LEVEL OF mousmumson AND , i‘ i ' POLITICAL 1950va OF mnusrmmwoams; f mun-wwm‘i‘unvq - f f - Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D. f V ‘ MICHleAN STATE UNIVERSITY ‘ ‘ , MQHAMMAD u. SALEHI - _ -. > * ' 1971 ' f 7 . ’ A ydh'v‘l‘a . I . -.«' |_ ‘( “‘93“ 1.: . a I '.I- - - Date LIBRARY Michigan State UDI‘X' CfSity This is to certify that the thesis entitled Level of Industrialization and Political Ideology of Industrial Workers: A Four-Nation Study presented by Mohammad M. Salehi has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. 416813831 Sociology Major professor April 6, 1971 0-7639 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to increase our under- standing of some of the stratification conditions which structure the political orientations of automobile workers. Data were employed from four countries (India. Argentina, Italy and the United states) which differed in socio-cultural contents and level of industrialization. The literature indicated that three types of stratification conditions in- fluence political orientations; stratal position, mobility eXperience, and status inconsistency. In addition. the in- dustrial context of the country may have an effect. For each of these conditions certain variables were selected for their sensitivity to the political orientation of actors. For the stratal approach the variables were skill. level of education, community of socialization, and seniority; for the mobility approach, intergenerational career and occupational mobility pattern were selected, and for the status inconsistency approach a measure was con- structed which included skill. education, and community of socialization. Since the data was taken from societies differing in their level and pace of industrialization, the contextual approach was simply taken to help interpret dif- ferences in the other findings. The findings reveal that variables in the stratal approach were most sensitive to differences in political ideologies and among them, education was the strongest. For countries with high pace of industrialization, such as Italy. mobility variables proved to be very sensitive to differences in ideologies. In general, education and skill tended to be radical- izing forces. While mobility also tended to radicalize, this situation was not a universal pattern. The measure of status inconsistency was related to political orientation only for the American workers. Contrary to our expectations, status inconsistent workers were more liberal than the consistent ones 9 LEVEL OF INDUSTRIALIZATION AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS: A FOUR-NATION STUDY by 4 MOHAMMAD MliSALEHI A THESIS Submitted to MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 1971 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research is the indirect product of the sociology department at michigan state university. Although my debt to others is great I am most indebted to my advisor, Professor william H. Form. My works in sociology and the develOpment of my sociological perspective is in no small measure due to Professor Form's sincere and generous efforts. In addition, Professor Form has provided for me an example of how to be a sincere teacher. who stresses intellectual honesty and a passionate insistance on socio- logical objectivity. I am also indebted to the other members of my committee, Professors William A. Faunce, J. Allan Beegle, and Grafton Trout. I owe Professor Faunce a special thanks for his care- ful review of my early research and for his crucial criticism which improved my work considerably. Finally. I should like to eXpress my appreciation to two other members of the faculty for my intellectual develOpment. Professors Bo Anderson and James McKee. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGWNTSCCOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.00.0000... ii TABLE OFTABLESOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.0...COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... iv Chapter 1 STATEWNT OF Tm P R0 BLEM O O O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O l IntroduCtionOOOOOICOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOCOOOOOO0.00.00.00.1- Theory...OOOOOOIOOOOOOOOOOOIII.OOOOOOOOOIOOOOOOOOOOOOOB ReView Of Literatureocoo00000000000000.0000000000000004 Ex¥eCted FindingSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOO00.12 Me hOdOIOgy...OCOOOCOO00......O0.00.00.00.0000000000018 Chapter 2 TH}: RESFAARCH SITESOIOOOOIOOOO.0000.OOOOIOOOOOOOIOIOOOZA The Four Citiesoocoococo0.0000000000000000coco-00000024 Technological Characteristics of the Plants..........31 General Descriptions of the variables..,,...,........32 Chapter 3 FINDINGSOOOOOOOOI.000.00.00.00000.000.000.000...0....u3 stratal ApproaChooooooocoooooono...oooooooooooooooooou3 MObility ApproaChOOOOOOIOOOIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIOOOOOOOOOL‘S InconSiStancy ApproaChoooooooooooo0000000000000occooou6 SummaryOOOOOIOOOOOOOOO0.0.0.0..0.00.00.00.0000000000046 Chapter 4 MULTI-VARIATE ANALYSIS...g.oococo-oo-cocoon-00000000050 stratal ApproaChooooo0.0000000000000000.000000000000050 MObility ApproaChoooooooooooococooooooooccoooooooooocél InconSiStency ApproaChoooocoooooooccoco.no.000000000065 SumarYOOOOOOOOOOOOO0......00.0.0.0...OOIOOOOIOOOI... 9 Chapter 5 INTERPRETATION OF THE FINDINGS.......................72 Conclusion...‘OCOIIOOOOOOOOOIOO0.0.0....0.000.0.0.00079 Appendix A Dependent variable: Political Ideology..............80 Ind8pendent variableBOQOQQOOcooooo0.0000000000000000082 Appendix BCUOOOOOOOOOOOO0.0.0.0....OOOOOOOOIOIOOOOOOOOI.0085 REFERENCES...‘OOOIOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOIOOO.0.0.0....00.0.0.0...98 iii TABLE OF TABLES TABLE NUMBER PAGE 2.1 sector Compositions of Nations, states, and Research sites, 1960, in Percents..,...,........27 2.2 social and Economic characteristics of Four CitiBSOOOOOO0.0.0....ODOOOOOOIIOOOOOOOOIOOOOOO..28 2.3 Work Operations of Samples (representative) of Automobile Workers in Four Plants, in PercentSOOOOO00......OOIOOCOIOOOOOCOOOOOOOI0.00.33 2.# Labor Force Characteristics of the samples Of Four PlantSOOOOOOOOOOO.00.000.00.00...00.0.0036 2.5 Distribution of the Variables of Skill Level, seniority, Community of socialization and Education. in Percents..........................37 2.6 Distribution of the Mobility and status Inconsistency Variables, in Percents............38 2.? Distribution of the Political Ideology for Four Countries. inPercentSCOOOOOOOOOOOOC0......39 3.1 Association between Political Ideology and selected stratification Variables...............47 3.2 Political Ideology of Argentine Workers According to Their skill Level, in Percents.....48 3.3 Political Ideology of American workers According to Their Community of Socialization, inPercentsOOOOOOOOOIOOOO.OOOIOOOOOIOOIOOOOOOOOOL‘B 3.“ Political Ideology of Indian Workers According to Their Intergenerational Mobility,,,,,,,,,,,,,h9 3.5 Political Ideology of American workers According to Their Measure of status Inconsis- tency. in Percentsoooc00000000000000-0000000000049 4.1 Level of significance for selected Control Variables Bearing on the Relationship of Skill and Political IdeologyOOIOIOOOOOOOC 0.00.0051 iv TABLE NUMBER 4.1-1 4.1-2 4.1-3 4.2-1 “.3 4.3-1 u.3-2 11,1. u.u-1 #.5 TABLE OF TABLES (CONTINUED) PAGE Association Between skill Level and Political Ideology for Indian workers with Medium seniority, in Percents........,.....52 Association Between skill Level and Political Ideology for Argentine workers Reared in MetrOpolitan Areas, in Percenta...COIOOIIOOOOOOOOOOOO0.0.0.00000000052 Level of significance for selected Control Variables Bearing on the Relationship Between seniority and Political Ideology........55 Association Between skill Level and Political Ideology for Argentine workers with High seniority, in Percents..........................56 Association Between seniority and Political Ideology for Indian workers with Medium Level of Education, in Percents.................56 Level of significance for Selected Control Variable Bearing on the Relationship of Community of socialization and Political IdealogyOOOOOI.OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.00.00.00.00057 Association Between Community of socialization and Political Ideology for Indian workers with semi-skill Level, in Percents,.,,....,..........58 Association Between Community of socialization and Political Ideology for American semi-skilled workerS. in PercentS............................58 Level of significance for selected Control Variables Bearing on the Relationship of Education and Political Ideology................59 Association Between Education and Political Ideology for Rural Reared Indian workers, in Percen s 00.0.00...0.0.0.0....0.0.00000000000000060 Level of significance for selected Control Variables on the Relationship of occupational Mobility and Political Ideology.................62 V TABLE OF TABLES (CONTINUED) TABLE NUMBER PAGE “.6 “.6-1 “.6-2 “.7 “.6-3 4.7-]. “.7-2 4.7-3 “.8 B.5 3.6 Level of significance for Selected Control variables on the Relationship of Inter- generational Mobility and Po itical Ideology,,,.6“ Association Between Intergenerational Mobility and Political Ideology for