Suchergebnisse

Described is the impact of the increase in petroleum prices by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Oct 1973 on the nineteen oil-importing countries of Latin America. Data on inflation, the interruption of the growth process, balance-of-payments deficits, & the resultant external debt of these countries are presented. Attendant readjustments made at the regional, global, & national levels, as well as the role of the US are also reviewed. Costs of the adjustment were borne chiefly by the poor & Wcs within the region as a result of the transfers of real income. AA.

A questionaire about the perceptions of internat'l stratification in Latin America was applied to a nonrepresentative sample of 327 Latin Amer students of soc sci's, & to a control group of Norwegian students. The students had to distribute the Latin Amer republics in 3 levels of prestige & importance, & a general image of stratification was then inferred. Other questions were concerned with knowledge about Latin America, perceptions of the countries' rank positions on some relevant rank-dimensions, & the criteria used to distribute the countries on levels of prestige & importance. The analysis of the determinants of the image of stratification showed that this derives from the generalized rank-roles played by the countries as a function of their power & development, & does not depend on specific knowledge about the countries. At the conscious level, nevertheless, there is an exclusive concern about accessible elements, mainly industr'ization & educ, & a strong refusal of ascribed rank-criteria. This contradiction between values & actual behavior is interpreted as related to the transition of the internat'l system from a feudal-like to a class-like structure. Some minor variations in the perception of stratification are due to ideological orientations, general level of knowledge & nat'lity of the R's, the last factor being the most important. The effect of nat'lity was explained by an interplay between the country's rank-profile & the place it occupies in the internat'l structure, as well as the place the S occupies in the nat'l structure of stratification. It was indicated that the reciprocal perceptions between pairs of countries can be explained by the degree of rank-equivalence & rank-congruence the pair has. IPSA.

Abundance of pop, shortage of land, & maldistribution of income affect Latin-Amer Ru & Ur areas in analogous fashion. Throughout the area, pop is growing at the rate of 3% per yr, Ru pop's by about 1-1/2% & Ur pop's by 4+%. The concentration in Ur areas is greater in the larger cities, but the cities are not able to absorb the entire annual increment, & unemployment remains high. More rational use of land is called for in both areas. In the cities, progressively higher %'s of people live in shantytowns. There has been little rational planning of Ur facilities to accommodate them. Provision of adequate water, sewage, & transportation would be more costly than most gov's-or consumers-can afford. In the country, the maldistribution of pop & income has resulted in many landless people. Colonization on vacant lands will not solve the problem because of high capital costs & distance from markets. Furthermore agri'al output is progressively less capable of meeting the growing cities' demands. No gov is able to afford the necessary rational distribution of land. Nor are gov's pol'ly oriented toward the dimension of reform needed. Latin Amer must look forward to an intensification of Ru & Ur poverty & its consequences. HA.