From the “coronel’s” clientelism to the State’s clientelism: the rise of immigrants in the politics of São Paulo state’s inland

Abstract

The article analyzes the relation between patterns of social mobility and the process of entrance of immigrants and their first generation descendents in the institutional political activity in the region known as “oeste paulista” (west of São Paulo state). This process may be an indicator of the relations of resistance or of approach between the immigrants and the local traditional elites. Besides, it could be a key element in the comprehension of the process of overcoming the colonels system in the state of São Paulo, what contributed to the ascension of a new bourgeois fraction and the advent of populism.