¹ For a more complete discussion of some of the data presented in this research note, the reader may refer to the work based on that research, Patterns of Conflict in Colombia (forthcoming 1968).

² Two recent North American publications on Colombian politics in which assertions of oligarchy appear are Fluharty, Vernon L., Dance of the Millions (Pittsburgh 1957)Google Scholar, and Martz, John D., Colombia (Chapel Hill 1962)Google Scholar. Also see Dix, Robert H., “Colombia: A Two-Party System in Crisis,” unpubl. Ph.D. diss., Harvard, 1962Google Scholar. Carlos Lleras Restrepo argues, against the tide to be sure, that local usage of “oligarchy” is simply political propaganda: “Here [in Colombia] all those who wish to practice demagoguery classify everyone else as oligarchs” (Hacia la restauración democrática y el cambio social, Vol. I [Bogota 1963], 327Google Scholar).

³ H-I was the meaning given to “oligarchy” in the study of trade-union democracy by Lipset, Seymour Martin, Trow, Martin A., and Coleman, James S., Union Democracy (Garden City 1962)Google Scholar. The formulation of the “iron law of oligarchy” by Robert Michels in Political Parties is confused by the different meanings given to “oligarchy” in different places (Types I, II, and III).

⁴ For a summary of these findings see Bell, Wendell, Hill, Richard J., and Wright, Charles R., Public Leadership (San Francisco 1961)Google Scholar.

⁵ Martínez, Fernando Guillén, Raíz y futuro de la revolución (Bogotá 1963), 155Google Scholar.

⁶ Piñeres, Eduardo Rodríguez, Hechos y comentarios (Bogotá 1956), 189Google Scholar.

⁷ Bernal, Gustavo Samper, Breve historia constitutional y política de Colombia (Bogotá 1957), 109Google Scholar. Also see Puentes, Milton, Historia del partido liberal colombiano, 2nd ed. (Bogotá 1961), 249Google Scholar.

⁸ Samper Bernal, 107. Also see Piñeres, Eduardo Rodríguez, El olimpo radical (Bogotá 1950), 171Google Scholar, 195–96.

⁹ Guzman, A. J. Lemos, Obando, 2nd ed. (Popayán 1959), 182Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Reyes, Oscar Efren, Breve historia general del Ecuador, Vol. II (Quito 1957), 510Google Scholar.

¹¹ Diezcanseco, Alfredo Parqa, Historia del Ecuador, Vol. II (Quinto 1958), 14Google Scholar.

¹² These leaders were among the members of the departmental party executive committees in seven different departments (Cundinamarca, Tolima, Caldas, Valle, Cauca, Antioquia, and Atlántico) and big-city party executive committees (Bogotá, Ibagué, Pereira, Cali, Medellín, and Barranquilla). These executive committee members were, of course, the most prominent political leaders in the locality. I delivered and collected the questionnaires myself. For further details on the sample and sampling procedure, see Appendix I of my forthcoming Patterns of Conflict in Colombia.

¹³ In the discussion of Type II power I draw heavily upon Dahl, Robert A., Who Governs? (New Haven 1961)Google Scholar; , Dahl, “A Critique of the Ruling Elite Model,” American Political Science Review, LII (June 1958), 463–69Google Scholar; and Polsby, Nelson W., Community Power and Political Theory (New Haven 1963)Google Scholar. In my Labor and Politics in Peru (New Haven 1965), 272–77Google Scholar, I attempt a preliminary test for a Type D-II oligarchy in that country.

¹⁴ The problem of “nonissue” power has been raised in the context of American municipal power studies by Peter Bachrach and Baratz, Morton S., “Two Faces of Power,” American Political Science Review, LVI (December 1962), 947–52Google Scholar. See also Polsby, 95–97.

¹⁵ One book published and sold in Colombia maintains that freedom of the press does not exist in Colombia. See Rodríguez, Marco Tulio, La gran prensa en Colombia (Bogotá 1963)Google Scholar. Indicative of the quality of this writer's arguments is his contention that freedom of the press does exist in the Soviet Union and Red China. He cites as evidence articles of the Soviet and Chinese constitutions that “guarantee” it (p. 83).