Economic Growth and Development

mobilized new groups. In such a system the most important positions of lead-
ership can normally only be attained by those who have served an apprentice-
ship in less important positions. Such institutions impose political
socialization as the price of participation (Huntingdon, 1968). The distinctive
organization in a developing society is the political party.
The Congress Party in India, founded in 1885, is one of the most successful
political parties of any developing country (see Box 12.2). Another example is
the PRI in Mexico (see Box 12.3) which ruled the country for much of the
twentieth century, bringing political order out of political chaos.

Culture 263

Box 12.2 The Congress Party in India

Between independence in 1947 and the mid-1960s the Congress Party functioned

through an elaborate network of factions at every level of political and governmen-

tal activity (Menon, 2003:24, 48). The party provided a system of coordination

between layers of government, different social groups and across the geographical

spread of India. This coordination was typically done through vertical faction

chains that ‘provided a subtle and resilient mechanism for conflict management

and transactional negotiations among the proprietary classes’ (Bardhan, 1984:77).

In power Congress monopolized patronage resources right down to village

government (panchayats), sugar co-operatives, banking corporations, and state-

allocated resources such as licenses, fertilizers, seeds and road construction. This

meant that even those losing out in the struggle for resources had the incentive to

remain within the party system and resume the argument at a later stage. The

central leadership provided a system of mediation, arbitration and inter-level co-

ordination in the party. Congress acted to neutralize some of the more important

cleavages within society, incorporating for example the labour movement and the

leaders of various regionally based language/nationalist movements.

Box 12.3 The National Revolutionary Party (PRI) in

Mexico

The PRI was created by various military leaders at the end of the 1920s after the

Mexican Revolution. The PRI was an autonomous, coherent and flexible politi-

cal system that combined a reasonably high centralization of power with its own

expansion of power; by the 1940s organized social forces such as the military,

labour and farmers had been successfully incorporated into the party. Once

inside they were subject to the institutionalized bargaining and compromises of

the party structure. A limit of six years on presidential terms gave candidates an

incentive to remain in the party and attain office at a later attempt. After repeated

military interventions in politics before the 1930s Mexico acquired a striking

degree of political stability (Huntingdon, 1968).