Abstract
Historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries provide us with a mixed picture of the role that business elites have played in the development and rupture of democracy. Their heroic moments are often followed by conservative retreats — and they have used democratic rhetoric to cloak a fear of the masses and popular participation.1 Barrington Moore’s analysis of the American Civil War (1966, 11–155) depicts Northern industrialists and Western farmers in political coalition that had democratizing effects, namely, the termination of slavery. But by the end of the nineteenth century, as Walter Dean Burnham (1965) and Samuel Hays (1980) argue, business elites in the United States were partners in a ‘reform’ movement which restricted lower class political participation. In Europe, business behaviour also varied. The Liberal party in Britain forged a coalition in the nineteenth century around free trade and gradual democratization that included industrialists and segments of the working class (Gourevitch, 1986, 76–83). But later, as illustrated in the debates between David Abraham (1981) and Henry Turner (1985), business played a murky role in the development of the fascist coalition in Germany.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abraham, D. (1981) The Collapse of the Weimar Republic: Political Economy and Crisis (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Burnham, W. D. (1965) ‘The Changing Shape of the American Political Universe’, American Political Science Review, no. 59 (March), pp. 10–28
Calle Orleans, L. (1978) La Constituci–n de 1978 y el proceso de reestructuración jurídica del Estado 1976–1978, Guayaquil: Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Universidad de Guayaquil.
Camara de Industriales de Pichincha (1978) ‘Reflexión política’, Carta Industrial, no. 34 (September).
Camara de Industrias de Guayaquil (1978) ‘Informe anual presentado por el Presidente de la Cámara de Industrias de Guayaquil’, Revista de la Camara de Industrias de Guayaquil, vol. 9, no. 38.
Conaghan, C. (1988) Restructuring Domination: Industrialists and the State in Ecuador (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press).
Confederación de Empresarios Privados de Bolivia (1981) Pensamiento de la empresa privada boliviana. (La Paz: Confederacion de Empresarios Privados de Bolivia).
Dahl, R. (1971) Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Dunkerley, J. (1984) Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggle in Bolivia 1952–82 (London: Verso).
Eckstein, S. and Hagopian, F. (1983) ‘The Limits of Industrialization in the Less Developed World: Bolivia’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. 32, no. 1 (October), pp. 63–95.
Fitch, S. (1977) The Military Coup d’Etat as a Political Process: Ecuador 1948–1966 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Gourevitch, E. (1986) Politics in Hard Times: Comparative Responses to International Economic Crises (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).
Grebe Lopez, H. (1988) ‘Innovaciones de las políticas económico-social en la Bolivia postdictatorial’, Working Paper no. 17, FLACSO-Bolivia.
Handelman, H. (1985) ‘Elite Interest Groups under Military and Democratic Regimes:Ecuador, 1972–1984’, paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association Congress, Albuquerque, New Mexico, April.
Hays, S. (1980) American Political History as Social Analysis: Essays (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press).
Kirkland, E. (1956) Dream and Thought in the Business Community (Chicago: Quadrangle Books).
Lazarte, J. (n.d.) ‘E1 moviviento obrero: Crisis y opción de futuro de la COB’, In: FLACSO-ILDIS (eds), Crisis del sindicalismo en Bolivia (La Paz: FLACSO-ILDIS).
Lindblom, C. (1977) Politics and Markets: The World’s Political-Economic System (New York: Basic Books).
Linz, J. (1978) ‘Crisis, Breakdown, Reequilibration’, in: J. Linz and A Stepan (eds), The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Malloy, J. and Gamarra E. (1988) Revolution and Reaction: Bolivia 1964–1985 (New Brunswick: Transaction Books).
McCloskey, Robert (1951) American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise: 1865–1910 (New York: Harper & Row).
Mills, N. D. (1984) Crisis, conflicto y consenso: Ecuador 1979–1984 (Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional).
Moore, B., Jr. (1966) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (Boston: Beacon Press).
Morales, J. A. (1987) Precios, salarios y política económica durante la alta inflacion boliviana de 1982 a 1985 (La Paz: ILDIS).
Muller, H. and Machicado F. (1986) El diálogo para la democracia (La Paz: Muller y Machicado Asociados).
Nunez del Prado, A. (1986), ‘Bolivia: inflación y democracia’, Pensamiento Ibero-americano, no. 9 (2. semestre), pp. 249–75.
O’Donnell, G. (1973) Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism: Studies in South American Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press).
O’Donnell G. (1978) ‘Reflections on the Patterns of Change in the Bureaucratic Authoritarian State’, Latin American Research Review, vol. 12, no. 1 (Winter), pp. 3–39.
O’Donnell, G. and Schmitter P. (1986) Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy, vol. IV, Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Przeworski, A. (1985) Capitalism and Social Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Przeworski, A. (1986) ‘Some Problems in the Study of Transition to Democracy’, in: G. O’Donnell, P. Schmitter and L. Whitehead (eds), Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy, vol. III, Comparative Perspectives, pp. 47–64 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Prothro, J. (1954) The Dollar Decade: Business Ideas in the 1920s (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univesity Press).
Turner, H. (1985) German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler (New York: Oxford University Press).
Vogel, David (1978) ‘Why Businessmen Distrust their State: The Political Consciousness of American Corporate Executives’, The British Journal of Political Science, vol. 8 no. 1 (January), pp. 169–73.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1990 Diane Ethier
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Conaghan, C.M. (1990). Retreat to Democracy: Business and Political Transition in Bolivia and Ecuador. In: Ethier, D. (eds) Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Southern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Macmillan International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11412-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11412-2_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11414-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11412-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)