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University Environment and Socialization: The Case of Mexican Politicans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Roderic A. Camp*
Affiliation:
Central College, Pella, Iowa

Extract

Most studies of political leaders have shown that certain socializing agents, in the view of those leaders, have been primarily responsible for developing their political ideas and personal values. Generally, the most important socializing agents of political leaders have included family, friends, events, books, teachers and the general university environment. Mexican political leaders are no exception to this general pattern. The purpose of this essay is to examine one of these socializing agents, the university's social environment, and its effect on those generations of leaders who guided Mexico's development from 1946 to 1970. Because the overwhelming majority of Mexico's political leaders during that period studied at the university from 1920 to 1940, this analysis will focus on that time period.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. Jaros, Dean, Socialization to Politics (New York, 1973), p. 100.Google Scholar

2. “Political Socialization in Universities,” in Lipset, Seymour Martin and Solari, Also, eds. Elites in Latin America (New York, 1967), p. 428. Another study of Latin American socialization experiences suggested that the “principal factors in political socialization of the middle classes are the schools, the nature of the economy, and the political system itself.” See Stinchombe, Arthur L., “Political Socialization in the South American Middle Class,” Harvard Educational Review, 38 (1968): 527. Since most political leaders in Mexico and Latin America are from the middle class, it would not be unfair to apply his conclusions to political leaders in general.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Segovia, Rafael, La politización del niño mexicano (Mexico, 1975), p. 15. However, in a study of English school children attending the traditional “public schools,” McQuail and his colleagues found that children did not ask teachers for advice on voting, although teachers were consulted for advice on careers. Although his question does not get directly at the presence of political topics at the school, it tends to imply that English children do not discuss political topics with teachers. See McQuail, D., O'Sullivan, L. and Quine, W. G., “Elite Education and Political Values,” Political Studies, 16(1968): 261.Google Scholar

4. Eulau, Heinz, “Recollections,” in Wahlke, John C., et al. The Legislative System (New York, 1962), p. 85. Kenneth Prewitt also found that among councilmen in the United States who claimed to have been politically socialized as pre-adults, 31 percent attributed their political activism solely to their school experience. Next in importance was the political family at 14 percent. “The school's impact on who joins the politically active stratum is not just as a complementary agency supporting dispositions already learned in the family. Clearly, the school has an independent relationship to leadership selection processes.” The Recruitment of Political Leaders: A Study of Citizen-Politicians (Indianapolis, 1970), pp. 65, 70.Google Scholar

5. For example, see Jerome Davis' figures which show that of the outstanding Soviet revolutionary leaders, at least 60 percent had some university work, a remarkable figure given the difficult access to higher education among the masses in Russia during this period. “A Study of One Hundred and Sixty-three Outstanding Communist Leaders,” in Paige, Glenn, ed. Political Leadership (New York, 1972,), pp. 267–68. For equally striking figures among Chinese party leaders, see North, Robert C., “Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Elites,” in Lasswell, Harold D. and Lerner, Daniel, eds. World Revolutionary Elites (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), p. 376ff.Google Scholar

6. A study of boarding schools in Tanzania suggested that the insulation of students from competing agencies of socialization was an important factor in determining the variety of civic attitudes among students from various schools. See Prewitt, Kenneth, Muhll, George Vonder and Court, David, “School Experiences and Political Socialization,” in Dennis, Jack and Jennings, Kent, eds. Comparative Political Socialization (Beverly Hills, 1970), p. 93.Google Scholar

7. Ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar

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9. Delhumeau, Antonio, “Elites culturales y educación de masas en México,” Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Politicas, 19 (No. 73, 1973): 23. An extreme example of the political nature of professional education at the National University has been suggested by Herzog, Jesús Silva, a public man and professor emeritus of the National School of Economics. While serving on the nominating board for a new Dean of the National School of Economics, he led the effort to prevent one candidate from becoming Dean. In retaliation, the candidate, a professor at the school, purposely failed one of Silva Herzog's sons who was studying in his field. (See his autobiographical Mis Ultimas Andanzas, 1947–1972 (Mexico, 1973), pp. 107–08. For a similar example from the University of Nuevo León, see the realistic novel by Niggli, Josefina, Step Down, Elder Brother (New York, 1947), p. 63.Google Scholar

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14. Segovia, , La Politización, p. 79. In his study of British school children, McQuail, however, found in comparing students from grammar school and public schools that there was a general lack of interest in political affairs, and that there was no special difference between the two groups in their sense of duty to participate in or their interest in politics. McQuail, et al, “Elite Education and Political Values”: 265.Google Scholar

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18. See Goldthorpe, J. E., An African Elite: Makerere College Students, 1922–1960 (Nairobi, 1965), p. 79.Google Scholar

19. Jennings, Kent M. and Niemi, Richard G., The Political Character of Adolescence, The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, 1974), p. 40.Google Scholar

