ABSTRACT
Latin American political parties and interest groups are involved in the region's current conflict between its corporatist past and a newer system based on pluralism and democracy. After independence, three groups that comprised what can be called the nineteenth-century oligarchy were predominant in Latin America: the military, the Roman Catholic Church, and the large landholders. Through the process of economic growth and change new groups emerged: first commercial elites; later industrial elites, students, and middle-income sectors; then industrial labor unions and peasants; and most recently groups representing indigenous people, women, consumers, and nongovernmental organizations. Industrialists and commercial elites, who are strategically located in major cities of Latin America, are highly organized in various chambers of commerce, and industrial associations. Latin American unionism was influenced by ideological currents that came from southern Europe, including anarchist and Marxist orientations. Nongovernmental organizations, a newer type of group, are increasingly important actors in Latin American politics.