Indian workers with Medium Level of Education, in PercentSOOOOOOODOOOOIOOOOIOOOOIOOOOOO000.000.00.66 Association Between Intergenerational Mobility and Political Ideology for Italian workers Reared in MetrOpolitan Area, in PercentSIOOO00.00...OOOOOOOOOOOOOIIOOOO0.000000066 Level of significance for selected Control Variables Bearing on the Relationship of status Inconsistency and Political Ideology.....67 Association Between Intergenerational Mobility and Political Ideology for Medium Educated Italian workers, in Percents......,....68 Association Between status Inconsistency and Political Ideology for Non-Mobile (Inter- generational) Argentine workers, in Percents....68 Association Between status Inconsistency and Political Ideology for Non-Mobile (Inter- generational) American Workers, in Percents.....?0 Association Between Status Inconsistency and Political Ideology for Upward-Mobile (Inter- generational) American workers, in Percents.....7o summary Table (Percent of significant Assocj'ations)00000000OIOIOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOO0.0.0.071 Appendix B Indian-skill Level vs. Political Ideology in Percentages...00000000000000000000000000.000000085 India - seniority vs. Political Ideology in PercentageSOoOoooooooooococoa-0000000000000.c.0085 vi TABLE NUMBER B.7 3.8 3.9 B010 B.ll 8.12 B.13 B.l“ 3.15 B.16 B.17 B.18 B.l9 3.20 3.21 3.22 TABLE OF TABLES (CONTINUED) PAGE India - Community of socialization vs. Political Ideology in Percentages...............86 India - Education vs. Political Ideology in PercentageSOOOOCO00.00.00.000...00.0.0000000086 India - occupational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages.........................86 India - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages..........,....87 India - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages...............87 India - Measure of status Inconsistency vs. Ideology in Percentages.........................88 Argentina - seniority vs. Political Ideology in PercentageSIIOOOOOO000......'000000000000000088 Argentina - Community of socialization vs. Political Ideology in Percentages...............89 Argentina - Occupational Career Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages...............89 Argentina - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages....,..,.....,.9o Argentina - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages...............9o Argentia - Measure of status Inconsistency vs. Political Ideology in Percentages,..,.......91 Italy - skill Level vs. Political Ideology in Percentages.....................................9l Italy - Seniority vs. Political Ideology in PercentagesOOOOOOOOIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI.0.0.00.0.92 Italy - Community of socialization vs. Political Ideology in Percentages...............92 Italy - occupational Career Mobility vs. Political Ideology in PercentageS...............93 vii TABLE OF TABLES (CONTINUED) TABLE NUMBER PAGE 3.23 Italy - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages..,,,,.,,.,,,,,93 B.2“ Italy - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,9u B.25 Italy - status Inconsistency vs. Political Ideology in PercentageSOOOIOOOOO0.0.0.000000000094 B.26 united states - skill Level vs. Political IdeOIOEy in Percentagesoooc000.000.000.000.00.0095 8.27 united states - seniority vs. Political Ideology in Percentages.........................95 B.28 united states - Education vs. Political Ideology in Percentages.........................95 B.29 united States - Occupational Career Mobility vs. Political Ideology in PercentageS...........96 B.3O united states - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages....,,,,,,,96 B.3l united states - Intergenerational Mobility vs. Political Ideology in Percentages,,,,,,,,,,,97 B.32 united states - status Inconsistency vs. Political Ideology in.Percentages,,,,,,,,,,,,,_,97 viii Chapter 1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Introduction The political consequences of the process of industrial- ization is a persistent concern of much sociological research (Marx and Engels, 1962: 18-37; Lipset, 1960; Germani, 1966). Although the ideological heterogeneity of the working strata has been known for a long time, concern with its internal 1 In ideological differences has not been especially great. many contemporary industrializing societies, the introduction of large factories results in the recruitment of the highly stratified manual working force. This segment of the papula- tion is often referred to as the "working-class." An examin- ation of the community of socialization, skill level, education and other background characteristics of such workers reveals remarkable hetrogeneity. Whether this heterogeneity results in diversified patterns of political ideologies and whether such patterns change in the process of industrialization is the main concern of this inquiry. A review of the literature shows some attempt to deal with this issue (e.g.. Lipset, 1960) but, in general. 1Even Msrx talked about "false-consciousness" implying that not all workers have similar ideological orientations. J systematic and detailed studies of both western and non- western nations are lacking. By using data in a four-nation study (U.S.A., Italy, Argentina, and India) of industrial manual workers in a particular industry (automobile manu- facturing), we intend to eXplore the problem of political ideologies in a relatively narrow segment of the "working- class." We hOpe that our multi-national sample will reduce some of the biases implicit in studies of single western industrial societies. By considering countries at different levels of industrialization and, at the same time, by con- trolling for type of industry, we can probe an evolutionary model of industrialization. We can first analyze the case for each country and then observe how findings differ as we move from lower to higher levels of industrialization. studies of political orientations usually attempt to establish relationships between the objective situation of the actor and their subjective orientations. A review of literature reveals at least three stratification approaches to the study of political ideology. stratal position, social mobility, and status inconsistency. unfortunately the three approaches have been applied primarily to highly industrialized western societies, so there is no way to decide which approach might have greater eXplanatory power in non-western countries or in countries at different industrial levels. We intend to examine all three stratification approaches in all four countries, thereby possibly increasing the universality of our findings. As our guiding proposition, we eXpect more extreme and more heterogeneous political ideologies to appear in the more rapidly industrializing societies, such as Italy and Argentina, while in a more mature industrial society, ideo- logies will be less extreme and more homogeneous. In the case of an early industrializing society such as India, di- verse political orientations should appear, but they will not be as extreme as those in rapidly industrializing societies. These expectations are derived from the following theoretical perspective. Theory Dominant theories of industrialization stress the view that the process of industrialization is accompanied by a shift in social integration from a non-occupational to an occupational source (Form and Faunce, 1969). Early industrial- ization tends to produce great disorganization, thereby stimulating worker dissatisfaction and maladjustment. As the process of adaptation to the new mode of relationships proceeds, new mechanisms of integration deveIOp, easing the state of unrest. This is the argument concerning the diffi- culties found in the first stages of industrial "uprootedness" and Lipset's finding (1960. 5“-59) that rapid industrializa— tion leads to political radicalism. Some theorists (Inkeles, 1960; Lerner, 1958; Waisanan, 1969) have stressed that “ increased education, physical mobility (i.e. migration from rural to urban). mass media eXposure, and urbanization facili- tate modernization attitudes and that these attitudes, in turn, result in higher degrees of political-mindedness and national political involvement. Such an argument implies that pOpulations which have large amounts of educational in- equality, rates of mobility, and types of community of social- ization stimulate the deveIOpment of heterogeneous ideological dispositions. Therefore, we have included in this study the variables of education, mobility (rural-urban background) as conditions which influence the actor's political orientations. In short, as the homogeneity of the working force increases. the conditions for the development of political heterogeneity decreases. Review of Literature2 One may categorize studies according to how they specify the objective conditions affecting political orientations. Among them are; (l) consequences of specific class position in the stratification system, (2) consequences deriving from the social mobility experience of the class, (3) the type of status inconsistency processes extant in a pOpulation, and (“) the contextual conditions of the working class. 