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Machine Politics in Buenos Aires and the Argentine Radical Party, 1912–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

David Rock
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Extract

From the introduction of the Sáenz Pena Law in 1912 until the September Revolution of 1930, Argentina had its first experience of liberal representative government under an electoral system which accorded compulsory voting rights to the country's native-born male population. In this paper it is proposed to explore certain characteristics of urban politics and patterns of mass political participation during this period, employing as an example the city of Buenos Aires. An attempt is made to describe and define the ‘machine’ character which urban politics acquired during this period at the same time as making some assessment of the relative importance of machine characteristics against those of other kinds. What is meant by the ‘machine character’ of politics are the specific techniques for the political support which is based upon the distribution to individuals of concrete rewards, such as bureaucratic offices, charity donations and petty personal privileges.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , November 1972 , pp. 233 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 In elections for the Senate, the Radicals were defeated in 1913 and 1924 by the other major party operating in Buenos Aires at the time, the partido socialista. The latter also won majorities in the elections of national deputies in 1914 and 1924, and in the municipal council in 1918 and 1924. The defeats of the Radical Party in 1924 were the direct result of the division between Yrigoyen's supporters and his opponents who founded the ‘antipersonalist’ Radical Party, but the only catastrophic defeat of the Radicals occurred in April 1930 a few months before the coup which ousted Yrigoyen. For detailed figures of election returns during this period see Darío, Cantón, Materiales para el estudio de la sociología politico en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, 1968). This work does not, however, contain information on municipal elections, for which data must be sought in the contemporary press. (The municipal elections were generally held biennially from 1918 onwards in the month of November.) Cantón's work must, however, be used with some caution on account of typographical errors.Google Scholar

2 These and other figures relating to the social structure and the occupational distribution of the male population of Buenos Aires are summaries of the calculations taken from the National Census of ‘914 which appear in Rock, D. P., ‘Radicalism and the Urban Working Classes in Argentina, 1916–1922’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1971), pp. 22–31.Google Scholar

3 Adolfo, Dorfman, Euolución Industrial Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1942), pp.16–22.Google Scholar

4 For immigration and emigration figures see Argentine Republic, Resumen estadístico del mouimiento migratorio en la República Argentina, 1857–1924 (Buenos Aires, Ministry of Agriculture, 1925).Google Scholar

5 Quoted in Darío, Cantón, El Parlarnento Argentina en Epocas de Cambio: 1890, 1916 y 1946 (Buenos Aires, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, 1966), pp. 122–3.Google Scholar

6 Unión Cívica Radical, Circunscripción IIa (Balvanera Norte), Rendicidn de Cuentas (Buenos Aires, 1922), pp.9–10.

7 For union membership data, see Alfredo, Palacios, El Nuevo Derecho (Buenos Aires, 1934), pp. 190–1;Google ScholarRevista de Ciencias Económicas, No. 29 (1927), 973; La Organización Obrera, 1 May 1918, 1 05 1920, 24 January 1921; El Diario, 10 December 1918.

8 For statistical figures concerning voluntary associations, see Gino, Germani, ‘Mass Immigralion and Modernization in Argentina’, in Irving, Louis Horowitz, Josué, Dc Castro, John, Gerassi (eds.), Latin American Radicalism A documentary report on left and nationalist movements (London, 1969), p. 340. It is worthy of note that Germani regards these figures as high, and mentions ‘the remarkable propensity to co-operate and to create voluntary associations among the foreign immigrants’. But this seems to me a somewhat exaggerated claim, remembering that only 15% of the immigrants belonged to associations of this type. and the other 85% remained unattached.Google Scholar

9 Quoted in Adolfo, Posada, La República Argentina impresiones y comentarios (Madrid, 1912), pp. 285–6.Google Scholar

10 For commentaries on the Radicals' interpretation of the Sunday Rest Law see La Vanguardia, 19 November. 1917; Boktín Oficial del Centro de Almaceneros, 20 July 1918; Augusto, Bunge, La Inferioridad Económica de los Argentinos Nativos (Buenos Aires, 1918), p. 38.Google Scholar

11 Cf. Boletín Oficial del Centro de Almaceneros, 10 February 1921, 5 May 1921, 5 April 1922, 20 May 1922.

12 See La Vanguardia's accusations of working class betrayal against the syndicalists, 8 June 1921 passim.

13 For the foundation of the sailors' subcommittee see La Epoca, 26 March 1922; for teachers Ibid. 3 March 1926; for tramwaymen Ibid. 20 March 1929. The electoral calculations lying behind such action are clear, remembering that while all these committees appeared in March, the elections were always held in April.

14 The municipal workers' strike may be followed in press issues for March and April 1917.

15 Ibid., May 1918.

16 Ibid., September 1918.

17 Cf. Cornblit, Oscar E.: ‘Inmigrantes y empresarios en la política argentina’, Desarrollo Económico, Vol. 6, No. 24 (03–01 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 An impression of the extent of the new appointments which were made can be gained from the Radical organ, La Epoca in October 1922. For Socialist criticisms see La Van guardia.

