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Interpersonal Relationships and Caudillismo in Paraguay*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Frederic Hicks
Frederic Hicks*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
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Extract

Paraguay has a relatively open (for Latin America) class structure, a strong national consciousness, a two-party political system, and mass involvement in national politics, all of which are features that some writers believe should be associated with representative democracy of the North American type. In Paraguay, however, these features are associated with, and in fact reinforce, a political system which for most of the past century has consisted of a series of conservative and unstable dictatorships.

It will be suggested in this paper that this association is made possible by the development of certain kinds of interpersonal relationships which have been called “dyadic contracts” since they bind two individuals in either patron-client relationships or colleague relationships. They take various institutionalized forms in many peasant societies that lack corporate descent groups, having been described for Italy, Spain, and the Philippines, as well as Latin America.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 89 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1971

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Footnotes

*

Material for this paper was gathered, at first casually and only later systematically, between March 1963 and September 1965 while I was a visiting professor of anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción under the Fulbright-Hays program. I have not been able to keep in touch with developments in Paraguay since leaving that country, however, so except where otherwise noted, the political system is here described as it was in 1965.

References

1 E.g., Wyckoff, Theodore, “The Role of the Military in Latin American Politics,” Western Political Quarterly 13 (September 1960): 745–763 Google Scholar.

2 Foster, George M., “The Dyadic Contract: A Model for the Social Structure of a Mexican Peasant Village,” American Anthropologist 63 (December 1961): 1173–1192 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem. “The Dyadic Contract in Tzintzuntzan, II: Patron-Client Relationships,” ibid. 65 (December 1963): 1280-1294.

3 Boissevain, Jeremy, “Patronage in Sicily,” Man, new ser., 1, no. 1 (March 1966): 18–33 Google Scholar; Silverman, Sydel F., “Patronage and Community-Nation Relationships in Central Italy,” Ethnology 4, no. 2 (April 1965): 172–189 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Kenny, Michael, “Patterns of Patronage in Spain,” Anthropological Quarterly 33 (January 1960): 14–23 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Hollensteiner, Mary R., “Social Structure and Power in a Philippine Municipality,” in Potter, Jack M. et al, eds., Peasant Society: A Reader (Boston: Little-Brown, 1967), pp. 200–212 Google Scholar.

6 Kling, Merle, “Toward a Theory of Power and Political Instability in Latin America,” Western Political Quarterly 9 (March 1956): 21–35 Google Scholar; Wolf, Eric R. and Hansen, Edward C., “Caudillo Politics: A Structural Analysis,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 9, no. 2 (January 1967): 168–179 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Papalucá, Alcides Codas, Cuestiones rurales del Paraguay (Buenos Aires: Editorial Tupa, 1949)Google Scholar; Pastore, Carlos, La lucha por la tierra en el Paraguay: proceso histórico y legislativo (Montevideo: Editorial Antequera, 1949)Google Scholar.

8 Wolf and Hansen, “Caudillo Politics.”

9 Kling, “Theory of Power.”

10 Boissevain, “Patronage in Sicily.”

11 At this writing, President Alfredo Stroessner has succeeded in holding office for more than fifteen years, longer than any president since Carlos Antonio López, and many Paraguayans understandably regard this as “political stability.” However, he has retained office simply by being able to triumph over all attempts to oust him so far, or, as Kling (see footnote 6) would put it, by “a series of successful anticipatory revolts.”

12 Artaza, Policarpo, Qué hizo el Partido Liberal en la oposición y en el gobierno (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos Lucania, 1961), pp. 15–19 Google Scholar; Benítez, Justo Pastor, Formación social del pueblo paraguayo (Asunción & Buenos Aires: Editorial América-Sapucai, 1955), pp. 152–153, 165Google Scholar; Centurión, Carlos P., Historia de la cultura paraguaya I (Asunción: Biblioteca “Ortiz Guerrero”, 1961), pp. 408–413 Google Scholar; Prieto, Justo, Paraguay, la provincia gigante de las Indias (Buenos Aires: Librería-Editorial “El Ateneo”, 1951), pp. 132, 195Google Scholar; Lewis, Paul H., The Politics of Exile: Paraguay's Febrerista Party (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968), pp. 17–25 Google Scholar.

13 Artaza, , Partido Liberal, pp. 33–38 Google Scholar; Cibils, Manuel J., Anarquía y revolución en el Paraguay (Buenos Aires: Editorial Américalee, 1957), pp. 29–31Google Scholar; Lewis, , Politics of Exile, pp. 25–37 Google Scholar; Pastore, , Tierra en Paraguay, pp. 144ffGoogle Scholar; Rivarola, Rodolfo, “El Paraguay Político”, Revista Argentina de Ciencias Políticas, Año 1, 2 (1911): 5–23 Google Scholar; Warren, Harris G., Paraguay, an Informal History (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949), pp. 265–268 Google Scholar.

14 Warren, Harris G., “Political Aspects of the Paraguayan Revolution, 1936—1940,” Hispanic American Historical Review 30 (February 1950): 2–25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 The Febrerista party has repeatedly split into factions, usually identifiable as “left” or “right”, over ideological and tactical issues (see Lewis [footnote 12] for a summary and analysis of these schisms). Generally the more conservative factions have remained active in Paraguay, while the more radical ones have continued their separate organizations in exile. The latter sometimes make news with declarations issued in exile, but their impact on affairs inside Paraguay is negligible.

