A Guatemalan Case Study in Perceptions toward Inequality, Poverty, and Race-Ethnicity. Socio-Economic Implications

• In Event: Economía del desarrollo

Abstract

This study compares two indigenous populations in Guatemala as a case study to understand perspectives of inequality, poverty, and race-ethnicity. I compare perceptions of social issues related to job creation through government help and foreign investment as well as race-ethnicity as a cause of poverty. The original study was conducted in two primarily indigenous towns at different socio-economic stages. While workers in both towns are primarily in the informal work sector, one town is dominated by informal wage work, while in the other town is based on self-employed agricultural enterprises and other informal work. I hypothesize that there is a difference in attitudes toward social issues between individuals who live in these two areas. I test the hypothesis with attitudinal responses toward socio-economic policies and race-ethnicity as a cause of poverty. Throughout Latin America peasant populations have been transformed into labor forces for capitalist agriculture, primary commodity development, and low-wage, informal factory work. Guatemala’s experience is similar, but the elites have had unusual control of the country’s resources, labor, and services industry compared to the rest of Latin America. This article offers insights into the perceptions that lead to understanding how policies can be developed to overcome the difficulties of a society living with inequality.

Author

• Paul L Kasun, University of Texas at Austin