19 Compare La Vanguardia's commentaries, December 1922 to February 1923.

20 Cf. La Vanguardia, 13 March 1927.

21 Cf. La Epoca, October, November 1928.

22 Cf. La Epoca, 9 February 1929.

23 La Vanguardia, 2 June 1919.

24 La Epoca, 2 September. 1930.

25 The compadre was traditionally the elegantly dressed, but masculine ‘gentleman’ of the city barrio. Compradito is the same word's ironic diminutive, referring to the more upstart personalities of the same type. The caudillo in Argentina was originally the leader of a gaucho band, though from an early period the term possessed a connotation of paternal responsibilities. See Héctor, Domingo Arias, Beatriz, Bosch and collaborators, ‘Encuesta sobre el caudillo’, Cuaderno de Sociologla, 4 (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 1965), 94–7. From around the turn of the century, however, the term began to acquire the sense of ‘personalist’ relationship which existed between the politician and his followers. The Socialist Party, for example, used the term to emphasize the strongly traditional and backward style of the Radical Party's ieaders and sub-leaders. When President Roque Sáenz Pena introduced political reform in 1912, he defended the measure on the grounds that it would root out ‘caudillismo’ and assist in the country's development towards ordered and rationai politics. Yrigoyen himself was often referred to as the ‘caudillo máximo’ by his enemies. The nearest English equivalent to ‘caudillo de barrio’ is the American ‘ward boss’.Google Scholar

26 For discussions of the role of local committee in party organization in 1890 see the proposals of Francisco Barroctevena quoted in Hipólito, Yrigoyen, Pueblo y Gobierno (edited by Roberto, Etchepareborda, Buenos Aires, 1956), I, 32, note 8.Google Scholar

27 Of this type was the famous Cayetano Ganghi. Cf. Peralta, A. N., ‘El Pueblo Quiere Principios’, Revista Argentina de Ciencias Políticas, VI (Buenos Aires, 1913).Google Scholar

28 Compare remarks in Angel, Carrasco, Lo que yo vi desde el '80 (Buenos Aires, 1947), pp. 125–6.Google Scholar

29 Note the commentaries of the Buenos Aires afternoon daily, El Diario, 27 March 1912.

30 Compare facsimiles of banquet speeches on behalf of the ward boss, Nicolás, Selén, in La Epoca, 20 05 1928: ‘You have performed prodigal acts of goodness. On more than one occasion with our help you have ended the desperate situation of helpless households. You have fulfilled with dignity the gentlemanly precept of friendship, one of the greatest qualities which human beings are endowed with’.Google Scholar

31 La Vanguardia, 3 April 1928.

32 For a commentary on the appointment of the members of the Municipal Commission, see La Vanguardia, 8 February 1917.

33 For example, Nicolás Selén, Pedro Bidegain Pedro Podestá Leopoldo Bard, Héctor Bergalli, Andres Ferreyra, Diego Luis Molinari (Senate), Guillermo Sullivan.

34 La Vanguardia, 29 June 1926.

35 Pedro, Bidegain, Mi Radicalismo (Buenos Aires, 1929).Google Scholar

36 La Epoca, 28 February 1926.

37 Ibid., 19 November 1920.

38 Quoted in La Vanguardia, 23 June 1929.

39 This appeared to have happened with many of the anti-personalists, and the party division of 1924 was to some extent, at this level, one between incumbents and challengers for barrio Committee supremacy.

40 The matter is fully treated in La Vanguardia; cf. 30 September, 31 October, 11 November, 11 December 1921, and 3 April and 26 August 1922.

41 Cf. Unión Civica Radical, Rendkión de Cuentas, loc. cit., pp. 10–11.

42 Proposals to this effect can be seen in La Epoca, 6 July 1918.

43 For an indictment of the Socialist Party's structure and leadership by one of its important members, see Joaquín, Coca, El Contubernio (Buenos Aires, 1961).Google Scholar

44 See, for example, the party's internal elections reported in La Vanguardia, 10 April 1920.

45 These figures can be found in the issues of the last day of August or September of each year in La Epoca.

46 For election figures, voters and registered voters, see Cantón, Sociología Politica’, loc. cit.

47 See El Radical for reports on these activities, December 1915 passim.

48 See Unión Civica Radical, Rcndición de Cuentac, loc. cit.; and Yearly Report of the committee of the roth Section, El Radical, 6 December 1915.

49 El Radical, 30 August 1915.

50 Ibid., 18 August 1915.

51 La Nación, 31 August. 1925.

52 La Vanguardia, 25 March 1929.

53 Ibid.

54 Cf. Diana de Sesiones, Senadores, I (1917), 148–70.

55 For commentaries on the voting of foreigners in the municipal elections, see La Epoca, 16 November 1924 and 21 November 1926.

56 Cf. Boletín Oficial del Centro de Almaceneros, 20 January 1918, ‘The Executive Committee recommends all retailers, be they members of our organisation or not, to become registered as voters, and to do the same with their relatives, to put us in a position when the moment arrives, of being able to play an important part in the municipal elections, which are of such great importance to us’.

57 El Radical, 2 April 1916.

58 Boletín Oficial del Centro de Almaceneros, 20 April 1918.

59 Any attempt at calculation would be a foolhardy enterprise, given the absence of detailed figures for the number of marriages among immigrants, and for general family sizes from 1880 onwards. Nevertheless, some indication of the size of the sons-of-immigrants group may be judged from the fact that among the male population of Buenos Aires in the two generations before 1930, the immigrants constituted a proportion of between 50% and 75%.

60 Cf. El Radical, 3 March 1916(praise for immigrant co-operative ventures).

61 Cf, Cornblit, ‘Inmigrantes y empresarios…’, loc. cit.

62 For commentaries on early conflicts between native and immigrant descended groups in the early 1900s see Tulio, Halperín Donghi, Historsa de la Uniucrsidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1962), p. 137.Google Scholar

63 For a full list of committee office-holders elected in 1918 see La Epoca, 1 and 2 September 1918.

64 For a reflection of the Radicals' concern in 1916 not to alienate the Jewish community see El Radical, 22 March 1916.

65 Cf. La Epoca, 9 February. 1928; La Vanguardia, 25 February 1928.

66 La Epoca, 5 and 29 January 1928.