2In most of the cases, similar findings or theories are reported by many authors. we only report what we hOpe 18 a representative sample of the literature. l - stratal Position These studies are more specific than others about the objective situation of actors. These studies simply posit an unilinear relationship between stratum position and ideological orientation. Thus, Centers (19“9) reports that the lower the social class, the more radical the political ideology. Parkin (1967) also considers social class as a prominant determinant of voting pattern in industrial societies. Alford (1963. 180) argues that no evidence has been found of either a decline or any substantial change in pattern of class voting among major United states regions or religious groups for decades. Deutsch (196“) found certain relationships between a worker's position in the system of occupational inequalities (skill level) and political ideology. 2 - social Mobility several studies have treated mobility as the dominant variable influencing the political orientation of workers. These studies have focused on both group and individual mo- bility. Some consequences of class mobility have also been studied; for example, "embourgeoisement" (Goldthorpe, et. at., 1968) and "uprootedness" (Leggett, 1963a). Gino Germani (1966) studied the political consequences of mobility (both group and individual). He argued that a disruption of the individual's institutionalized aspirations and the fulfillment of those aspirations are keys to exploring his political 6 behavior. such an analysis brings into consideration notions such as relative deprivation and reference group variables. Leggett (1963a), in a study concerned with the phenomena of "uprootedness," observed that workers reared in agrarian regions are more working-class conscious than those reared in industrial regions. He argued that this prOposition runs counter to the eXpectations of Marxists (Leggett, 1963a, 683). 3 - status Inconsistency In the last two decades a new and methodologically more saphisticated approach to the analysis of political behavior has been deveIOped. This approach tends to focus on "non- vertical" dimensions of inequalities. A single numerical score is assigned to the position of an actor in several dif- ferent systems of inequalities. This single score is supposed to stand for an actor's objective characteristics and helps eXplain his subjective orientations. The three basic assump- tions underlying such studies are. (l) a number of systems of inequalities exist which provide different aspects of an actor's identity; (2) an actor's relative position in these systems of inequalities describes a pattern of status consis- tency or inconsistency, and (3) an actor's political orienta- tion varies according to his pattern of status consistency. Based upon such assumptions, a great number of studies have attempted to investigate the relation of status incon- sistency to political behavior. Lenski (195“) made an attempt 7 to develOp a model for the measurement of status inconsis- tency. The logic behind his model was a hypothetical level of integration (or norm of consistency) which becomes the basis for the measurement of the status of an actor. His earlier studies had convinced him that there is a tendency for actors with inconsistent status to take extremist posi- tions on political issues. Ever since Lenski's work, there have been a great number of studies following his approach. Certain of these studies have used cross-cultural data mostly from Western and Eastern EurOpean societies.3 Lenski (1967) employed the data of four English speaking nations (U.S.A., Canada. Australia, and Britain). His findings generally supported the prOposition that political orientation of actors were highly influenced by their pattern of status inconsistency. other studies have contradicted Lenski's results, e.g.. Kenkel (1956) and Rush (1967), taking income, education and occupational prestige as the major dimensions of inequality, also deveIOped an index of status inconsistency. They con- cluded that a relationship exists between inconsistent status and right wing political extremism. Kelly and chambliss (1966) did not find much relation between measures of status inconsistency and political orientations. They found that social class membership and ethnic background were far more 3In some Comparative studies reported in Heller (1969), there are some marginal concerns with questions of status inconsistency. Among these are; Wesolowski (196“); and Eisenstadt (1967). 8 important determinants of political attitudes than the degree to which persons were status inconsistent. segal and Knoke (1968), who emphesized the categories of achieved vs. ascribed status, concluded that inconsistency between these two status systems could highly influence the actor's political orienta- tions. In recent years there have been efforts to introduce the factor of social mobility into the scheme of status inconsis- tency. Geschwender's work (1968) gives a comprehensive sum- mary picture of such efforts. His analysis tends to eXplain the political consequences of the pattern of mobility of status inconsistent actors. He argued that actors with an inconsistent system of status may attempt to achieve a higher degree of consistency by upward mobility. It is the failure to achieve upward mobility which Opens up other alternatives, such as negative attitudes toward the power structure. “ - Contextual Approach By the contextual approach we mean those studies which take as a variable the social context (such as a complex of many variables) in their prOpositions. The level of indus- trialization of a society may be considered as a context for the kinds of class structure which emerges in early. middle, and mature industrial societies. Contextual modes of ex- plaining political behavior may also be given for different levels of social systems, i.e., societal (Germani, 1966) or community (Nicholas, 1963). One of the major traditions of contextual analysis is the Marxian. For the Marxists, class is not a simple stratum; rather, it is a phenomenon which is understood in terms of a context of socio-economic relationships within a given his- torical epoch. The locus of a class is not a phenomenon which can be separated from its historical eXperiences (Dahrendorf, 1959: 9-18)- Besides the marxists, there are a number of authors who study the political behavior of certain social categories in terms of the consequences of industrialization processes. For example, Lipset (1960: 5“) presented data which showed a direct relationship between the high pace of industrialization and the emergence of political extremism in the working class; and Goldthorpe et. at., (1968) showed the phenomenon of "embourgeoisement" resulted in a decrease of working class vote for labor parties in some western industrial societies. According to Lipset (1960; 68-72), variations in the working class movements in Scandinavian countries are explained in terms of timing and pace of industrialization as described by Galeson (1952). The Swedish data reveal that manufacturing grew very rapidly between the years 1900 and l9“0 and that this sudden increase resulted in the migration of many un- skilled workers from rural areas. This in turn resulted in the eXpansion of industrial rather than craft unions and the appearance of strong left wing movements within the trade 10 unions and the social Democratic Party. since the Norwegian pace of industrial growth was the most rapid, Norway had a more radical working class movement than the other Scandi- navian countries. Thus, the Norwegian Labor Party was the only one in Western EurOpe that went almost intact to the communists when the Comintern was founded. Lipset (1960; 5“), reporting on Engels' observation, noted that the completion of the transition to a large-scale industrial society resulted in conditions in which the prole- tariat were replaced. In 188“ Engels (Lipset, 1960; 56) noticed a parallel between rapid industrialization in EurOpe and the development and growth of socialist labor movements. In later periods, these movements declined. It could be argued that rapid industrialization introduces sharp discon- tinuities between the pre-industrial and the industrial situ- ation. Therefore, in such cases, conditions promote more extremist working-class movements. Of course, extremist movements are not limited to leftist working-class ones (Kornhauser. 