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.