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Colombia SOCIAL CLASS
The structure of Colombian society in the
1980s--strongly
influenced by traditions inherited from sixteenth-century
Spain--
was highly stratified, having well-defined class
membership,
pronounced status differences, and limited vertical social
mobility. The urban sector was characterized by a more
flexible
social system, a growing middle class, and greater
participation of
the population in national politics. Rural society in all
but a few
regions was organized in rigidly hierarchical structures
in which
change of status was very difficult. Only in the
coffee-growing
departments of Caldas and Antioquia were there sizable
segments of
the population exhibiting the traits of a rural middle
class.
In the 1980s, social scientists continued to disagree
about the
definition of class in Colombia, the composition and
relative
importance of the middle class, the role of the upper
class in the
larger society, and the degree to which the society was
evolving
into a more open system. It was difficult to speak of
social class
per se because class implied feelings of cohesion and
exclusiveness
vis-à-vis other classes--characteristics that did not
uniformly
apply to status groups in Colombia. This class
consciousness among
persons with similar economic, occupational, and
sociological
interests was found only at the highest stratum of society
in
Colombia.
Four classes and their relative proportions could be
distinguished in the mid-1980s: upper class, 5 percent;
middle
class, 20 percent; lower class, 50 percent; and the
masses, 25
percent. There were also two important transitional
subdivisions:
the new rich, who constituted perhaps 3 percent of the
total and
were tenuously members of the upper class; and the upper
lower
class, organized blue-collar workers, and poorer
white-collar
workers, who made up about 15 percent of the total.
Classes were distinguished by occupation, life-style,
income,
family background, education, and power. Within each of
the
classes, there were numerous subtle gradations in status.
Colombians tended to be extremely status-conscious, and
class
membership was an important aspect of social life because
it
regulated the interaction of groups and individuals.
Social class
boundaries were far more flexible in the city than in the
countryside, but consciousness of status and class
distinctions
continued to permeate social life in both sectors.
Data as of December 1988
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