Argentina: The Problem Is the State
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By Antonella Marty
Argentina did everything backwards. We were a developed, rich country that, after years of populism, has ended up underdeveloped.
The prosperous Argentina of the 19th century, one of the richest countries in the world, owed much of its early success to the ideas of Juan Bautista Alberdi, the political philosopher who was hugely influential in the drafting of the 1853 Constitution, a constitution based on the ideas underpinning the Constitution of the United States of America. We did well as a country when we bet on good ideas, when we bet on the rule of law and the free market, and when we bet on opening ourselves to the world.
With an economy based on the export of agricultural products — notably mutton, wool, beef, and cereals — Argentina, “the granary of the world,” rapidly became very rich, as a glance at some of Buenos Aires’s turn-of-the-century architecture shows. Much of this growth, and not only in the agricultural sector, was driven by foreign investment in the country. But the mid 1940s arrival into power of Juan Domingo Perón and his ideology, Peronism –which is usually simply described as populist but is better seen as a variant of fascism — effectively put an end to that. Peronism drove Argentina into poverty and became the basis of a political system which is still in place today.
To understand Perón it is necessary to remember that he was an admirer of Benito Mussolini, and, by extension, fascism. He spent time in Mussolini’s Italy experiencing Fascism firsthand and was fascinated by the figure of the “Duce,” in whom he saw an image of his own political future.
Once he returned to Argentina after his visit to Italy, Perón was put in charge of the Secretariat of Labor and Social Security. He used that position to promote the interests of the trade unions and cemented an alliance with the unions — including, importantly, the powerful Railway Workers union — that was to be critical both in the shaping of Peronism and its hold on power. Membership of the trade unions grew from just over half a million in 1945 to nearly two million in 1949.
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By Antonella Marty
Argentina did everything backwards. We were a developed, rich country that, after years of populism, has ended up underdeveloped.
The prosperous Argentina of the 19th century, one of the richest countries in the world, owed much of its early success to the ideas of Juan Bautista Alberdi, the political philosopher who was hugely influential in the drafting of the 1853 Constitution, a constitution based on the ideas underpinning the Constitution of the United States of America. We did well as a country when we bet on good ideas, when we bet on the rule of law and the free market, and when we bet on opening ourselves to the world.
With an economy based on the export of agricultural products — notably mutton, wool, beef, and cereals — Argentina, “the granary of the world,” rapidly became very rich, as a glance at some of Buenos Aires’s turn-of-the-century architecture shows. Much of this growth, and not only in the agricultural sector, was driven by foreign investment in the country. But the mid 1940s arrival into power of Juan Domingo Perón and his ideology, Peronism –which is usually simply described as populist but is better seen as a variant of fascism — effectively put an end to that. Peronism drove Argentina into poverty and became the basis of a political system which is still in place today.
To understand Perón it is necessary to remember that he was an admirer of Benito Mussolini, and, by extension, fascism. He spent time in Mussolini’s Italy experiencing Fascism firsthand and was fascinated by the figure of the “Duce,” in whom he saw an image of his own political future.
Once he returned to Argentina after his visit to Italy, Perón was put in charge of the Secretariat of Labor and Social Security. He used that position to promote the interests of the trade unions and cemented an alliance with the unions — including, importantly, the powerful Railway Workers union — that was to be critical both in the shaping of Peronism and its hold on power. Membership of the trade unions grew from just over half a million in 1945 to nearly two million in 1949.