Externalities in the Displacement of Traditional Elites

Abstract

Implicit in any description of conditions in the recently developing less developed countries is the assumption that their processes of production and distribution operate within rigidly stratified societal structures. Of course, for many of these recently developing countries, their strata are neither perfectly static nor absolutely rigid. Nevertheless, and particularly in the least developed and the most slowly developing, rigidity will be an appropriate assumption. Where it is relatively strong, it will be a limitation to the growth process of an importance equal to if not greater than that of the real economic ones, such as low levels of savings, and equal to if not more important than those of a physical nature, such as a lack of readily accessible natural resources. Stratification is a system of group relationships. However, no one system is likely to be universally applicable nor perfectly reproduced, even in a limited sample of less developed countries. The reason for this is that both the level and the rate of development will affect the diversity of groups and their relationships. A developing country is not only expanding the scope of its market economy but, concomitantly, the potential, if not the real, specialization of its economic, social, and political functions. To the extent that this specialization be realized in the area of economic activities, there will be an increase in the number of steps and groups involved in production and distribution and an increase in the complexity of their relationships. Since the level and rate of development will differ from country to country, the degree of diversity among the groups and the complexity of their relationships will vary. Therefore, the system of social stratification of any one country will not be perfectly reproduced in any other country. Given a country's system of social stratification, rigidity will be an element influencing the relationships between the various groups. As such, it is the converse of vertical mobility and is directly a function of the growth process. Economic development, even if narrowly thought of as merely a process of industrial expansion, should reduce the rigidities in the system of social stratification by increasing the opportunities for vertical economic