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The Functional Elites of Quito*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Emily M. Nett
Emily M. Nett*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana
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Extract

When the educated natives of the capital city of Ecuador are questioned about social class and the power structure of their country, the answer comes unhesitatingly and with little variation. Everyone, and of course the educated are as yet few in number, knows who is who and what is what. The sampler of random opinion concludes that the real power is no longer in Quito but in the port of Guayaquil. This has been documented by Díaz, who claims that the traditional aristocracy today owns only about 50 percent of sierran acreage, most of it impoverished and ruined, and that this class is declining steadily with the growth of various coastal “bourgeoisie” classes which stem from the commercial and banking interests of the coast. Politically, too, according to Lang, the coastal influence is undermining that of the sierra, the deposition of the military junta in 1966 being attributable to pressures from the Guayaquil commercial oligarchy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 112 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1971

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Footnotes

*

Partial funds for the research reported in this paper were provided by a Faculty Research Grant, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas, 1967-1968.

References

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