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Sources of Student Violence in Latin America an Analysis of the Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Jaime Suchlicki
Jaime Suchlicki*
Affiliation:
University of Miami
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The Resort to Violence by University Students Has Become A Common occurrence not only in developing countries but also in the more industrialized ones. Voluminous recent literature on the general subject of violence has not greatly expanded our understanding of this important problem. Similarly, literature on student movements is increasing but analyses of student violence per se are still scarce. We know less about the causes of student violence than we do about the scope and intensity of the phenomenon, yet why, when, how, and under what conditions people resort to violence are still unresolved questions. Partial answers are in, although to what effect remains to be seen.

Type
Topical Review
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , Fall 1972 , pp. 31 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

This article is part of a larger study the author is conducting at the Center for Advanced International Studies of the University of Miami on the role of university students in Latin American politics. The author is grateful to Professor John P. Harrison for valuable criticisms and suggestions.

References

Notes

1. Some of the contemporary research on Latin American students has been summarized by John H. Peterson, “Recent Research on Latin American Students,” LARR, 5:1:37-58 (Spring 1970), and Robert Arnove, “A Survey of Literature and Research on Latin American Universities,” LARR, 3:1:45-62 (Fall 1967). See also Philip Altbach's useful annotated bibliography, A Select Bibliography on Students, Politics, and Higher Education (Cambridge, 1967); H. F. Dame, et al., eds., The Political Influence of University Students in Latin America: An Analytical Survey of Research Studies and Related Lectures (Washington, D.C., 1965), and Joseph Love, “Sources for the Latin American Student Movement; Archives of the U.S. National Student Association,” The Journal of Developing Areas (Jan. 1967). Much of the recent scholarly research on student behavior has been summarized by S. M. Lipset, “University Students and Politics in Under-developed Countries,” In: Student Politics, S. M. Lipset, ed (N.Y., 1967).

2. The one exception to this generalization seems to be la violencia in Colombia, which has generated numerous studies. See Richard S. Weinert, “Violence in Pre-Modern Societies: Rural Colombia,” The American Political Science Review, 60 (June 1966); Robert C. Williamson, “Toward a Theory of Political Violence: The Case of Rural Colombia,” Western Political Q., 28 (March 1965); and Germán Guzmán, et al., eds., “La Violencia en Colombia,” Monografías Sociológicas (Bogotá: National University, 1962). For a fine collection of essays on the causal factors of violence in Latin America, see Francisco José Moreno and Barbara Mitrani, eds., Conflict and Violence in Latin American Politics (N.Y., 1971). (Ed.: The next issue of LARR (8:1, Spring 1973) will contain an article by R. W. Ramsey, entitled, “Critical Bibliography on La Violencia in Colombia.”

3. See D. P. Bwy, “Political Instability in Latin America: The Cross Cultural Test of a Causal Model,” LARR, 3:2:17-66. Comments and criticisms on Bwy's article can be found in the same issue, 67-87.

4. William S. Stokes, “Violence as a Power Factor in Latin American Politics,” Western Political Q., 5:445-469 (Sept. 1952).

5. Merle King, “Violence and Politics in Latin America,” In: Latin American Radicalism, I. L. Horowitz, et al., eds. (N.Y., 1969).

6. Martin Needler, Political Development in Latin America: Instability, Violence and Evolutionary Change, 44-46 (N.Y., 1968).

* The next issue of LARR (Spring 1973) will carry an article by Dani B. Thomas and Richard B. Craig entitled “Student Dissent in Latin America: Toward a Comparative Analysis.”

7. This definition is based partially on a more general definition of political violence provided by Donald Morris in “Political Violence and Political Modernization in Mexico” (Unpublished Dissertation, University of Wsconsin).

8. John Tate Lanning, Old World Background of Latin American Culture, 22 (Tucson, 1960).

9. Cristóbal B. de la Plaza y Jaén, Crónica de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de México escrita en el siglo XVII, 1:8 (México, 1931).

10. See Daniel Valcárcel, Reformas virreinales en San Marcos, 67-68 (Lima, 1960).

11. Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, La universidad latinoamericana, 5 (México, 1961).

12. John P. Harrison, “The Confrontation with the Political University,” In: The Dynamics of Change in Latin America, John D. Martz, ed., 229 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1965). See also International Student Conference, University Reform in Latin America (Leiden: COSEC, n.d.); Richard J. Walter, Student Politics in Argentina (N.Y., 1968); and Arthur Liebman, Kenneth Walker and Myron Glazer, Latin American University Students: A Six Nation Study (Cambridge, Mass., 1972).

13. Lewis A. Coser, “Violence and the Social Structure,” Science and Psychoanalysis, 6:30-42 (1963).

14. See E. Wight Bakke, “Roots and Soil of Student Activism,” In: Student Politics, S. M. Lipset, ed., 69-70 (N.Y., 1967).

15. Alistair Hennessy, “University Students in National Politics,” In: The Politics of Conformity in Latin America, Claudio Véliz, ed., 119 (London, 1967).

16. Hennessy, “University Students,” 143.

17. Robert E. Scott, “Student Political Activism in Latin America,” Daedalus, 97:70 (Winter 1968).

18. Sergio Luján Silveira, “La juventud uruguaya,” Mundo Nuevo, 34:5 (April 1969).

19. See William S. Tuohy and Barry Ames, Mexican University Students in Politics: Rebels without Allies? (Denver, 1969-1970).