1959; Lipset, 1960; 127-193). There are only a few empirical studies which use compara- tive data to explore the relation of contextual situations to the political orientations of actors. Most of these studies are not methodologically sOphisticated. Based upon some Indian data, Nicholas (1963) investigated the roots of politi- cal orientation among some villagers in rural West Bengal. He concluded that political factions are only understandable 11 in relation to the context of caste, economic relationships, kinship, and local territory. objective conditions are not reducable to a number of discrete variables, but to a complex of variables considered as a unity. A number of studies have put the "embourgeoisement" thesis to test. Goldthorpe. David, and Lockwood (1963), in their detailed study of affluent workers, analyzed data for some manual workers in England. Their findings showed that changes in the interaction patterns and life situations of the workers from proletariat to middle-class style defined the process of embourgeoisement. Another study of affluence by Hamilton (1965) based upon West German data, argued that the assumption of decline of the gap between the middle-class and working-class is a myth. Other studies try to examine the relation of certain features of the social context to the political orientation of actors. These conditions may not necessarily be universal; they may be characteristic either of a society itself or of a society at a certain level of industrialization. Among such variables are factors of economic insecurity in the form of unemployment, duration of unemployment and factors of stratification (race in the u.s., caste in India). Bourdie's (196“) findings indicated that duration of unemployment con- tributed to left wing orientation among Algerian workers. Leggett (196“) also found that economic insecurity (duration of unemployment) influenced political extremism. Hallowel 12 (196“) argued that the influence of economic insecurity (temporary layoffs, unemployments) upon actors' political orientations would last for a long time. EXpected Findings since we decided to approach our analysis in terms of the major stratification models presented above, the expected findings of each model will be discussed separately. stratal Approach Although many studies focus on the relation of social class to ideological orientation, only a few deal with low- industrialized and non-western societies. since our data represents only industrial manual workers in a Specific in- dustry. there are very few studies directly relevant to our inquiry. Moreover, most studies based on the realities of the western industrial world, focus on the "working-class" and "middle-class." while in many industrializing societies these two strata (or classes) are not yet formed as major sub- systems. Dahrendorf (1959) claims the rise of the middle-class to its existing size in industrial societies is a new phen- omenon. The same argument holds for the industrial working- class. In industrializing societies, the agrarian population composes the largest stratum, while the urban pOpulation con- tains an emerging middle- and working-class. In such societies there is a major distinction between the rural and urban popu- lations in terms of their style of life, occupational 13 affiliations, and general eXposure to modernism. For urban dwellers this results in a very broad stratification of the pOpulation along the dimension of rural—urban background. studies of modernization (Lerner, 1958; Rogers, 1969) would lead us to eXpect that the less modernized (in this case rural socialized) pOpulation would tend to be politically conserva- tive, while the modernity associated with urban background would make for "psychic mobility" and would decrease the actor's conservative tendencies. Hypothesis number one; The more the worker is eXposed to rural sociali- zation, the higher his tendency to hold a conser- vative political ideology. whether this argument can be applied to the American data is problematic. This is mainly due to the fact that rural- reared Americans are highly eXposed to the mass media and have relatively high levels of education. The contrast between rural and urban papulation should be higher for countries at lower levels of industrialization. One could argue that when present day older workers entered manufacturing the modernity gap between rural and urban workers was wider than it is today. In order to neutralize any such indirect influence upon our findings, the variable of seniority could be introduced as a control variable. Education is one of the strongest modernizing agents, for the level of modernity increases with level of education (Inkeles. 1960). Therefore, we eXpect more educated workers l“ to show tendencies away from conservatism. Hypothesis number two; The higher the level of education of the worker, the lower the possibility of his holding a con- servative political orientation. Focussing upon in-plant stratification, skill level is a strong politicizing force (zeitlin, 1969; 9; Deutsch, 196“). Hypothesis number three; Skill level is inversely associated with political ideology. The higher the skill level of the workers, the greater the tendencies to hold more conservative (right of center) political orienta- tions. social Mobility There are two types of mobility to consider; the conse- quences deriving from both inter-generational and intra- generational movements. For the inter-generational measure- ments two indices were prepared. In one, farmers were consid- ered as lower than unskilled workers in the city, and for the other, as equal to the unskilled workers. We argue that while in advanced industrial societies farmers could be con- sidered as equal to unskilled workers, in the industrializing societies. factory work is more prestigous than farming. It has more secure earnings and is associated with advanced technology and modern institutions. studies of modernization generally assume that mobility from farm to factory and par- ticipation in large industrial organizations constitute signifi- cant modernizing processes (Inkeles. 1960). In view of this argument, we shall only employ the measure of mobility in 15 which farmers are treated as having lower status than un- skilled urban workers. We eXpect that the eXperience of up- ward occupational mobility will be associated with a positive evaluation of the Opportunity structure, a reinforcement of modernization attitudes, and a shift toward conservative political tendencies. Hypothesis number four; Downwardly mobile workers will show left of center tendencies and upwardly mobile workers will assume conservative (right of center) political orientations. In addition, the measure of mobility may prove to be a strong control variable for the findings from the other approaches. This is especially the case for the model of status inconsistency. status Inconsistency Practically all students of status inconsistency have studied western societies. Income, ethnic background, social class, occupational status, and education are taken as the main bases for deriving status inconsistency formulae. The construction of a model of status inconsistency applicable to cross-cultural data could be a research project in itself, but this is not our goal. We intend to make a rather primitive attempt to assertain whether any mode of status inconsistency can have any predictive power when applied to countries at different levels of industrialization having diverse socio- historical backgrounds. In our discussions of the stratal approach, we recognized 16 the variables of education, skill level, and community of socialization to be the primary bases for classifying the respondents. To include more than three dimensions in the measure of status inconsistency seems impractical. The occupational status of the respondent, a major dimension of all studies of status inconsistency, in this research will be the skill level of respondent. We are somewhat uncertain of the relevance of community of socialization as a primary variable in the inconsistency index. This is especially true in the case of the united states. The main task in constructing a measure of status incon- sistency is to establish a norm of consistency as a frame of reference. A review of the literature, as reflected by Geschwender's work (1969), shows that most authors have an implicit input-output view of the actor's relation to his occupational subsystem. Waisanan's (1969) model of actor-in- system seems to eXplain the kind of logic for establishing a relationship between the actors and their system of statuses, via the principles of distributive justice and cognitive dis- sonance. Very briefly, if an actor perceives his input-output equation in the systems to be in a balanced state, he is satisfied. If he feels that the amount of input (education and community of socialization) exceed the output (skill level) he feels under-rewarded and might develOp a negative evaluation of the system of justice (or the power structure). Since one way to reduce dissonance in our model could be to l7 strive for better rewards (upward mobility), we introduced the mobility variables as controls. We eXpect to find actors with less reward (skill) than input (education and community of socialization) to manifest leftist orientations (or at least to occupy the liberal-left wing position on our measure of political orientations). The status consistent respondents would more probably be in the center. For those who are over-rewarded, it is eXpected that a positive evaluation of the system would result in a right of center position (which in our case is a conservative polit- ical ideology). Hypothesis number five; under-rewarded status inconsistent workers will show leftist political orientations, while over- rewarded workers will tend toward to take right of center political Positions. Contextual Approagh while the data of every nation will be analyzed in detail. the comparisons of