ABSTRACT
The history of Latin America has been written almost solely in terms of great men: the conquistadores, the liberators, the great caudillos of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Unfortunately, most of the individuals left little or no legacy in the form of enduring institutions once they disappeared from the scene. In many ways, Plutarco Calles was the most successful institution-builder in Latin American history. Certainly his institution, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, has succeeded in controlling the politics of that country for a longer period of time and more completely than any of the other political institutions we have surveyed. One may only surmise as to the effect that education has on political personality, and the effect probably varies from society to society. In societies like those of Latin America, where only a small number of people go beyond a basic elementary education, a person who is highly educated may understandably feel that he has a special place in that society.
