Clases sociales e intereses de clase en América Latina: Niveles de confianza en sindicatos y empresas

PÉREZ, PABLO; ELBERT, RODOLFO

Santiago de Chile

Congreso; V Seminario Internacional de Desigualdad y Movilidad Social; 2019

Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social

Class analysis refers to a broad set of concepts such as class structure, class consciousness, class formation, and collective action (Wright, 2015). Scholars interested in class usually analyze the relationship between class, consciousness, and collective action by emphasizing how class location shapes people?s material interests and their propensity to act collectively. These scholars have demonstrated, for example, that working-class people are more likely to have more critical stances regarding inequality, to hold oppositional views on class, and to endorse redistributive policies than say, employers or managers (cf. Hadler, 2005; Kreidl, 2000; Manza and Brooks, 2008; Svallfors, 2006; Wright, 1997). In doing so, class analysis has paid little attention to the study of how collective action is a mechanism that might reinforce people?s understanding of the material interests shaped by their class location. Both Marxist class analysis and social movement research argue that collective action politicizes people and consequently reinforces the awareness of their class interests (cf. Elster, 1985; Fantasia, 1988; McAdam, 1989; Wright, 1997; Tarrow, 2011 [1994]). However, investigations that conceive collective action participation as an independent variable are scarce This article focuses on this less-examined side of the causal relations between class, collective action, and class consciousness. Following a neo-Marxist approach (Wright, 2015), we examine whether class location shapes people?s class interests and whether collective action participation is associated with a stronger awareness of class interests. We draw upon data from the World Value Survey (2011-2013) and analyze several Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay). Country fixed-effect regression models suggest that class location is a significant determinant of class interests; people located in a working-class or informal self-employed class location have more critical stances towards neoliberal institutions, values or outcomes (e.g. they are more likely to criticize income disparities or the absence of government intervention) than the respondents located in a privileged class location (e.g. expert managers). The models also show that the effect of collective action participation is more complex than that of class. In several cases, participation in collective actions does not produce significant variations in people?s sociopolitical interests. We explain these results by noting differences in the socio-political trajectories of these countries.