the findings may reveal differences due to contextual variations. Contextual conditions in this analysis is limited only to the pace of industrialization; Hypothesis number six; Workers in rapidly industrializing societies Argentina and Italy will show relatively higher en encies toward po itical extremism of the right and left, while workers in less rapidly in- dustrializing societies (U.S.A. and India) will show more tendencies toward a moderate po itical position. American workers are not only more adapted to industrial life than workers in less industrialized countries, they also 18 belong to a more homogeneous working-class pOpulation. There- fore, we expect the American workers to manifest more homo- geneous political orientations. The Indian workers who have had less eXperience with an industrial mode of production (especially low seniority rural workers) are expected to show a greater tendency toward political extremes. Methodology Translation of our theoretical concerns into the tools of analysis for cross-cultural data runs into serious diffi- culties. Fortunately some of these problems have already been solved by Form (1970) and others who have worked on this project for years. Practically all the variables in this study were already operationalized, with the exception of the index of status inconsistency which was constructed for this study. (1) Our main independent variables are mobility patterns (both intra-generational and inter-generational), stratal variables (community of socialization, level of educa- tion, seniority and skill level), and status inconsistency (to be constructed). (2) Our main dependent variable, the index of conservatism-liberalism, is separately developed for each of the four countries. 19 Definition of the Major Variables“ skill Level; Skill level is the degree of control over the technological process. The researchers determined the skill level of the workers by direct observation. The company's skill level classification often disagreed with the researchers because certain companies (i.e.. PAL) rewarded long tenured peOple with wages and status that were higher than their actual functions. In general, the following cate- gories were established by the researchers; unskilled = assembly line workers Semi-skilled = Operators of machines which made identical pieces, and workers in test, inspection and repair Skilled = craftsmen in the eXperimental and die making departments, and skilled maintain- ance workers. seniority; seniority was the number of years in the firm. since plants varied in age, in the case of Argentina, we had to apply a lower cutting point (see Appendix A). Education; By education level we mean the number of years of formal schooling. Community of Socialization; This is the size of community in which the respondent lived between the age of ten to twenty. The source of information was the various censuses of various countries. Since the size of community reported in these ”For all of our variables, the cutting points were made to get sufficient cases in every category to merit statistical analysis. For the cutting points see Appendix A. 20 censuses differed, we had to choose the cutting points pro- vided by the censuses. occupational Mobility Pattern; All occupations of each respondent was coded on an ascending scale from zero to seven (farmer; unskilled; semi-skilled; skilled; office and sales; proprietors, managers and officials). Each occupational move was coded as up, down, or horizontal. Then each entire career was examined for its major pattern. Four patterns were coded; downward mobility, non-mobility, one job, and upward mobility (see Appendix A). Inter-Generational Mobility: The categories for both father and son are with ascending occupational prestige; farmers. unskilled, semi-skilled, and white collar. Two indices were prepared, one with farmers coded as unskilled workers and the other with farmers considered as less than unskilled workers. The careers were constructed as follows; Downward mobility = son below father No mobility = son same as father Upward mobility = son above father Political Ideology: Since the political systems of the various countries differed considerably, the index of political ideology had to be accommodated to local circumstances. In the case of the united states and India, indexes were made which reflected the attitudes of the workers toward government involvement in increasing concern for the welfare of the lower income groups (see Appendix A). In the case of Italy 21 and Argentina similar scales could not be utilized because of the resistance of labor and management to political questions. However, in the case of Italy there is a close relationship between the union identification and the political orientation of the workers. Those who were apolitical or hostile to unions were classified as conservative; those who belong to the in- dependent automobile union (SIDA) were classified as neutral; those who belong to the social Democratic (UIL) and Christian Democratic (CISL) unions were classed as liberal; and those who belonged to Communist unions (COIL) were coded as radicals (see Appendix A). The political situation in Argentina is very confusing and it is dangerous to investigate questions dealing with political ideology. Attitudes toward unions in Argentina center around attitudes toward Peron. Those most favorable to Peronista politics are considered most radical and those most opposed most conservative. To be actively involved in unions in Argentina means being identified with radical causes. Therefore, the index of political ideology is largely an index of union involvement (see Appendix A). In conclusion, the problem of conceptual equivalence in the area of political ideology is an extremely difficult issue. However, we feel that the indexes we constructed are roughly comparable and sensitive to differences in political ideologies. Note; The indexes for India, Argentina, and the united 22 States were simple additive ones. each question contributing a unit. The response to each of the questions were run against each other and the summated score by Chi-square test. All of the items were statistically associated with each other and total score at or below the .05 level. The range of the con- tingency coefficients was relatively small and similar, thus, suggesting that weighting of the individual items might well be ignored. Operationalization of the Measure of status Inconsistency Level of education, community of socialization, and skill level are assumed to be the main dimensions of inequality in the construction of the measure of status inconsistency. As we argued before, this measure makes sense for industrializing societies, but its applicability to American data might be risky. The following eight cases represents the maximum combinations; Education Comm. soc. skill Level (In-put) (In-put) (Out-put) a) High High (urban) High b) H H L C) H L H d) H L L e) L H H 1‘) L H L s) L L H h) L L L 23 If we assume that these variables could be weighed equally, the above cases can be broken down into three cate- gories; A) cases a and h which are consistently high or low. B) cases b, d, and f, where the amount of input into the factory system is high and the reward (skill level) is low. resulting in an under-rewarded situation. C) cases c, e, and g, where one of the inputs is low and the output (skill) is high, resulting in an over-rewarded situation. A technical difficulty is to make an index of status in- consistency where dimensions of inequality are not dichotomized, but are broken down into more than two levels. This was not much of a problem because we followed the procedure presented for the dichotomous case. The only modification was to label the variables as high, medium, and low. If we assume that the sum of a high (on one of the dimensions of education or community of socialization) plus a low (on the other) is equiv— alent to a medium or average, then the following categories are possible; Education Comm. of Soc. skill Level hi h = 3 high = 3 high = 3 me ium = medium = 2 medium = 2 low = 1 low = 1 low = 1 (Education + Community of socialization) If 2 equals skill level, then status is balanced or consistent; if less than skill level. then status inconsistency is "over-rewarded"; if more than skill level, then status inconsistency is "under-rewarded.' Chapter 2 THE RESEARCH SITES The original research plan was to select nations for study which are at different levels of industrialization. Table 2.1 provides information on the sector compositions of the nations. the states or provinces in which the plants were located, and the cities in which the plants were located. It is clear that Italy and Argentina are in the industriali- zation phase because of the larger percentage of their labor forces in manufacturing. However, since the factories studied are in highly Specialized regions, the characteristics of their regions should also be noted. Michigan turns out to have the most mature economy as reflected by the highest pro- portion of workers in the service sector, and Piedmont, Italy is the most industrial because it has the highest prOportion of workers in manufacturing. Cordoba, Argentina follows closely behind. maharashtra, India, of course, has the highest prOportion of workers in agriculture. The Four Cities1 The compostition of the four cities merits brief attention (Table 2.2). All four cities are provincial capitals, all except Lansing are the largest cities of their states, and all 1Most of this section is taken from Form (unpublished manuscripts, no date). 