16 Beals, Ralph L., “Social Stratification in Latin America,” American Journal of Sociology 58 (January 1953): 327–339 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 The distinction between the baile oficial and the baile popular, which the Services found so useful as an indicator of class differences in Tobatí (see Service, Elman R. and Service, Helen S., Tobatí: Paraguayan Town [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954], pp. 136—137 Google Scholar) is either absent or much less formalized in many Paraguayan communities, and is definitely on the decline.

18 Rivarola, Domingo M., “Bases preliminares para el estudio de la movilidad social en el Paraguay,” Revista Paraguaya de Sociología, Año 1, no. 1 (September-December 1964), pp. 9–29 Google Scholar.

19 Foster, “Dyadic Contract.“

20 Foster, , “Dyadic Contract in Tzintzuntzan,” p. 1281 Google Scholar.

21 Mintz, Sidney W. and Wolf, Eric R., “An Analysis of Ritual Co-Parenthood (Compadrazgo),” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 6 (Winter 1950): 341–368 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Service and Service, Tobati, pp. 126-127.

22 Service and Service, Tobatí, chap. 12; cf. for Mexico, Foster, “The Dyadic Contract in Tzintzuntzan,” pp. 1283-1284.

23 Alexander, Robert J., Today's Latin America (Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1962), pp. 88–90 Google Scholar.

24 Hicks, Frederic and Picchioni, Egidio, “Algunos aspectos de la industrialización en una comunidad paraguaya,” Suplemento Antropológico de la Revista del Ateneo Paraguayo 2, no. 1 (Diciembre 1966): 31–54 Google Scholar.

25 Service and Service, Tobati, pp. 126-127.

26 Foster, , “Dyadic Contract in Tzintzuntzan,” p. 1281 Google Scholar.

27 For the purposes of this paper I believe that kinship ties may be treated as dyadic relationships; they are often very strong but still dyadic.

28 Domínguez, Ramiro, “El valle y la loma: comunicación en comunidades rurales,” Suplemento Antropológico de la Revista del Ateneo Paraguayo 1, no. 2 (February 1966): 127–242 Google Scholar.

29 Wolf, and Hansen, , “Caudillo Politics,” pp. 177–178 Google Scholar.

30 Rivarola, Domingo M., “Universidad y estudiantes en una sociedad tradicional,” Aportes 12 (Abril 1969): 63–64 Google Scholar.

31 The statements in the remainder of this paragraph cannot, of course, be documented, and I must present them simply as rumors. These and others like them, however, come with great consistency from a diversity of sources, and I have no doubt that they are true in essence, if not always accurate in detail. I present them despite the lack of substantiation because the Paraguayan political system cannot be understood without taking this kind of information into account.

32 Wolf and Hansen, “Caudillo Politics.“

33 Service and Service, Tobatí, p. 125.

34 At present the Liberal party is split into what are officially two parties (see below). Similar situations have existed in the past and have so far always proved ephemeral.

35 This pattern is apparently not limited to political elections among the rural or provincially-oriented sector. I know of at least one such case involving an election among the highly-educated membership of a professional society in Asunción.

36 Hicks, Frederic, “Politics, Power, and the Role of the Village Priest in Paraguay,” Journal of Inter-American Studies 9 (April 1967): 273–282 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 In Asunción, for example, there are (as of 1965) twenty-five Colorado seccionales, which are divided into subseccionales, and a reported forty-six orthodox Liberal (now Radical Liberal) comités.

38 Reasons for favoritism are various. For example, in Capiatá, in 1965, the party was divided into two factions, and the leader of the faction favored by the Junta de Gobierno impressed me as much less capable than his opponent, until it was pointed out to me by a Junta official that the latter man commuted to work in Asunción (20 km away) and often spent weeks away from Capiatá, hence could not keep closely in touch with local affairs.

39 The description which follows is based on an asamblea which I witnessed, as a guest of the delegation, in a community not far from Villa Hayes in August 1964. Supplemental information was provided by informants who had witnessed or participated in other asambleas.

40 The published expenses of the party for the period September 1963-September 1964, which total Gs. 7,481,906, include as the largest single item Gs. 2,000,000 for 20,000 guardapolvos—the white smocks that form the principal part of the obligatory school uniform. Other items include Gs. 440,000 for 40,000 “President Stroessner” school notebooks, Gs. 100,000 for 40,000 pencils, Gs. 66,500 for 700 first and second grade readers, and Gs. 154,000 for 15,400 boxes of colored pencils. Also in the list of expenses were Gs. 312,000 for the distribution of 1,200 blankets, Gs. 496,350 for medicines and hospital bills, and Gs. 381,000 for the distribution of toys on epiphany (Patria [Asunción], 27 September 1964).

41 See Hicks, “Politics Power,” for an illustration.

42 A survey conducted among Asunción university students in 1965 revealed that, of those willing to respond to a question concerning political affiliation, 36 percent claimed Colorado affiliation, 32 percent Liberal, 20 percent Christian Democratic, and 12 percent Febrerista (university students presumably represent largely the urban, cosmopolitan sector, hence the high proportion of nontraditional affiliations). However, 62 percent declined to give their political affiliation. See Rivarola, Domingo M., “Universidad y estudiantes,” pp. 62–63 Google Scholar.

43 Ibid.

44 Louisville Times, 12 February 1968.