The Images of International Stratification in Latin America

A questionnaire about the perceptions of international stratification in Latin America was applied to a non-representative sample of 327 Latin American students of social sciences, and also to a control group of Norwegian students. The students had to distribute the Latin American republics in three levels of prestige and importance, and 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, and the criteria used to distribute the countries on levels of prestige and 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 and development, and does not depend on specific knowledge about the countries. At the conscious level, nevertheless, there is an exclusive concern about accessible elements, mainly industrialization and education, and a strong refusal of ascribed rank-criteria. This contradiction between values and actual behavior is interpreted as related to the transition of the international 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 and nationality of the respondents, the last factor being the most important. The effect of nationality was explained by an interplay between the country's rank-profile and the place the country occupies in the international structure, as well as the place the subject occupies in the national structure of stratifica tion. It was indicated that the reciprocal perceptions between pairs of countries can be explained by the degree of rank-equivalence and rank-congruence the pair has.