The New Bourgeoisie and the Limits of Dependency: Mining, Class, and Power in Revolutionary Peru
by: Becker, David G.

Softcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 419 pages. The author clarifies the mutually constructive relationship between transnational and the modernizing Peruvian state, showing how the state maintains this relationship while simultaneously nurturing the new class. This book presents a useful analysis of Peru's mining sector in the post-1968 period. It has four sections: background on Peruvian mining and the international market; the role of transnational mining corporations in Peru; the characteristics of the domestically owned mining sector; and a class analysis of the mining bourgeoisie and proletariat. Although these chapters are mostly based on secondary sources, that material is supplemented by interviews conducted by Becker and some limited access to company and government documents. A particularly interesting section is a comparative analysis of the two major foreign firms in Peruvian mining: Cerro de Pasco and Southern Peru Copper Corporation. Useful detail is also supplied on the development of the main government mining corporation, Mineroperu. In addition, Becker provides a careful class analysis of the "new bourgeoisie" in social, economic, and political terms. Included are discussions of education, career patterns, and guild associations as well as of ideology. Clean copy.