A Critique of North American Leftist Analyses of Mexico

Leftist analyses of Mexican society generally try to explain class nature and role of state in Mexico's contemporary development. This often involves an examination of Mexican Revolution and speculation about direction in which country is developing. The two works reviewed here follow this pattern. They seek to provide definitive statements on class nature of Mexican state and Mexican Revolution, role of State in country's past and present course of development, and influence of Mexican Revolution upon rest of Latin America. Because of Mexico's importance in relation to United States and Latin America, North American social scientists of differing ideological perspectives have been drawn to study of its social reality. As a result, probably more works of social analysis have been produced by North Americans on Mexico than on any other country in Latin America. Among these works, an increasing number use a Marxist or neo-Marxist theoretical framework. The books by James Cockcroft and by Donald Hodges and Ross Gandy fall into this category. Both books attempt to provide a class analysis of Mexican Revolution and postrevolutionary Mexican society. Following Andre Gunder Frank's theoretical formulations, Cockcroft argues that Mexican society was thoroughly capitalist even during early colonial period and that Mexico's colonial class structure was characterized by a small, dependent colonial bourgeoisie and a large Mexican proletariat. According to Cockcroft, the majority of Mexicans were peasants, miners, muleteers, and workers, that is, proletarians, and the largest part of working class were peasants tied to haciendas (1979: 29). Thus, Cockcroft argues that peasantry in colonial and prerevolutionary Mexico was main component of