ABSTRACT
The existing literature contains very little systematic information about how peasants are drawn into political participation and what effect such participation has on the individuals concerned. The important questions seem to be how and under what conditions peasants participate significantly in politics, and what difference such participation makes to them. The data for both countries show that peasant political participation, whether in semipolitical peasant unions or political parties, is of a high order, especially in Venezuela. In conclusion, political efficacy among our sample of Colombian peasants is unrelated to political participation, whether of the traditional, clientelist type, or through exposure to modernizing influences such as the mass media. A feeling of national efficacy, then, is principally the result of three factors: frequency of reading newspapers; verbal participation in union meetings; and the level of effectiveness of the syndicate. Participation in peasant unions is one of several sources of national efficacy among Venezuelan peasants.
