Leadership beyond the Bridge, the Politician, and the Oldest Brother

Abstract This article examines the rise and fall of an organization in the municipality of Chicoasén, in Chiapas, Mexico, which mediated between local residents and a state-owned electricity company planning a dam in the region. It describes the practical creation of the organization, with an emphasis on the leaders’ use of an egalitarian framework to make sense of the actors involved in the negotiations, and then highlights how competing egalitarian perspectives led to its disintegration. The analysis of this process indicates that a focus on the dichotomy between hierarchy and egalitarianism can obscure an understanding of concrete leadership practices in an organization, as well as the deeper conflicts between the subjects positioned as the basis of political frameworks.