Elite and Cadres in Bourbon Chile
IN RECENT YEARS historians have begun to question the traditional belief that colonial Latin American government was autocratic and centralized. In the process of this reevaluation features such as corruption, which had previously been treated as weaknesses of the political system, have come to be regarded as hidden strengths. Today theoretical articles emphasize that the "corruption" of the administration provided the local population with an opportunity for political influence. Colonial officials are presented, therefore, as having been responsive to local pressures, and having enjoyed considerable autonomy from central authorities.' Such arguments conclude that corruption was a safety valve for the empires. The creole who surreptitiously wielded influence, it is argued, was not likely to demand formal control of the government. These theoretical discussions have been confirmed by regional studies. The predominant tendency has been to argue that the roots of corruption were to be found in an informal structure of primary interpersonal relations established between members of the elite and royal officials. While the formal structure of government placed the Indies in a classic colonial position by forcing administrators to be loyal to outside authorities, "the informal structure allowed colonial interest groups to treat magistrates as simply another source of power subject to alliance and cooptation."2