomplished.

    2. The elite turnoverrate in the last ten or fifteen years has not beenas great in Quito as that for more modernized cities, the same people whoare active today having been in importantpositions a decade ago. Youngerpersons aremore specialized and less extensively engaged.Distinguishing the elite from the upper class, Baltzell"- concluded,

    The elite concept refers to those individualswho are the mostsuccessfuland stand at the top of the functional (objective)class hierarchy.These individualsare leaders in their chosenoccupationsorprofessions; heyarethe final decision-makersnin the political,economic,or militaryspheresas well as leadersin such professionsas law, engineering,medicine, education,religion,andthe arts.On the otherhand,in any comparativelystable social structure,over the years, certain elite membersandtheirfamilieswill tend to associatewith one another n var-

    7 Gerhart Lenski, "Status Crystallization: A Non-Vertical Dimension ofSocial Status,"The AmericanSociologicalReview 19 (1954): 405-413.8 Andrew H. Whiteford, Two Cities of Latin America: A ComparativeDescription, (Beloit, Wisconsin: The Legan Museum of Anthropology, 1960).9 S. N. Eisenstadt, Modernization:Protest and Change (Englewood, NewJersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1966).10 Kalman Silvert, "Nationalism in Latin America," in The Dynamics ofChange in Latin American Politics, John D. Martz, ed. (Englewood, New Jersey:Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1965).11 Edward D. Baltzell, "'Who's Who in America' and 'The Social Register':Elite in UpperclassIndexes in MetropolitanAmerica"in Class, Status, and Power,3rd ed., R. BendixandS. M. Lipset,eds. (New York: Free Press, 1966), pp. 266-276.

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    THE FUNCTIONAL ELITES OF QUITO 115ious primary group situations and gradually develop a con-sciousnessof kind and distinctivestyle of life. The upper classconcept,then refersto a group of families, descendentsof suc-cessful individuals(elite members) one, two, or three genera-tions ago, who are at the top of the social (subjective) classhierarchy.

    In a laterformulation f the elite concept,Aron'2has distinguishedbetweenwhat he calls the elite as the broadestcategory,whichincludesall those in diverse activitieswho are high in importantor privilegedpositionseither in terms of wealthor prestige,and two othernarrowercategories, he political class and the ruling class. The politicalclass iscomprised f those who actuallyexercisethe political unctionof govern-ment. The ruling class includesthose privilegedpeople who, withoutexercisingactualpolitical unctions, nfluence hose who governand thosewho obey. The influenceof the ruling class derives from the moral au-thoritywhichthey hold, or from the economic or financialpowertheypossess.Inthispaper"elite" s usedin Aron'sbroadest ense; he preroga-tive to makefinal decisionswhich Baltzell extendsto all elites is viewedas being only that of the ruling class. Keller's'3 erm "strategicelites"seemsto include he samecategoriesof influential ersons hatBaltzell'smoreoperationallyerived"functional lites"covers.Themethodof the study s similar o that of Baltzell,who usedtheWho'sWhoas an indicatorof elite status and the SocialRegisteras anindexof upper-class roupings.Lackingbothsources or Quitoin recentyears,I obtained ists of traditionalupper-classamiliesandnew upper-classpersons rom informants ndof elitepersonsfromnewspapers ndorganizationaldirectories. nformation or 1951 was obtained from aWho'sWho in Quito (1954). Returnsfrom an autobiographicalues-tionnairemailedto the 532 elitepersonsactive in 1964 constituteabout14 percentof themailing,a totalof 76 questionnaires eingthe basisforthe followingdiscussion. n terms of the two majorclasses to whichin-dividualshadbeen assigned, he returnswererepresentativef the mail-ing, approximately8 percenthavingbeen middle-classand 22 percentupper-class.Within he upperclass,there was a slightoverrepresentationof the traditionalupper class and an underrepresentationf the newupperclass.Thetraditional pperclass are well-establishedQuitofamilies(same

    12 Raymond Aron, "Social Class, Political Class, Ruling Class," EuropeanJournal of Sociology 1 (1960): 260-281, translated in Bendix and Lipset, eds.,Class,Status,and Power.13 Suzanne Keller, Beyond the Ruling Class (New York: Random House,1963).

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    116 JOURNALFINTER-AMERICANTUDIES NDWORLD FFAIRSmaternal and paternal name) of good reputation (ideally descendedor with the myth of descentfrom Spanishroyaltyor conquistadors)whoview intermarriage s the ideal and tend to exclude as marriagematesfor their children persons of other classes. Included are three foreigners(United States, Spain, Colombia) who had married into good Quitofamilies and severalother upper-class amiliesfrom other Ecuadoriancities who as a resultof long-timeresidenceand interestswere thought obelong. The new upper classare socially acceptablebut not yet marriedinto thetraditional pperclass.Figurescomparing he elite samplewith the questionnairesmailed,by socialclass, areshown nTable1.