20. Prewitt, Kenneth, et al., “Political Socialization,” p. 575.Google Scholar

21. See Camp, Roderic A., Mexico's Leaders: Their Education and Recruitment, (Tucson, 1980). For evidence that this practice extends into the 19th century, see the following letter from Gabino Barreda, the founder of the National Preparatory School in the 19th century, to Mariano Riva, Governor of the state of Mexico: “And I must also add that nothing is more convenient for the students, particularly from the standpoint of their individual careers. Because the innumerable relationships that they established with their contemporaries will continue as they enter public professional lives, providing an added factor that will resound to their collective benefit. Concomitantly, the public men who must utilize every intellectual resource in the service of the nation, will find an inexhaustible supply among the companions of their school years.” See Portuondo, Alonso, “The Universidad Nacional Autónomo de México in the Post-Independence Period: A Political and Structural Review,” (Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, 1972), citing Barreda, Gabino, Estudios (Mexico, 1941), p. 66.Google Scholar

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23. Turner, Ralph, “Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System,” American Sociological Review, 25 (December, 1960): 860.Google Scholar

24. This is not to suggest that the preparatory schools and the universities can easily dominate the socialization process of most youngsters. Even the most isolated institution has limitations. In a recent analysis of the military training program, the authors concluded that “the military does not work with empty slates when it receives its young recruits. They come in with sets of preexisting attitudes, albeit for many of them these attitudes are labile…. These preexisting states of mind constrain the potential impact which even a ‘total’ institution such as the military might have.” “The Effect of Military Service on Political Attitudes: A Panel Study,” Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, August 29-September 2, 1974, 26.Google Scholar

25. For evidence of this, see Clamont, Jorge Siegrist, En Defensa de la autonomia universitaria; trayectoría historico-jurídico de la universidad mexicana (Mexico, 1955), p. 189.Google Scholar

26. Personal interview, Mexico City, July 29, 1974.Google Scholar

27. Personal interview with Enrique Beltrán, Mexico City, August 13, 1974.Google Scholar

28. Personal interview with Zamora, Adolfo, Mexico City, July 24, 1974.Google Scholar

29. For more information on this subject, see Portuondo, Alonso, “The Universidad Nacional” pp. 8687; de Knauth, Josefina Vázquez, Nacionalismo y educación en Mexico (Mexico, 1970), and Gill, Clark C., “The Role of the Federal Government in Public Education in Mexico,” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1948).Google Scholar

30. Personal interview, Mexico City, July 25, 1974.Google Scholar

31. For various examples from the 1920s and 1930s, see Vallejo, Jorge y Arizmendi, , Testimonio 1930–34 (Mexico, 1947); and Calvo, Ciriaco Pacheco, La organización estudiantil en Mexico (Mexico, 1934).Google Scholar

32. Personal interviews with Faesler, Julio and Leyva, Jesús Puente, Mexico City, July 2, 1975 and June 17, 1975.Google Scholar

33. See Laurens, Jorge Prieto, Cincuenta años de política mexicano, memorias políticas (Mexico, 1968), pp. 14, 18. For an excellent survey of the growing anti-positivist movement in Mexico, and the implications of that movement, see Raat, William D., “The Antipositivist Movement in Prerevolutionary Mexico, 1892–1911,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, 19 (February, 1977): especially 95–96.Google Scholar

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35. See an autobiographical account of his childhood, entitled Niño, Child of the Mexican Revolution (New York, 1971), p. 133, 143.Google Scholar

36. Personal letter from Arturo Gómez Arias, Mexico City, September 27, 1973.Google Scholar

37. For comments on Turkey, see Massialas, Bryon G., Education and the Political System (Reading, Mass., 1969), p. 96.Google Scholar

38. See his insightful book, Wilkinson, Rupert, Gentlemanly Powers: British Leadership and the Public School Tradition (New York, 1964), p. 341.Google Scholar

39. Putnam, Robert, The Comparative Study of Political Elites (Englewood Cliffs: 1976), p. 96.Google Scholar

40. Personal interview, Mexico City, June 26, 1975. Mexico's recent political leadership has also been criticized for its lack of imagination and flexibility by several insiders, most notably Manuel Moreno Sanchez, leader of the Senate under President Adolfo López Mateos, who has written Mexico: 1968–72 (Austin, 1973).Google Scholar

41. Ibid., p. 87.Google Scholar

42. Personal interview, Mexico City, June 24, 1975.Google Scholar

43. Personal interview with Alfonso Pulido Islas, Mexico City, August 12, 1974.Google Scholar

44. Personal interview, Mexico City, June 20, 1976.Google Scholar

45. Personal interviews with Manuel Hinojosa Ortiz and Manuel González Ramírez, Mexico City, June 19, 1975 and August 15, 1974. For an earlier example, see Oropesa, Manuel Guevara, “El estudiante,” in Doctor Salvador Zubiran, 50 años de vida professional (Mexico: 1973), p. 17.Google Scholar

46. Personal letter from Mario Colin Sanchez, Mexico City, May 3, 1974. For another account of the impact of the National Preparatory schools on a variety of student generations, see Cárdenas', Octavio González, Los cien años de la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (Mexico, 1972).Google Scholar

