Identifying Political Subcultures in Mexico

Abstract

In response to many of the deficiencies in current research, this study
proposes Q methodology as an appropriate technique for the analysis of
intra-national political subcultures. Q offers the important advantage
of allowing respondents to define and to place themselves into
subcultures. Data collected in Puebla, Mexico illustrate the argument.
Four political subcultures are revealed: the allegiant participant, the
distant participant, the alienated participant, and the subculture of
mistrust and individualism. While respondents display many of the
cultural attitudes scholars have already identified in Mexico, a clearer
picture of political culture in Mexico emerges because none of the
subcultures displays all of these attitudes. Instead, important traits
of attitudes are often mutually exclusive, such that a single trait is
generally the defining variable of only a single subculture.