    TABLE1THESAMPLEFELITES OMPAREDITH HEQUESTIONNAIRES

    MAILED,YSOCIALLASSQuestionnaires QuestionnairesSocialClass Mailed Returned

    TraditionalUpper 7% 13%New Upper 16 9Middle 77 78Total 100 100N 532 76The first hypothesisof this investigation elatedto differential ar-ticipationn thesocioculturalife of the city by the upperclass.Takingahypotheticalmodel of absolutemonopoly of the elite positions by the

    upperclass of 100 percentand completeabandonment f thesepositionsto the middleclassas zeropercent-both of whichconditionsneverexistin actuality-Quito with the upper class contributing 20 percent of theelites appears far from a situation of perfect status consistency. Thisdistance from the model of absolute monopoly appears to be the resultof the emergence and subsequent growth of the "middle sector," asGillin14 has termed this category. The expansion of this class of personsin turn reflects changes in the occupational structure. The proportion ofupper-class to middle-class employed adults for the entire country hasbeen estimated by Torres'5 as six persons in occupations called upper-class for each 94 persons in middle-class occupations. I believe the uni-

    14 John P. Gillin, "Some Sign Posts for Policy," in Social Change in LatinAmerica Today, Richard N. Adams et al, eds. (New York: Harper and Brothers,1960).15 Reinaldo TorresCaicedo, Los estratossocioeconomicos del Ecuador (Quito,Ecuador: La Junta de Planificaci6n y Coordinacion Economica, 1960).

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    THE FUNCTIONAL ELITES OF QUITO 117versity attendance eflectsmoreaccurately he occupationaldistributionof employableadultsfor the city than the census data for the countryas a whole. The 1965 dataof Blaise andRodriquez'6 how that for each20 upper-classstudentsthere are 80 middle-classstudents in the twouniversities n Quito. The replicationof the elite proportions n thestudentpopulation oes not appear o meascoincidental; othphenomenastem from the occupationaltructure r the sometimes-called objective"stratificationystem.The 20 percentof the elites deriving romthe upper class in Quitocanbe comparedwiththe averageupper-class articipation f 23 percentin the twelve oldest metropolitanareas in the United States in 1940reportedby Baltzell.Upper-class ontributionso the elites in those citiesrangedfrom a high of 29 percentfor Philadelphia,an old conservativeeastern eaboard ity, to 11percent orChicago,one of the younger,morerapidly hanging ocialstructures.In the above analysisparticipation as beenviewed fromthe pointof view of upper-classcontributions o the elites. The questionunderconsiderationwas, "What percentageof the elites are upper-class?"Focusingon the socialclass insteadof the functionalposition,the ques-tion can be rephrased,"Whatpercentageof the upperclass are elites?"In Quito n 1964fifteenpercentof thetraditional pper-class ctiveadultswere elites. This compareswith only four percentfor Philadelphia n1940. From this perspective he Quito upperclass appears o be highlyinvolvedin the community.This involvementcan only be interpreted,however,ntermsof thetypeof participation.By occupationas well as by degreeof participation,Quito upper-class elites differfrom their counterpartsn North Americancities. Ifoccupations recombined ntofivecategoriesof functional lites,in bothQuito and Philadelphia he upper class as a proportionof all in thecategory s highest or the businesselite,"business"ncludingndustrial-ists, businessmen,awyers, engineers,and bankers.Table 2 shows thepercentagedistributions.The Quito upper-class ccupationsn this cate-goryare lawyersand industrialists;he Philadelphia lite is in medicineandarchitecture.The Quito upperclass is not represented mongeitherthe artistsandauthors lite or the churchandeducators lite;in Philadel-phia therewere upper-classpersonsin both these elite categories.TheQuitomiddle-class litesaresimilar o the Philadelphia nes exceptthattheQuitomiddleclass contributeso a slightlygreaterextentto the busi-

    16 Hans Blaise and Luis Rodrlguez, "Students and the Social Order,"manu-script, 1967 (study of institution building by the University of Pittsburg;an AIDProject).

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    118 JOURNAL OF INTER-AMERICAN STUDIES AND WORLD AFFAIRSness elite and to the churchand educatorselite than the Philadelphiamiddleclassdoes.

    TABLE2FUNCTIONALELITES FOR QUITO 1964 ANDPHILADELPIA 1940

    Philadelphia Quito

    i XD oCZ XP DO

    BUSineSS* 47% 20% 49% 58% 32% 34%Opinion&Political 6 13 16 18 15 25Medicine& Architecture 12 8 39 6 8 17Church&Education 17 40 15 15Artists&Authors 11 14 24 12Others 7 5 38 12 15 17Total 100 100 29% 100 100 22%N 226 554 16 56* IncludesBusinessmen,Lawyers, Engineers,andBankers.The secondhypothesisof this studyis that elite turnover n Quitohas notbeengreat,althoughyoungerelitesof todayare morespecializedoccupationallyhan thosewho were alsoelites thirteenyearspriorto theinvestigation.Abouthalfof thepersonsparticipatingn the affairsof thecommunityn 1964 had also been activein 1951; upper-classpersons,more thanmiddle-class ersons,tend to be activein bothperiodsas can