2‘* 25 except Lansing are the most heavily industrialized cities in their regions. But the observable differences among the cities are dramatic. Lansing is a midwestern, middle-sized city of 120.000 pe0ple, and capital of the state of Michigan. It has a balanced economy dominated by manufacturing, govern- ment, and education. Turin is a metropolis of a million inhabitants which competes with Milan as the industrial hub of a heavily industrialized region of the country.2 The city still retains some of the elegant Splendor of the capital city of the ancient state of savoy. Its old families and industrialists have a cosmopolitan outlook and think of their city as being as much a part of central Europe as of Italy. Cordoba is a city of a half million inhabitants. It too has a venerable and honorable history as the educational and trade center of western Argentina. As the country's second city, it contains an exciting mixture of traditional and industrial life patterns. And Greater Bombay is a sprawling polyglot city of “,000.000 inhabitants, the entrepot of western India. Despite their differences, Lansing, Cordoba, and Turin are probably more alike than different compared to Bombay. While Lansing reflects the economic and industrial com- position of the united states rather adequately. Turin 2Turin. Milan, and Genoa, all within 80 miles of one another. constitute Italy's industrial triangle, an area which is in the vanguard of Italy's economic develOpment. 26. represents a state of industrial develOpment far ahead of that of Italy as a whole. The city's labor force contains about 20 percent more industrial workers than does the nation. Cordoba seems to represent Argentina's present economic development rather well. While the city was long exposed to industrialism, large-scale industry is new and unevenly devel- Oped. Bombay, of course, is the least representative city of its nation. In a country dominated by agriculture, Bombay stands out as a modern industrial island. Turin turns out to be the most industrialized of the four cities. and yet it may not be the most representative city of a mature industrial economy. Lansing's manufacturing plants are somewhat larger than Turin's in terms of average number of employees. Lansing's service organizations, eSpecially those in government, trade, and transportation are relatively larger per unit than Turin's. Thus, Lansing has a more "bureaucratized labor force" than Turin. However, the two cities are not as different as they should be for an ideal research design. Cordoba is clearly a less develOped indus- trial or manufacturing city than either Lansing or Turin. Its industries are newer, smaller, and less mechanized. And its service industries retain a traditional small entrepre- neurial character. Although Bombay is the largest city and is the second most industrialized of the four, its plants are small and primitively developed. Its service sector is also comprised of small units. 27 Table 2.1 - sector Compositions of Nations, states and Research sites, 1960, in Percents C O U N T R I E S sectors united Italyb ArgentinaC Indiaf statesa Agriculture 8 29 21 72 Manufacturing 33 “0 3“ 12 Services 59 31 “5 16 Total 100 100 100 100 S T A T E O R P R O V I N C E michigan Piedmont Cordobad Maharashtra Agriculture “ 22 25 72 Manufacturing ““ 51 21 12 Services 52 27 “ 16 Total 100 100 100 100 C I T I E S Lansing Turin Cordobae Greater Bombay Agriculture 1 l 1 2 Manufacturing 31 61 35 “3 Services 68 38 6“ 5“ Total 100 100 100 99 aU.S. Census. General. social and Economic Characteristics, Bureau of the Census, 1960; Final Report P.C.(1)-2“D. Detailed character. Washington. D.C. bDecimo Censimento della Populazione. ISTAT, Roma, vol. II. 196“. cDistribucion del Ingreso y Cuentas Nacional su 1a Argentina, Investigacion conjunte CONADE-CEPAL. TOMO V. Buenas Aires, 1965. Tonsejo Nacional de Desarrollo Presidencia de la Nacion. dRepublica Argentina, Censo Nacional de Poblacion, 1960. Tomo, IV, Dirrecion Nacional de Estatistica y Censos, Cuadro No. 21. p 100-1 eEncuesta sobre Empleas y Desempleo en la Cuidad de Cordoba, April, 1967. Cordoba. Direccion General de Estadistica, Censos e Investigaciones Faculdad di Ciencas, Economicas Consejo Necional de Desarsollo. Cudro ll. fV. G. Kulkarni, tatisticalgOutline ofIndigngggggm§, Bombay; Vora and Co.. 1968, p. I2-3. For Bofibay. Census 0 In ia. E2222 No. 1 of 1962. Fina1_Population Totals, New Delhi, Gov't of Indian 19 2| p. 32-5. 28 Table 2.2 - social and Economic Characteristics of Four Cities characteristic SMSA Turin Cordoba Greater Lansinga Bombay size; MetrOpol- itan area 298,959 1.0“5,5““ 600.000 “,152.000 Percent of labor force in manufact- b f uring 31 63 35 43d Mean size of manu- facturing establish- ment 108 79c 11 Zoe Mean years of edu- cation, adult popu- lation 12.0 “.8 5.9 3.0 Percent of labor force in services 67 38 6“ “8 30.3. Census of Population; 1960, Final Report PC(l)-2“D, Detailed Characteristics. Table 121. Washington. D. C. O bDecimo Censimento della Popolazione. ISTAT, Roma, 196“, Vol. II. EAnnarIostatistico lQfifl. Citta di Torino, 1959, p. 137. Mean number of employees for metal manufacturing was 173. These data are for the province of Turin. dCensus of India, Paper No. l of 1962. Final POpulation Totals, New Delhi; Gov't of India, 1962, p. 32-5. eIn the state of Maharashtra half of the factories employed 20 workers or less. see tatistics of Factories. 1962, simla; Labour Bureau, Gov't 0 India. 1965, p. “3-“. usually only factories hiring 10 or more employees reported to the census. In all of India 79 percent of factories in 1962 hired fewer than “9 workers. Ibid.. p. 2. fEncuesta Sabre Em leoy Desempleo en la Ciudad de Cordoba, April, 1967, Cordo a. Direccion General de Estadistica, Censos e Investigaciones Facudad de Ciencas, Economicas Consejo Nacional de Desarollo. Cuadro 11. The Argentine census of 1960 reports an average 7.1 workers per manufacturing plant in Cordoba, and 9.2 for the nation as a whole. 29 The iMpression the traveler would obtain of the four cities would be that Turin is the most cosmopolitan, followed by Cordoba, Bombay, and Lansing. The primary reason for this impression is that the three cities of Turin. Cordoba, and Bombay are large cosmopolitan metrOpolises which support many specialized services and institutions. Yet, the prOportion of the local population which uses these services is very small. In fact, the ordering of the cities may be reversed in terms of the impact of their urban facilities upon the lives of the workers. For the mass of industrial workers, the services might as well not exist, for the city has little impact on their lives. A basic assumption of this research was that the pace of industrialization of the country affects the rates of occupa- tional mobility which, in turn, affect the stratification pattern and the political ideology of the workers. Since the pace of industrialization of the country may not be reflected in the local regions in which the four plants are located, the rates of industrial growth in the states or even the cities would be more appropriate data for this research than the national rates. The most rapid recent industrialization among the four research sites of this study has occurred in the Piedmont area in which Turin is located in Cordoba province. Lansing and Michigan eXperienced their most rapid rates of growth between 1900 and 1930. since then the growth has been primarily in 30 the service sector (Clelland, 1970). In the decade 1950-1960 there was almost no change in the prOportion of workers in manufacturing in the united states. while for both Italy and Argentina there was a six percent increase. In Italy the famous "economic miracle" largely took place in Italy's iron trianle of Genoa, Turin, and milan (Ammassari, 196“; 26-38). In Argentina, the rapid industrial growth has occurred largely in the Federal District and in the provinces of Cordoba and Santa Fe (Gale, 1968; 113-130). The case of industrial growth in Bombay and the state of Maharashtra is not as clear as the others. Yet it is obvious that the rate of industrial growth in the city and province was greatly stimulated after World War II when the British left India. Probably Maharashtra's industrial growth during the decade 1950-1960 was more rapid than michigan but not as rapid as Piedmont and Cordoba. Yet for India, Mahara- shtra is an industrial region, for one-fifth of the nation's industrial labor force is found in the state. Moreover, the state of Maharashtra is the most urban in the nation (Sharma, 19671 39-52)- In conclusion, the position taken in this study is con- firmed by the data; the labor force areas most rapidly in- dustrializing are Piedmont and Cordoba, Maharashtra is next, and michigan is the last. 31 Technological Characteristics of the Plants3 The data in Table 2.3 reveals