Abstract
Our understanding of the patterns of interaction between Caribbean societies and their respective polities is a limited one. By and large, we still find ourselves trying to sort out emerging patterns of this interaction at the national level; generalizations and propositions about Caribbean electoral behaviour, for example, remain to be made.
‘The people of Elvira,’ Dhaniram said, tightening his belt, ‘have their funny little ways, but I could say one thing for them: you don’t have to bribe them twice.’
V.S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira, 1958
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
The only authoritative book on nineteenth-century elections in Puerto Rico is F. Bayrón Toro, Elecciones y Partidos Políticos de Puerto Rico (3rd edition; Mayagüez: Isla, 1984)
Sidney W. Mintz, ‘Canamelar: The Subculture of a rural sugar plantation proletariat’, in J. Steward et al., The People of Puerto Rico (Urbana, Illinois: The University of Illinois Press, 1956), p. 479.
R. Anderson, Party Politics in Puerto Rico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965).
H. Wells ‘Ideology and Leadership in Puerto Rican Politics’, American Political Science Review, Vol. XLIX (1955), pp. 22–40.
P. Bachrach, ‘Attitudes toward Authority and Party Preference in Puerto Rico’, Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. XXII (1958), pp. 68–73.
H. Wells, The Modernization of Puerto Rico (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1969).
K. Farr, Personalism and Party Politics in Puerto Rico: The Institutionalization of the Popular Democratic Party (San Juan: Inter-American University Press, 1973).
J. Garriga-Picó, ‘Electoral Strategies in the Question of Puerto Rican Studies: An Analysis and Some Projections Using the Theory of Games’, CISCLA Working Paper No. 13 (San Germán, PR: Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, 1984).
A. Quintero Rivera, Conflictos de Close y Político en Puerto Rico (Río Piedras: Huracán, 1977).
A. Quintero Rivera, Patricios y Plebeyos: Burgueses, Hacendados, Artesanos y Obreros. Las Relaciones de Close en el Puerto Rico de Cambio de Siglo (Río Piedras: Huracán, 1988).
M. Rivera, Elecciones 1968 Puerto Rico (San Juan: CEREP, 1972).
R. Ramírez, El Arrabal y la Político (Río Piedras: Universitaria, 1977)
H. Safa, The Urban Poor in Puerto Rico: A Study in Development and Inequality (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1973).
I. Pérez and M. Fernández, ‘Análisis Cuantitativo de Movimientos Poblacionales y Electorales en Puerto Rico Durante los Últimas Très Décadas’ (San Juan: Análisis, 1984).
For a good discussion of the subject, see E.W. Austin, J.M. Clubb and M.W. Traugott, ‘Aggregate Units of Analysis’, in J.M. Clubb, W.H. Flannigan and N.H. Zingale (eds), Analyzing Electoral History: A Guide to the Study of American Voter behavior (Beverly Hills, California: Sage, 1981).
Stone’s polls predicted with great accuracy the 1976 and the 1980 election results in Jamaica. Ryan’s firm, St Augustine Research Associates, did the same with the 1984 elections in Tobago and in Grenada, as well as with the 1986 general elections in Trinidad—Tobago. Recent articles of theirs using their survey data are S. Ryan, ‘New Directions in Trinidad and Tobago,’ Caribbean Affairs’ Vol. I, No. 1 (1988), pp. 126–60
C. Stone, ‘Political Change in Jamaica: Life’s Better, but the Polls are for Manley, not Seaga’, Caribbean Affairs, Vol. I, No. 2 (1988), pp. 31–46.
For a recent analysis of electoral behaviour in the Dominican Republic using aggregate data, see J. del Castillo and W. Cordero, ‘E1 Comportamiento Electoral Dominicano: un Análisis Comparado de las Elecciones de 1978 y 1981’, CISCLA Working Paper No. 15 (San Germán: Inter American University, 1984).
For an earlier, much more preliminary formulation of this approach to Puerto Rican voting behaviour, see J.M. García-Passalacqua, ‘Dignidad y Jaibería: Los Paradigmas Políticos Puertorriqueños’, Anales, Vol. I, Inter American University (1984), pp. 9–33.
On the roots of Mayagüez’s exceptionalism, see J. Heine, ‘The Last Cacique: Leadership and Politics in a Puerto Rican City’, doctoral dissertation, Stanford University (Ann Arbor Michigan: University Microfilms, 1987).
R. Anderson, ‘Political Parties and the Politics of Status: The Study of Political Organization in Puerto Rico’, Caribbean Studies, Vol. XXI (1988), pp. 1–43.
D. Targa, El Modus Operandi de las Artes Electorales en Puerto Rico (San Juan: Private printing, 1940)
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1991 Colin Clarke
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
García-Passalacqua, J.M., Heine, J. (1991). Society and Voting Behaviour in Puerto Rico. In: Clarke, C. (eds) Society and Politics in the Caribbean. St Antony’s. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11987-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11987-5_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11989-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11987-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)