ries "tend to place little value on political participation because it is inefficient, and may adversely affect governmental effectiveness.
It is important to note that the term citizen participa tion means different things to different people. Huntington, and Nelson (1976, 374) defined political participation as
. . . activity by private citizens designed to
influence government decision making. Participa
tion may be individual or collective, organized or
spontaneous, sustained or spoadic, peaceful or
violent, legal or illegal, effective or ineffec
tive. They went on to add that effective political participation most often results from organized collective activity, which can assume a variety of forms. Thus, violent action on the 3part of opponents to a government is a form of political parti cipation.
In Latin America, political development must be considered in two contexts. First, with respect to the urban dwellers, which are, by and large, descended from European nationalities, and second, with respect to the native Indian populations (Needler, 1988). Almost all modern political development in Latin America has been urban oriented, "with the Indian on the whole passively accepting his position of insubordination" (Needler, 1988, 124). An exception to this rule has been Nicaragua, where revolutions "have more often been staged and fought in the hinterlands than in the streets . . ." (Anderson, 1989, 103) .
Political development and change in Latin America has been strongly associated with economic development and change, throughout the history of the region. Huntington, and Nelson (1976, 93) found a "close correspondence between political party, economic organization, and socio economic group." This finding was cited as support for their contention that politi cal change in Latin American countries is t...