Politics in a Neighbourhood of Guatemala City

Abstract

Urban life in a low-income neighbourhood of a Latin-American city does not encourage political activity or radical political attitudes. In a neighbourhood populated mainly by migrants, inhabitants are politically conscious, aware of their relative poverty and have access to reform-orientated political parties. Yet there is little evidence of consistent and active support for political parties of any kind. This is accounted for by the absence of social cleavages in the economic and social structure of a city that has little industrialization or bureaucratization. There are no bases for political action among low-income inhabitants beyond that offered by neighbourhood problems. Residents develop individual sets of spatially extensive and socially heterogeneous relations to cope with urban life. These sets of relations and the nature of neighbourhood problems militate against united political action.