20. Ana María Portugal, “Realidad y rebelión en el Perú,” Mundo Nuevo, 34:25 (April 1969).

21. Myron Glazer, “Student Politics in a Chilean University,” Daedalus, 97:104-105 (Winter, 1968); S. Walter Washington, “The Political Activity of Latin American Students,” In: Latin American Politics, Robert Tomasek, ed., 125 (N.Y., 1966); and John H. Petersen, “Student Political Activism in Guatemala,” Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs (Jan., 1971).

22. The project covers five Latin American countries: Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Paraguay, Uraguay, and also Puerto Rico. Data from other countries, such as Brazil, were incorporated. The project was initiated at the Institute of International Sudies, Universiy of California, Berkeley, and was later continued at he Cener for International Affairs, Harvard University.

23. Orlando Albornoz, “Student Opposition in Latin America,” Government and Opposition, 2:105-118 (Nov., 1966).

24. Jaime Suchlicki, University Students and Revolution in Cuba (Coral Gables, 1969).

25. K. H. Silvert, “The University Student,” In: Continuity and Change in Latin America, John J. Johnson, ed., 222-224 (Stanford, 1964).

26. See Lucian Pye, Politics, Personality, and Nation Building: Burma's Search for Identity, 166 (New Haven, 1962).

27. Darcy Ribeiro, “Universities and Social Development,” In: Elites in Latin America, Seymour Martin Lipset, Aldo Solari, et al., eds., 368 (N.Y., 1967).

28. Domingo M. Rivarola, “Universidad y estudiantes en una sociedad tradicional,” Aportes, 12:50 (April 1969).

29. Myron Glazer, “Chile,” In: Students and Politics in Developing Nations, Donald K. Emmerson, ed., 309 (N.Y., 1968).

30. Octavio Paz, México: la última década (Austin, Texas: University of Texas, Institute of Latin American Studies Hackett Memorial Lecture, 1969). Arthur Liebman, “Student Activism in Mexico,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (May 1971), concludes that the principal moving force behind the student rebellion was the moral outrage of thousands of uninvolved students who responded to what they fell*** was unwarranted police brutality in quelling a campus uprising. But he adds that other factors which increased student rebelliousness included cuts in the university budget, strong antipathy toward the PRI, and the fact that “the students knew that the PRI had made graf*** and corruption an intrinsic part of the Mexican people's way of life.” See also James N*** Goodsell, “Mexico: Why the Students Rioted,” Current History (Jan. 1969).

31. Manuel Cepeda, “U.S. Imperialism Penetrates Latin American Universities,” World Marxist Review, 11:8:58-65 (Aug. 1968).

32. V. Teitelboim, “Problems Facing Latin American Intellectuals,” Political Affairs, 48:3:4-5 (March 1969).

33. Leopoldo Zea, “La universidad aquí y ahora,” Deslinde (México), 4:8 (May-Aug. 1969).

34. Iván Barrientos, La formación del estudiante universitario, 25 (Lawrence, Kan.; The University of Kansas, Center for Latin American Studies, Jan. 1968).

35. See Albornoz, “Student Opposition,” 109; Petersen, “Student Political Activism,” 1; and Lipset, “University Students,” 45.

36. Albornoz, “Student Opposition,” 112.

37. See Francis Donahue, “Students in Latin American Politics,” Antioch Review, 26:94 (Spring 1966); E. Wight Bakke, “Students on the March: The Cases of Mexico and Colombia,” Sociology of Education, 37:204 (Spring 1964); Petersen, “Student Political Activism,” 4; Hennessy, “University Students,” 132.

38. Albornoz, “Student Opposition,” 109.

39. Frank Bonilla, “The Chilean Student Federation,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, 2:329 (July 1960).

40. Suchlicki, University Students.

41. Roberta E. Koplin has proposed a model of student politicization which isolates three systemic variables which are essential in influencing student behavior: 1) the structure of the educational system; 2) the propensity of the authorities to sanction (positively or negatively) political opposition; and 3) the degree of political congruence between the student population and the political elite. See Roberta E. Koplin, “A Model of Student Politicization in the Developing Nations,” Comparative Political Studies, 3 (Oct. 1968).

42. See Ted Gurr, “Psychological Factors in Civil Violence,” World Politics, 20:245-278 (Jan. 1968).

43. Ted Gurr, “A Causal Model of Civil Strife; A Comparative Analysis Using New Indices,” American Political Science Review, 52 (Dec. 1968), and Gurr and Charles Ruttenberg, The Conditions of Civil Violence: First Tests of a Causal Model, Research Monograph 28 (Princeton: Center of International Studies, Princeton University, 1967).

44. Bryant Wedge, “The Case Study of Student Political Violence: Brazil, 1964, and Dominican Republic, 1965,” World Politics, 21:188 (Jan. 1969).

45. For a general discussion see Philip G. Altbach, “Student and Politics,” Comparative Education Review, 10:2:180-187 (June 1966). For fruitful results that this type of research can provide see Frank Bonilla's unpublished Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard, “Students in Politics: Three Generations of Political Action in a Latin American University,” and his article “The Student Federation of Chile: 50 Years of Political Action,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, 311-334 (July 1960).

46. See James F. Tierney, “Students, Politics, and the University: Some Inter-American Observations,” Student Activism and Higher Education (N.Y., Institute of International Education, 1970).