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Argentina
A Short History
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Russia: A Short History, Abraham Ascher, ISBN 1–85168–242–2
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Argentina
A Short History
.
COLIN M LEWIS
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ARGENTINA: A SHORT HISTORY
Oneworld Publications
(Sales and Editorial)
185 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7AR
England
www.oneworld-publications.com
© Colin M. Lewis 2002
All rights reserved.
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available
from the British Library
ISBN 1–85168–300–3
Cover design by Design Deluxe
Cover photograph of Gauchos on Horses by Torres © Galen Rowell/CORBIS
Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby, UK
Printed and bound in Britain by Bell &Bain Ltd, Glasgow
NL08
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Contents
Foreword vii
Acknowledgements ix
Maps xi
Introduction 1
PART 1: INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT
Introduction: Defining a place in the world 17
ONE The regional dimensions of national 26
consolidation
TWO Independent internationalism: a secure 36
place in the global order?
THREE Neutrality and nationalism: the cost of 52
charting an independent course
FOUR Reaction, realism and global reinsertion: 65
ideology versus pragmatism
Conclusion: Internationalism and nationalism 80
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vi Argentina: A Short History
PART 2: ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Introduction: Golden eras and missed opportunities 87
– a long-run perspective
FIVE Imperfect transition: the flawed belle époque 93
SIX Industrialisation and development: aspiration 125
and obsession
SEVEN Restructuring economy and society: 144
the political economy of violence
EIGHT Convertibility, poverty and corruption: 160
a future found and lost
Conclusion: In search of efficiency and equity 180
PART 3: POLITICS
Introduction: Conflict and crisis – failure to embed 185
a national project
NINE A possible republic and the real republic 189
TEN Class politics: parties, power and democracy 199
ELEVEN Distributional conflict: the politics of frustration 206
Conclusion: State, politics and citizenship 224
Conclusion 227
Bibliographical essay 236
Index 245
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Foreword
Failure to sustain growth, and the process of relative (or
absolute) decline, is of more than academic interest. At the end
of 2001, the Argentine authorities made the long-anticipated
announcement that the country was unable to meet obligations to
private foreign and domestic creditors, triggering the largest debt
default in world history. This was not the first occasion that
Argentina had defaulted. In 1889/90 the Baring Crisis, caused by
default in Buenos Aires, provoked a panic in the City of London
that almost broke the Bank of England. In the 1980s, Argentine
indebtedness (in relative terms Argentina was the largest Latin
American debtor) brought the international banking system to the
brink of disaster. The distinctness of the 2001/2 default, apart from
the sheer scale of the crisis, is that the international fallout has been
limited. Is this because Argentina has become a serial defaulter?
For much of the period addressed by this book, Argentines have
been aware of the international economic ‘ranking’ of their
country. Drawing positive comparisons between the republic and
the USA, in the second half of the nineteenth century, several
commentators forecast a bright future. Political leaders predicted a
continental leadership role for the country predicated on political
and social modernisation. Immigrants from Italy and Spain, who
arrived in large numbers in the 1880s and the 1900s, testified to
the fact that material conditions were then massively better in the
republic than in many parts of Europe. By the 1920s per capita
incomes were high by European and Latin American standards,
and improving relative to other areas of recent settlement like
vii
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viii Argentina: A Short History
Australia. During the inter-war decades, Argentina was easily the
most prosperous economy in South America – accounting for
around half continental output and overseas trade – and by far the
most industrialised. This position was maintained for much of the
second quarter of the twentieth century. In 1950, Argentina was
still the largest economy in Latin America, accounting for one-
quarter of continental GDP, and significantly bigger than either
Brazil or Mexico. Yet, by the 1960s, negative contrasts were being
made with the course and pace of development in neighbouring
republics and other economies. Having aspired to First World
status and continental leadership, Argentines felt that their country
was slipping into the Third World. In per capita terms it was
becoming clear that little growth had occurred between the 1950s
and the 1980s and at this point Argentines were even less confident
about their prosperity and international ranking. They were aware
that output per capita, which had been significantly higher than
that of Austria, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, and Spain and
several times greater than that of the soon-to-be East Asian tiger
economies at mid century, was much lower than all these countries
by 1985. During the 1990s there was a return of confidence and
sense of a capacity to ‘recapture’ a lost future, only for that future
to be jeopardised by the 2001/2 crisis.
This book explores the history of Argentina in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries in order to explain the development
paradox: namely, the transition from confidence in the future to a
sense of near collapse; from nineteenth-century ‘tiger economy’ to
late twentieth-century ‘basket case’; from an aspiring democracy to
institutional terrorism; and from societal integration to social
atomisation. Why did Argentina experience so much difficulty in
effecting a relatively smooth transition from rapid growth and insti-
tutional change at the end of the nineteenth century to a developed
polity and economy during the second half of the twentieth?
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Acknowledgements
Much of this book was written at the Latin American
Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford, while on
sabbatical leave from the Department of Economic History,
London School of Economics and Political Science. I am
grateful to the Department for its support and to the Centre
for its hospitality, particularly the then Director, Rosemary
Thorp. Many colleagues, directly and indirectly, have
contributed to the views expressed in this book, which also
reflect opinions formed as the result of reading and writing –
and teaching – aspects of Argentine history for many years.
Exchanges with friends, academics and officials – in seminars,
conferences and over a mate – have shaped the tone and
approach of the book.
Particular thanks are due to Jeremy Adelman, Samuel
Amaral, María Fernanda Arias, Camila Arza, María Inés
Barbero, Gustavo Beliz, James P. Brennan, Roberto Cortés
Conde, Gerardo della Paolera, Bernardo Duggan, Raúl
Fernández, Jorge Fodor, Raúl García Heras, Ezequiel Gallo,
Klaus Gallo, Austin Ivereigh, María Alejandra Irigoin, Juan
Carlos Korol, Bernardo Kosacoff, Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, John
Lynch, Gabriel Molteni, Juan Carlos Nicolau, Mário
Rapoport, Andrés Regalsky, Fernando Rocchi, Hilda Sabato,
Ricardo Salvatore, Arnd Schneider, Dora Schwarzstein, Celia
Szusterman, Enrique Tandeter, Alan M. Taylor, Diana Tussie,
Description:With special focus on political intrigue, military power, and such key figures as Eva Peron and Videla, this is a engaging survey of the driving forces behind Argentina, its dramatic rise, and recent problems.