that, despite efforts to obtain identical samples, differences in the technologies of the plants led to slight differences in the skill and depart- mental representations of the samples. Oldsmobile was techno- logically the most SOphisticated plant; it had the most auto- matic equipment, made the most complex product and had more personnel in quality control (semi-skilled workers in test, inspection and repair). FIAT. the Italian plant, resembled Oldsmobile, but Since FIAT manufactured a larger prOportion of automobile parts, the plant had more machine operators. IKA (Industries Kaiser Argentina), the Argentina plant, produced several models of cars and trucks and was not as automated and as rationalized as either Oldsmobile or FIAT. PAL (Premier Automobiles Limited), the Indian plant, was technologically the most primitive; more of its Operations were performed by skilled workers than semi-skilled workers, and test-inspection-repair functions tended to be performed by Operators and skilled workers. The eXperimental departments of the different plants seemed to be most alike in skill com- positions. but their ecologies differed. Oldsmobile had the largest machines and was the most spacious; the departments in the other plants were less spacious and more crowded. The four parts-making departments seemed the most uniform both in 3This section is taken largely from Form (1969), Form (1970). -r1 To 32 their skill composition and in the Spatial distribution of machinery. Departmental differences among the four plants were most apparent in the assembly lines. Oldsmobile's line was the longest, the most rationalized, most mechanized, and most rapid in movement. FIAT'S line was quite similar to Oldsmo- bile's, except that the cars were smaller. The Argentine plant had several crowded assembly lines for different types of vehicles, and workers were rotated from one line to an- other. Although mechanized, the lines moved very Slowly. PAL's crowded assembly lines were not mechanized; automobile frames were placed on dollies which were then pushed from one work station to another after a series of assembly Operations had been performed by crews at designated points. Four types of Operations which involved different technologies were examined in this study; skilled craft work; parts production; test, inSpection and repair, and assembly (see Table 2.3). The plants also differed in technological complexity. In summary, although the distribution of skills and departmental operations of the plants differed somewhat, they were sufficiently similar to permit pursuit of the study. General Description of Variables4 Empirical support for our theoretical arguments is based upon data for the four-nations. We will avoid detailed “All of the quotations in this section are from Form (1969). 33 Table 2.3 - Work Operations of Samples (representative) of Automobile Workers in Four Plants, in Percents Operation India Argentina Italy U.S.A. PAL IKA FIAT OLDS Craft operations 30 10 18 12 Test, inspection, repairs 8 26 16 3“ Machining 31 31 33 27 Assembling 31 33 32 27 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases (262) (306) (275) (2“9) c2 C] Si pa me 310 a; he: 3“ descriptions by providing summary information about this data bank and its sources. The four-nation study was a research plan to study an advanced industry in countries at different levels of indus- trial development. The advanced example of manufacturing was the automobile industry. The united states represented a mature industrial society: Italy, a society with an old but rapidly eXpanding industrial base; Argentina, a society under- going more recent industrialization; and last, India, a society with a small industrial base..."Extreme care was taken to select completely analagous departments in the four plants which represented both the core manufacturing processes and the full range of skills." The sample was designed in such a way as "...to obtain an approximate representation of the skill composition of all departments in the plants devoted to manufacturing units of the plants... The Interview systemati- cally eXplored the worker's adaptation to several areas, in- cluding; the manufacturing sector of work, their occupation, specific job routines, social relations in the work situation, participation in the labor union, and the degree of involve- ment in the neighborhood, community, and the nation." Tables 2.“ and 2.5 provide some background data for the workers in the four samples. 1) "Automobile workers do not appear to be recent rural migrants who have moved directly into industry, although less than one-tenth began gainful employ- ment in the auto industry,” (Form 1969; 100). 2) In all four 35 countries. workers have attained an educational level "...that may be described as 'literate' and only a minority have gone beyond that level or received specialized training..." 3) "The educational attainment of the workers, compared with others in his own country, is inversely related to the country's degree of industrialization. Thus, workers in the Indian plant constitute an educational elite relatively, while the American workers have a lower than average education." “) Data on the structure of the work force; the distribution of skill level, seniority, and community of socialization are found in Table 2.5. The skill distributions of the labor forces were fairly similar, but IKA contained the highest ratio of unskilled workers while PAL and OLDS contained higher ratios of skilled workers. 5) Argentina had workers with the lowest seniority and Oldsmobile had workers with most seniority. These data reflect the ages of the plants themselves. This trend roughly followed the technological SOphistication of the plants. 6) A majority of American and Italian workers were reared in rural areas, while smaller ratios of Indian and Argentinians were reared in rural areas. The data on occupational mobility reflect the dynamics of industrialization and its effect upon the structure of the labor force of the plants. As the level of industrialization of a country increases, the inflow into industrial work in- creases. This is reflected in the rates of the inter-genera- tional mobility (F(o)5 (Table 2.6). The pattern is one of a 5F(o means farmers were classified as lower than unskilled urban workers. 36 Table 2.“ — Labor Force Characteristics of sample of Four Plantsa characteristics India Argentina Italy U.S.A. PAL IKA FIAT OLDS l - Mean age of workers 32 3O 35 “2 2 - Mean years of education 6 7 5 9 3 - Number of years in labor force 15 15 22 25 “ - Years of service in present factory 8 5 9 13 5 - occupational background (percents); a. Industrial manufacturing “7 62 59 82 b. Agriculture 1“ 2 l9 . 6 c. Services 28 32 12 3 6 - Rural or small town birth place (percents) “O 36 66 68 aYears plants were established are; PAL (19“6), IKA (1955), FIAT (1911), and OLDS (1902). The names of the plants are; Premier Au omobile Limited (PAL), Industrial Kaiser Argentina (IKA), Fabrica Italiana Automobile Torino (FIAT) and oldsmobile (OLDS). 37 Table 2.5 - Distribution of the Variables of skill Level. Seniority, Community of Socialization and Educa- tion, in Percents Variables India Argentina Italy U.S.A. PAL IKA FIAT OLDS 1 - Skill Unskilled 36 ““ 31 2“ semi-skilled 38 35 51 “9 Skilled 26 21 1.8 27 2 - seniority Low 18 5 “O 8 Medium “6 “5 25 18 High 36 50 35 74 3 - Community of socialization Rural 39a 22 60 61 Town and cities 61 26 6 “ Metropolitan - 52 31 32 “ - Education Low 20 “O 5“ 3ua Medium 37 35 25 61 High “3 25 16 - aDichotomies 38 Table 2.6 - Distribution of the Mobility and status Incon- sistency Variables, in Percents variables India Argentina Italy U.S.A. PAL IKA FIAT OLDS Occupational Career Mobility Downward l“ 9 10 10 No mobility 26 “l 37 28 One job 2 “ 5 6 Upward 58 “5 58 56 Inter-generational Mobilitya Downward ““ 35 30 26 No mobility 8 25 19 20 upward “8 “O 51 53 Inter-generational Mobilityb Downward 3K 33 30 26 No mobility 2 3 33 3O Upward 39 31 37 “4 status Inconsistency under rewarded 35 52 26 27 Consistant 28 19 26 15 Over rewarded 37 28 “8 58 aFarmers classed as lower than unskilled workers. b Farmers classed as unskilled workers. 