home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Countries of the World
/
COUNTRYS.BIN
/
dp
/
0383
/
03833.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-06-25
|
32KB
|
516 lines
$Unique_ID{COW03833}
$Pretitle{297}
$Title{Uruguay
Chapter 6B. Social Mobility and Change}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{The Director Foreign Area Studies}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{family
class
children
middle
families
lower
social
parents
percent
upper}
$Date{1971}
$Log{}
Country: Uruguay
Book: Area Handbook for Uruguay
Author: The Director Foreign Area Studies
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date: 1971
Chapter 6B. Social Mobility and Change
Because of an urbanized society and an expanding industrial base, Uruguay
has had a highly mobile society in the past, but by 1970 mobility had
lessened. A survey conducted in Montevideo and the rural areas between 1958
and 1962 revealed that, from a random sample of 1,718 male household heads,
about one-fourth belonged to a higher class than their fathers, slightly over
half had maintained the same class position, and approximately one-sixth were
in a lower class than their fathers.
In the same period the percentage of individuals performing nonmanual
work increased slightly, with a concurrent decrease in the proportion of
manual labor. In general, the long-term trend is toward an increase in size
of the upper and middle classes and a concurrent decline in the lower class.
Upward mobility is limited by the importance of personal and family
connections in obtaining a job or social position. Selection for positions in
the government or private enterprises is generally based on kinship,
membership in a certain club or political faction, or friendship rather than
on universalistic criteria such as standardized tests, educational level,
grades, or experience. When such criteria are applied, the candidate has
usually already been selected on the basis of personal relationships.
Recruitment for the top professional, administrative, and executive positions
in business and government occurs almost entirely from within the ranks of the
upper class. Mobility is greater for the middle-status positions but decreases
at the lowest levels of society, where individuals rarely move significantly
higher than the level of their fathers.
Overcrowding at the upper levels of society decreases the chance for
mobility, particularly for young educated, middle class individuals. The long
life expectancy means that many top positions are held for long periods of
time by older men. Because the country is small and the economy is expanding
slowly, it is unable to absorb the number of qualified applicants, and many
are forced to emigrate. Some Uruguayans feel that the extent of foreign
capital and investment in the country also limits their possibilities for
advancement (see ch. 4, Population and Labor Force).
Education is the most common avenue for social mobility, and secondary
academic school plays an especially significant role. Studies indicate that,
if an individual exceeds the educational level of his father, he will
probably experience some upward mobility, while a failure to achieve the same
amount of education as the father will result in a decline in social status.
A study made in Montevideo found that almost 50 percent of the residents were
more extensively educated than their fathers, while only 10 percent had less
formal education.
The level of educational attainment, however, is directly dependent on
the economic and class position of the family. Even in government elementary
schools, the dropout rate between the first and sixth grades in urban areas is
50 percent, in comparison to 80 percent in the poorer rural schools. Academic
secondary education is highly valued as a road to middle class status, but for
lower class and lower middle class families it is a heavy drain on the family
resources, and many families are reluctant to permit entry into the secondary
school unless they are sure that the child can go through to the university
level. In a study made in Montevideo, it was shown that the children of upper
class families are much more likely to finish academic secondary school than
those of the lower class. A sample of a public high school revealed that 27
percent of the first-year class and only 13 percent of the last-year class
were of the lower stratum of society (see ch. 8, Education).
Technical and vocational education is increasingly unpopular, since it
leads to occupations involving manual labor, and is gradually being replaced
by academic schooling in the aspirations of the lower middle and lower
classes. If the child of a lower-level white-collar worker fails in secondary
school, his parents are likely to send him to a business school, where he will
be trained to perform white-collar work even if at the lowest level. In
Montevideo a working-class child with low or failing grades tends to stay in
school longer than the child of lower middle class parents in a similar
situation. The child of lower middle class parents is more likely to avail
himself of the business school option, since the father's personal connections
within the middle class will enable him to find a position for his son. In
contrast, unless the working-class child finishes secondary school, he is
likely to slip back into the lower class.
University education continues to be almost exclusively an upper and
upper middle class prerogative. A 1960 university census indicated that at the
time of matriculation 30 percent of the student body was upper class, 46
percent middle class, and 12 percent lower class. Since the dropout rate is
higher for the poorer students, even fewer lower and lower middle class
children gain university degrees than matriculate. In 1968 another survey
indicated than 60 percent of the students were from Montevideo, 32 percent
from the interior, and 8 percent from abroad. Of the provincial students,
however, only 2.5 percent came from the rural sector, and almost none were
from the poorest segments of rural society (see ch. 8, Education).
A person can also achieve higher status by landownership, by the
transition from manual to nonmanual labor, and by an elegant life style. The
noticeable display of material prosperity in socially accepted forms increases
an individual's social prestige. Membership in high-status social clubs or
associations and marriage into a more influential and powerful family are
other avenues of social advancement.
Class consciousness is characteristic of the upper class and some
segments of the lower class, such as the unionized industrial workers, but is
generally lacking among the agricultural workers and peasants. Many middle
class people in Montevideo and the interior towns are aware of their class
interests as expressed through political ideologies of the Colorado Party and
of their existence as a social category. The disparate nature of the middle
class, however, prevents the entire social group from experiencing a unified
class consciousness. In some cases the upper fringes identify with the upper
class and, although the lower middle class may be anxious to emulate middle
class ideals and habits, it often lacks the material means and education to
lead the accepted middle class way of life.
There is some evidence that during the 1960s class differences had
become accentuated in response to inflation, economic crises, and increasing
domestic violence. Government employees experienced a significant drop in real
wages between 1961 and 1966, and, in the same period, incomes of agricultural
workers and laborers also decreased. The rampant inflation of the 1957-67
period was far more damaging to the middle and lower classes than to the
commercial, business, and landowning elites. During the 1960s labor union
activity was intense, producing increased political and class consciousness
among the urban industrial working class and some unionized segments of the
middle class, such as government employees (see ch. 20, Labor Relations and
Organization).
The wage and price stabilization program of the late 1960s was
beginning to improve