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The structure of political conflict. The oligarchs and the bourgeoisie in the Chilean Congress, 1834–1894

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Abstract

This article develops a model to explain the incorporation of new groups into the political elites in oligarchic societies. In this model, factions within the traditional power-holding group compete, and as their conflict escalates, they recruit the support of groups traditionally excluded from politics. This mechanism changes the ruling class’s social composition without the need for a substantial push from lower-status groups. I apply this model to analyze sequential changes in the social composition of the Chilean Congress from 1834 to 1894. To identify old versus new elites, I use an original database of kinship ties among all Chilean ministers and Congress members. By combining social network analysis and historical evidence, I show that, in times of increased intra-oligarchic conflict, groups traditionally excluded from the inner circles of power – the bourgeoisie and the bureaucrats initially – made breakthroughs in their political representation.

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Data availability

The data on kinship is available in the link below. Other data used in the study will be available upon request.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/naimbro/naimbro.github.io/main/data/naimbro_chilean_political_networks.csv

Code availability

The code utilized in this study will be available upon request.

Notes

  1. Bourdieu is not usually thought of as a historical sociologist. For a discussion on this dimension of his work see Bourdieu and Historical Analysis / Philip S. Gorski, Ed. (2012).

  2. Bourdieu’s most direct empirical referent is the conflict between French king Louis XIII and his immediate family when he exiled his mother, Marie de Medici, and his brother Gaston while upholding the authority of his minister Richelieu.

  3. This database is available in the following link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/naimbro/naimbro.github.io/main/data/naimbro_chilean_political_networks.csv

  4. See Barbier (1972) and Amunátegui Solar (1903) for a list of entails and nobility titles in Chile’s colonial period.

  5. At its start, the new Liberal party’s meetings rotated between the Errázuriz, Vial, and Ottoman Larraín residences (Vicuña Mackenna, 1878, p. 244).

  6. For instance, a newspaper reported an October 1858 banquet organized by the opposition, which represented all the “old families of Santiago” (Collier, 2003, p. 174).

  7. Pérez was a member of the Ottoman branch of the Larraín extended clan on his mother’s side. The Pérez and the Larraín families had intermarried on multiple occasions and were political allies during independence wars (Felstiner, 1970). However, Pérez was an atypical member. He supported the Pelucón regime in the 1830s despite his clan’s Pipiolo background. Then he endorsed Montt in the presidency despite his family’s Liberal leaning. Pérez’s ambiguous political allegiance probably made him the right consensus candidate in 1861.

  8. The Montt-administration reforms of 1854 had raised the income required for citizens to vote (Amunátegui Solar, 1932, p. 341).

  9. For a discussion on the role of Conservative parties in democratization processes, see (Ziblatt, 2017).

  10. The first member to come to Chile, in 1685, was Santiago Larraín Vicuña. His nephew – Martín José Larraín Vicuña – followed his steps sometime after, attracted by the prospect of partaking in his uncle’s business as a merchant. Uncle and nephew established two branches of the Larraín family that later would be known as Marquises and Ottomans, respectively. The term “Marquis” was given to the older branch of the Larraín clan after José Toribio Larraín Guzmán purchased the title of marquis in 1787. The Spanish viceroy Fernando Abascal referred to the newer addition of the Larraín family as “Ottoman.” The founders of the Vicuña and Errázuriz families in Chile were relatives of the Larraín. Tomás Vicuña Berroeta came from Aranaz in 1715; Francisco Javier Errázuriz Larraín arrived later. Like their Larraín relatives, Vicuña and Errázuriz became merchants and rose in the Santiago society quickly. In 1721, Vicuña became a member of Santiago’s governing body, as did Errázuriz in 1746.

  11. Quoted in Sagredo (2001, p. 129).

  12. Lauro Barros Valdés, Francisco Javier García Huidobro Eyzaguirre, Borja García Huidobro Eyzaguirre, Felix Mackenna Vicuña, Alfredo Ovalle Vicuña, Calixto Ovalle Vicuña, Ruperto Ovalle Vicuña, Ricardo Vicuña Ovalle, Nemesio Vicuña Mackenna, Francisco de Paula Pérez Ovalle.

  13. Álvaro Covarrubias Ortúzar, Daniel Ortúzar Cuevas, Ramón Valdés Ortúzar, Víctor Ismael Valdés Valdés, Federico Errázuriz Echaurren, Ladislao Errázuriz Echaurren, Silvestre Ochagavía Errázuriz, Carlos Irarrázaval Larraín, Manuel José Irarrázaval Larraín, Enrique Larraín Alcalde, Antonio Subercaseaux Vicuña, Francisco Ramón Undurraga Vicuña.

  14. For research in this vein, see Higley (2006).

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Acknowledgements

This article benefited from feedback from Manali Desai, Teije Donker, Andrés Estefane, Tod van Gunten, Hazem Kandil, Alejandro Lerch, Elvira López, Juan Pablo Luna, Paul McLean, Liran Morav, Daniel Tanis, and Belén Unzueta, as well as from the audiences at the 2019 SSHA panel on political elites, the Oxford Latin American Centre Seminar, and the course Comparative Democratization at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. I also thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. All remaining errors are mine.

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This work was funded by ANID—Millennium Science Initiative Program—Code ICN17_002.

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Bro, N. The structure of political conflict. The oligarchs and the bourgeoisie in the Chilean Congress, 1834–1894. Theor Soc 52, 353–386 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-022-09491-3

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