The Philanthropic Ogre

In: Dissent: a journal devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy, Band 26, Heft 1, S. 43-52

Abstract

In the twentieth century the state has become a self-reproducing machine, which has only recently been exposed to criticism. The state plays a peculiar role, both patrimonial & modernizing, in Latin American nations, of which Mexico offers an example. The state founded by the PRI party has grown strong while weakening the society in which it operates, creating parallel bureaucracies of politicians & administrators/technocrats. This state's two bureaucracies are run respectively on personal & technical patterns. Mexico has not undergone genuine modernization, due partly to attempts to adopt patterns of modernity from other countries rather than developing them indigenously. W. H. Stoddard.