> Marvin Gandall wrote:
>>
>> Depends what people have in mind when they describe themselves as
>> "socialist". For most, it doesn't correspond to the classical Marxist
>> notion
>> of a "proletarian dictatorship" and public ownership, but to the
>> capitalist
>> welfare state model favoured by social democrats. The poll notes that
>> only a
>> small percentage of the sample was attracted to what Gallup calls the
>> "extreme forms of socialism" practiced under Chavez in Venezuela (21%),
>> Morales in Bolivia (28%), and Correa in Ecuador (31%).
>
> I don't know whether Marvin followed the recent exchanges on the nature
> of social change -- those primarily between Miles and Julio.
>
> But if Miles is correct (and all evidence for 200 year supports his
> position), these are HUGE percentages. Actually, only 10%-15% is the
> usual force beehind major social changes.
====================================
But remember these are people being surveyed, not actively engaged in social
action. If 10%-15% is an accurate representation of the percentage of the
population which is consistently active, the support of the majority has
been required by all successful revolutionary, national liberation, and
reform movements, including the readiness of the less committed layers to
mobilize and fight at decisive turning points.
By this standard, it's evident that most Peruvians, while favouring change, still appear hesitant about going even so far to the left as the Venezuelans and their allies who are still struggling to transform their capitalist economies.
Of course, as Proyect noted, there aren't any born socialists; people fight to better their existing conditions, and their consciousness becomes transformed in the process. Majorities don't come ready made; they come about as popular beliefs and goals evolve in mostly unforeseen ways, ie. "(people) make their own history, but they do not make it as they please..."
So today's self-described anti-Chavez socialists (and others more conservative in outlook), if galvanized by some event inside or outside the electoral arena, could become his fervent admirers tomorrow - in Peru and elsewhere.