    be seen in Table3. Persistencen personnelat this rateis found despitetwo new constitutionallylectedgovernments,both coalitiontypes, andtwo coup d'etats,one of which installed he military untawhich was inpowerat thetime of thisstudy.In connectionwith thislow turnover ate,Needler'7 has described he men involvedin the militaryoverthrowasalmostall havingbeen activein previousgovernments.The sameis thecasewith the candidates or the recentelectionsof June 1968. All threeof theprospective andidatesor thepastcoalitionof radical iberalsandsocialistparties,calledtheEcuadorianLeftWingFront,were elites,twoof whom arelistedin the 1951 QuitoWho'sWho,the other one beingaGuayaquileiio.(The candidatesfor the nomination were Dr. RaulClementeHuerta Guayaquill,Dr.AndresC6rdova,andDr. JulioMorenoEspinosa.Dr. C6rdovareceivedit.) Both the populistand rightwingcandidateswereformerpresidentsof the nation andof courseboth were

    17 Needler, Anatomy of a coup dEtat.

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    THE FUNCTIONAL ELITES OF QUITO 119listed in the same publication. (Dr. Jose Maria Velasco Tbarrawas thecandidate of the Velasquista party and Dr. Camilio Ponce Enriques ofthe ChristianSocial Democrats.) The winner of the election, Dr. VelascoIbarra,has threetimes before filledthe office.

    TABLE 3QUITOELITESIN Who's Who FOR1951AND 1964,BY CLASS

    Both1964 and Only Both as aClass 1951 1964 Pctof TotalTraditionalUpper 19% 7% 70%New Upper 11 7 57Middle 70 85 43Total 100 99 48%N 37 39

    With regard to specialization, younger men were more likely to holda university degree and to have training beyond that degree, as indicatedin Table 4. Except for the fact that age differentials do not exist forparticipation as government officials, younger men differ by type ofoccupation. Many more persons under fifty-three years of age were en-gaged in business, industry, and banking. (The average age for all eliteswas forty-eight years. The standard deviation was not computed, but fiveyears were arbitrarilyadded to ensure the older group did include mostlythose of another generation.) Furthermore, they held corresponding de-grees in business administration, economics, engineering, and public ad-ministration.These persons fifty-three years and over were more likely tobe practicing the traditional professions of law, medicine, and universityteaching, to be artists,musicians, and writers, or to be career militarymenor religious functionaries. These percentages appear in Table 5.

    TABLE 4EDUCATIONOF ELITES BORN BEFORE 1912

    COMPAREDWITH THOSE BORN IN 1912ANDAFTERDateof Birth 1912 &AfterEducation Before After as a Pct of TotalPrimary 5% 0% 0%Secondary 10 4 50Special Training 16 7 57UniversityAttendance 16 9 62GraduatedUniversity 37 54 81Postgraduate 16 26 82Total 100 100 73%N 19 54

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    120 JOURNAL OF INTER-AMERICAN STUDIES AND WORLD AFFAIRSTABLE 5

    PRESENT POSITIONOF ELITES BORN BEFORE1912 AND BORN IN 1912 AND AFTERDate of Birth 1912 & AfterPosition Before After as a Pct of Total

    Government Official 35% 38% 75%Business & Industry 10 22 85PracticingProfession 10 16 82Banking 7 100Officers n Professional&ScientificOrganizations 20 5 43Officials n Universityor OtherCulturalOrganizations 5 4 67Fine Arts& Literature 10 4 50Politics & Opinion 2 100Military 2 100Religious Functionary 5 0Retired 5 0Total 100 100 73%N 20 55

    In general, these scant data lend support to the expectations of theinvestigation: that, even though modernization is occurring in sierranEcuador, the upper class continues to influence the life of the communityvisibly. The elites as a whole, though the upper class to a lesser extentthan the new middle class, reflect structuralchanges in the social system.Younger elites function in more specialized and technologically basedroles. Thus the evidence is also in accord with the popular notion that theupper class today is not participating in the community in the samemanner it previously did; and the difference is not so much in terms ofthe quantitativedifferences.Members of the elite are involved in a more limited range of occupa-tions and positions than formerly, having been displaced almost alto-gether in art and literature, but they are still dominant in the area ofpolitics and opinion-making. Unless, or until, the educational base inEcuador is considerably broadened, the upper class will continue to bethe source of recruitment for the functional elites in greater degree thanit is in more modern nations. However, the characterization of the func-tional elites is obviously becoming more middle-class. That is, increasing-ly the elites include people who are neither of the governing class nor ofthe ruling class. The evidence seems to lend support to Keller's'8 thesisthat modern societies have specialized but functionally interdependentelites in place of a traditional ruling class. Perhaps Ecuador has gone"beyond the rulingclass."

    18 Keller, Beyond the Ruling Class (New York: Random House, 1963).