Power and Society in Contemporary Peru

Bourricaud, François, Power and Society in Contemporary Peru, (translated by Paul Stevenson), New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.

From the inner-sleeve:

It is François Bourricaud’s contention that the accepted picture of Peru as an explosive amalgam of all-powerful oligarchy and impoverished masses is oversimplified. The general situation in the country has, in fact, been steadily changing over the past thirty years, though the process of “social mobilization” – with the decline of the traditional economy, the increase of urban discontent, and the emergence of a middle class of educated mestizos. And further, the oligarchy, by no means monolithic, consists of different groups with varying interests and attitudes, such as the sierra landowners and the coastal cotton and sugar magnates. The political system, the author maintains, is to some extent self regulating and responsive to social pressures.

Reviewed in The Americas © 1972.

Reviewed in The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1971.

Reviewed in The American Political Science Review © 1971.