47. For example, Raúl Rángel Frias, who later became Governor of Nuevo León, studied at the Colegio Civil of Monterrey. He was influenced by that experience because of the opportunity he had to argue with philosophy professors who were defenders of positivism. Personal interview, Monterrey, July 18, 1974.Google Scholar

48. Putnam, , The Comparative Study of Political Elites, p. 96.Google Scholar

49. For relevant comments on the British public schools in this regard, see Putnam, , The Comparative Study of Political Elites, p. 96, and Wilkinson, , Gentlemanly Power, pp. 337–338.Google Scholar

50. Romberg, Allan and Thomas, Norman, “The Political Socialization of National Legislative Elites in the United States and Canada,” Journal of Politics, 27 (November, 1965): 770.Google Scholar

51. See Lacave, Carlos Vejar and de Serrano, Amparo Espinosa, eds., El pensamiento contemporáneo en México (Mexico, 1974), p. 177.Google Scholar

52. See Camp, , Mexico's Leaders.Google Scholar

53. See the author's “The 1929 Presidential Campaign and Political Leadership in Mexico,” Historia Mexicana (1977). For a vivid description of the intellectual and social environment of the National Law School during the 1920s and 1930s, see the following accounts: Aguilar, Gilberto F., El barrio estudiantil de Mexico (Mexico, 1951); Armendáriz, Antonio, Semblanzas (Mexico, 1968); Oro, Juan Bustillo, Vientos de los veintes (Mexico, 1973), Dromundo, Baltasar, Mi calle de San Ildefonso (Mexico, 1956) and Los oradores del 29 (Mexico, 1949); Mendieta, Lucio y Núñez, , Historía de la Facultad de Derecho (Mexico, 1956), Calvo, Ciriaco Pacheco, La organización estudiantil en México (Mexico, 1934), and Vázquez, Manuel Ramírez, En torno de una generación: glosa de 1929 (Mexico, 1949).Google Scholar

54. Personal interview, Raúl Cardiel Reyes, October 22, 1976.Google Scholar

55. Personal interview with Estrada, José Castro, Mexico City, August 4, 1974.Google Scholar

56. Personal interview with Alfonso Pulido Islas, former Dean of the National School of Economics, Mexico City, August 12, 1974.Google Scholar

57. For supporting evidence, see Camp, Roderic A., “The National School of Economics and Public Life in Mexico,” Latin American Research Review, 10 (Fall, 1975): 137151.Google Scholar

58. Austin, Ruben Vargas, “The Development of Economic Policy in Mexico With Special Reference to Economic Doctrines,” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Iowa State University, 1958), p. 74.Google Scholar

59. See the comments by Myers, Charles N., Education and National Development in Mexico (Princeton, 1965), p. 105. Another school which falls into such a specialized category is the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, an institution often mentioned in United States newspaper articles because of the number of North Americans in its medical school. This school is not to be confused with the public University of Guadalajara located in the same city.Google Scholar

60. Personal interview with Eduardo Bustamante, Mexico City, October 28, 1976, who attended the School in the 1910s.Google Scholar

61. See Rivera, Agustín Arriaga, “El movimiento juvenil,” in Mexico, Cincuenta años de revolución, (Mexico, 1963), p. 359.Google Scholar

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63. See Cárdenas, Lázaro, Obras, Apuntes 1913–1940, Vol. I (Mexico, 1972), p. 184; and Mayo, Sebastian, La educación socialista en México: el asalto a la Universidad Nacional (Rosario, Argentina, 1964), p. 190.Google Scholar

64. Personal interview with Ernesto Enríquez, Mexico City, October 26, 1976; personal letter from Gilberto Loyo, Mexico City, September 14, 1972; and from Miguel Bustamante, Mexico City, March 13, 1975.Google Scholar

65. Mexico City, June 17, 1975.Google Scholar

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69. Prewitt, , et al., “Political Socialization,” 574.Google Scholar

70. Personal interview with Salvat, Agustín, Mexico City, October 20, 1976.Google Scholar

71. Manuel Hinojosa Ortiz, later SubSecretary of Forest Resources in the Secretariat of Agriculture, believed his educational experience was decisive in determining his attitude towards the role of government in economic development. Personal interview, Mexico City, June 19, 1975.Google Scholar

72. Hawley, Willis D., “The Implicit Civics Curriculum: Teacher Behavior and Political Learning,” (Paper prepared for delivery at the 1976 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, September, 1976), p. 15.Google Scholar

73. See Almond, Gabriel and Verba's, Sidney discussion of Mexicans in The Civic Culture (Princeton, 1963).Google Scholar

74. Camp, Roderic A., “The Values and Ideological Beliefs of Mexican Political Leaders Since 1946” Paper presented to the Mid-West Association of Latin Americanists, St. Louis, 1977.Google Scholar

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77. Camp, , Mexico's Leaders.Google Scholar

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