Page 390 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-24 1/10/09 8:55 AM Page 361

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN LATIN AMERICA 361

government, and then to create public policies ... extremely complex in the actual political
so things can be reversed and it becomes possible dynamic. The popular sectors in Latin
to work efficiently, and to get involved with the America have historically engaged in diverse
people’s health ... their basic needs ... (Case S5.
Male leader of a student association in ‘multi-class’ alliances, which may include
El Salvador). the intellectuals, the army, nationalist entre-
preneurs, etc. Certain members of these elites
The fourth question (‘Who speaks on have actually become the ‘representatives’ of
behalf of the people?’) raises the issue of col- the people at different times and in different
lective identity and political representation. contexts. While the first question deals with
The idea of the ‘people’ is given in public the representation of ‘Us’ as victims of injus-
discourse in Latin America. Never precisely tice, the fourth question brings the respon-
defined, it usually refers to the majority of dents to express their perception of the
the population as it stands outside – and ‘popular’ sectors as organized actors in the
against – the ruling classes, that is, the rich socio-political arena. Table 24.4 shows that
and powerful groups and families (some- the national situation affected the kind of
times seen as intertwined with foreign inter- response we got. In El Salvador, for example,
ests and thus alienated from the national the presidential election made activists more
community). But this dichotomy becomes aware of the right-left divide and of the political

Table 24.4 ‘Who speaks on behalf of the people?’
EL SALVADOR HONDURAS
WORD TF PF Z WORD TF PF Z
the Church 57 44 24 the Church 61 53 35
voice 31 25 15 labour unions 42 28 14
the poor 106 53 15 voice 27 21 13
organizations 85 44 14 leadership 32 22 11
leadership 26 21 13 the poor 94 37 8
leaders 27 20 11 Catholic 14 11 7
Catholic 19 15 9 Bloque popular 31 17 7
Monseñor Romero 17 13 8 organizations 119 41 7
FMLN 93 32 5 proposals 14 11 7
ballot 19 11 5 truth 431 102 6
obtains 11 8 5 role 28 15 6
(to) change 30 15 5 force 36 16 5
plan 35 16 5 movement 88 27 4
(to) vote 14 8 4 I 232 57 4
(Handal) Schafik 16 9 4 actions 30 11 3
(to) mention 20 10 4 CGT 28 10 3
the left 65 23 4 (we) believe 59 17 3
(we) can 72 23 4 our 57 16 3
defense 13 8 4 labour union 47 14 3
leader 13 8 4 parties 31 12 3
churches 11 7 4 NGOs 20 9 3
message 11 7 4 ability 18 8 3
politicians 35 14 4 leaders 16 8 3
unions 16 7 3 we 460 95 3
(we) see 42 15 3 (ordinary) people 190 44 3
the right 57 18 3 (I) believe 104 27 3
party 124 32 3
campaign 13 7 3
TF: Total Frequency – number of times a given word appears in the activists’ discourse as a whole;
PF: Partial Frequency – number of times a given word is used by activists to respond to a specific question;
Z: Level of significance of the difference between the expected partial frequency and the observed partial frequency