39 {Table 2.7 - Distribution of the Political Ideology for the Four Countries, in Percents ‘Political Ideologies India Argentina Italy U.S.A. PAL IKA FIAT OLDS Conservative 3O l9 13 22 Neutral 25 “8 20 54 Liberal 23 18 4“ 24 Radical 23 15 23 - Totals 101 100 100 100 “0 decrease in downward mobility and increase in upward mobility with increasing industrialization where the pace of indus- trialization is most rapid, (Italy and Argentina), the eXpan— sion of the industrial labor force seems to result in lower rates of vertical mobility. This observation is supported by the high ratios of non-mobility workers in the Italian and Argentinian cases. Another eXplanation of the lower mobility of these workers is that they are young and have not had the opportunity to SXperience much occupational mobility. In any case the high rate of non-mobility could stimulate radical movements which are often characteristics of countries which are rapidly industrializing. The distribution of status consistency types does not seem to follow any pattern. For the Argentina case there is a large prOportion of under-rewarded workers and for the American case a larger ratio of over-rewarded. These cases might influence the political ideology of the workers resulting in a conservative orientation for the over-rewarded. According to this logic, the political ideologies for the Argentinians should move toward the left and that for the Americans. should be more toward the conservative point. The presence of the workers with low education and high skill and young workers with high education and low Skill in the American data provides some evidence for the existence of considerable status incon- sistency. Yet there are complexities in this situation be- cause older workers had above average education for their age. “l The distributions of the political ideology scores for workers in the four countries are somewhat different. American data do not include any radicals. The cutting point of the categories was made to permit sufficient cases for the analysis of all categories. With increasing level of industrialization there is a shift in the dominant political ideology from con- servative (India), to neutral (Argentina), to left of center (Italy), to conservative (united states). Therefore, indus- trialization seems to have a radicalizing influence until a mature industrial society has been achieved as in the case of the United states. The consequences of such differences in the distributions of political ideologies is eXpected to manifest itself in higher rate of extremism for the more heterogeneous work force. To measure the degree of heterogeneity, three stratification approaches (stratal, mobility, and status inconsistency) were undertaken. While we could not anticipate which approach would be most sensitive in eXplaining the political orienta- tion of workers, we eXpected that for the highly stratified cases (India and Italy), the stratal approach might be most sensitive. But on other grounds, e.g., high pace of indus- trialization, the mobility approach might fit the Italian and Argentinian cases. The status inconsistency approach might work best for the united states cases, and so on. In con- clusion, the choice of approach without considering the char- acter of the labor force and level and pace of industrialization “2 of the country could hardly be justified. It is this conviction which made our theoretical per- Spective and decisions about analytical approaches inseparable. Our findings may shed some light upon the logic which should be employed in defining the structural variables bearing upon the political behavior of industrial workers. Chapter 3 FINDINGS The first step in our inquiry was to test the applica- bility of the three approaches for accounting for political 1 ideology. For all four countries, ideology (dichotomy and four categories) was run against variables in the stratal approach (skill level, seniority, education and community of socialization), mobility approach (occupational mobility and inter-generational mobility) and status inconsistnecy approach. stratal Approach skill and Political Ideology For the variable of Skill, the analysis of the compara- tive data showed no significant association with political ideology (Table 3.1). Only for Argentinian workers was there a significant relationship between skill and political ideology (Table 3.1). For those workers, an increase in level of skill was associated with leftist political leanings. When the categories for the political ideology index were reduced to two, the Argentine data Showed an even stronger relationship to skill level (see footnote to Table 3.1). Although the value of Chi-square similarly increased for the data of Italian 1Level of significance in taken at five percent robab- ility of error. In this chapter. a ten percent proba ility is reported as a tendency to be checked by multi-variate analysis. ‘43 ““ workers. it did not reach the five percent level of signifi- cance. However. there was a tendency for the skilled workers to adopt a more leftist orientation. seniority and Political Ideology In general, political ideology was not associated with seniority level. However, the Indian data showed a slight tendency for high seniority workers to be conservative, but this did not even reach the ten percent level of significance (Table 3.1). Community of socialization and Political Ideology In general, no clear pattern of tendencies was observed for community 6f socialization. For the industrializing countries (India, Argentina, and Italy) no significant associ- ation emerged, but the American data did reveal a significant relationship (Table 3.1). The trend in this table was mixed, but it did suggest that workers of rural background tended toward a conservative or neutral position. Education and Political Ideology The distribution of political ideology according to education did reveal certain trends. Italian and Argentinian workers showed a shift toward left as their level of education increased. The degree of association for Argentina reached the five percent level of significance, but for Italy it was “5 at the ten percent level. The Indian data revealed an asso— ciation at ten percent level of significance in the form of a curvilinear pattern, while the American data showed no pattern at all. Mobility Approach In general, the mobility variables did not elicit statis- tically significant association with political ideology. For both the Indian and Italian data there were tendencies at the ten percent level. Italian workers who had been employed only at FIAT showed weak leftist orientations. The Indian data showed a tendency for inter-generational upward mobility (from farm to factory) to be inversely associated with political radicalism, i.e.. the most upwardly mobile workers were the most conservative (Table 1.3). Although Argentinian workers who had only one industrial job showed a slight tendency toward a left of center position, this association did not reach a significant level of association (see Appendix B). Both American and Italian workers exhibited a slight associa- tion between pattern of inter-generational mobility. The upwardly mobile Italians tended toward radicalism while the reverse was the case for the Americans. Seniority and Political Ideology No Significant relationship was found for any of the four nations. “6 status Inconsistency Approach The measure of status inconsistency did not show any relationship with political ideology. A tendency emerged only for the American data, as predicted. The under—rewarded tended to be more neutral than the others in their political ideologies while the over-rewarded tended to be more conserva- tive than the under-rewarded. When the inconsistent ("under- rewarded" and "over-rewarded") categories combined, a Signifi— cant association emerged. The status inconsistents tended to be more conservative and liberal than the inconsistents, while the latters tended to be more neutral (Table 3.“). Summary In general, none of the three stratification approaches seemed to be generally sensitive to the variations in the political ideologies of the workers in the four nations. The stratal approach proved to have higher eXplanatory potential than the other approaches. and amongst stratal variables, education appeared to be the strongest. skill level was also operative for Italy and Argentina, the rapidly industrializing countries, and the community of socialization for the united states. The status inconsistency approach, on the other hand, was most applicable to the more industrialized countries, Italy and the united States. According to these preliminary data, stratification analysis of political ideologies is most operative for Italy and least Operative for Argentina. (A fuller explanation of our findings awaits the multi-variate analysis described in the next chapter. 147 Table 3.1 - Association Between Political Ideology and Selected stratification Variables India Argentina Italy U.S.A. PAL IKA FIAT OLDS stratal Approach d skill level ns .001d .10 ns seniority ns ns ns ns Community of c socialization ns ns ns .05 Education .10C .OOld .Ole ns Mobility Approach Occu ational mo- bi ity pattern ns ns ns ns Inter-generational mobilitya .lOf he .10 ns Inter-generational d mobilityb ns ns .10 ns status Inconsistency ns ns .10d .100 aFarmers classed as lower than unskilled workers. bFarmers classed as equal to unskilled workers. cwith the ideology index in four categories dpositive relationship ecurvilinear relationship fnegative relationship ns = not significant Note; Sometimes the ideology variable was analyzed according to four subcategories (radical, liberal, neutral. conservative) and sometimes by a simple dichotomy (liberal, conservative). I will present the table which reveals more statistically significant results. The nature of the collapses are indicated in the footnotes. This table is for the dichotomy in the ideology index. “8 Table 3.2 - Political Ideology of Argentine Workers According to Their Skill Level. in Percents Skill Level-Conservative Neutral Liberal Radical Totals Frequencies Unskilled 25 so 16 9 100 (13“) Semi-skilled 21 “6 18 15 100 (111) Skilled a no 23 2“ 100 ( 7O) chi-Square = 19.96? C = .2““ Df = 6 P