Latin American Populism

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Latin American Populism
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Americas Syllabus Location

• Section 13 Latin American politics in the first
  half of the 20th Century
• Evolution of nationalism, indigenism, and
  populism
• Role of military
• Leaders, single-party states and populism
  Vargas, Peron
• Nature and effectiveness of dissent

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Characteristics of Populist
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• Outsider to traditional political elites
• Legalistic in his or her approach to change
• Spoke in nationalist terms
• Believed in middle road between unbridled
  capitalism and communism
• Advocated a strongly interventionist role for the
  state in the national economy
• Branded elites as the oligarchy and condemned
  them for their selfishness and lack of foresight
• Condemned imperialism in moralistic terms

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• Was frequently branded as fascist by opponents
• Was a charismatic figure of great personal
  magnetism and superior oratorical skills
• Enjoyed paternalistic relationships with their
  followers
• Stressed the immorality of the status quo
• Studied the oratory and ideology of European
  dictators
• Believed that massive social transformations
  could be effected through existing structures
  through peaceful reform

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• Appealed to lower class and lower middle class
  voters affected by uneven or cyclical development
• Lacked a systemic approach to political economy,
  viewing it as a function of the interaction
  between good and evil social groups
• A populists strength rested on his or her
  strength of personality rather than party
  organization

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Early Populism in South America

• Two phases of populism
• First phase is called the reformist phase and
  takes place before the Great Depression
• Second phase began in the late 1930s Classic
  Populism
• By the 1960s a series of military coups had
  brought an end to the populist era
• A resurgence of populism is taking place in Latin
  America

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Reformist Populist

• Leaders generally addressed
• Voter rights and elections
• Nationalism
• Labor relations
• Built movements on broad agreement around these
  ideas
• Votes for early populist came from all social
  classes
• Their strategy was to reform society in order to
  protect it from the radicals

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Examples of Reformist Populists

• Jose Batlle y Ordonez - Uruguay
• Hipolito Yrigoyen - Argentina
• Arturo Alessandri - Chile
• Some foundation for their ideas grew out of
  Spanish liberalism (Hispanismo) which drew from
  ideas of German Karl Christian Fredrich Krause
  (Krausismo)

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Krausismo

• Alternative to positivism and Social Darwinism
• Uplifting less fortunate
• Education at all levels
• Womens rights
• Labor unions
• International law as basis for peace
• Valued ethical behavior and appreciation of
  culture over material success

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Classic Populism

• Political economy dominated the agenda
• Urbanization and industrialization lead to
  increased populations in the cities
• Working class voters now outnumbered rural voters
• Approached through labor unions and associations
• Populist leaders appealed to these voters by
  offering larger share of national income and jobs
• Programs were nationalistic, pledged to end
  economic dependency

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• Populist challenged the entrenched power
  structures
• Church
• Army
• Landed elite
• Bankers
• Foreign investors
• Traditional parties
• The question was how would these groups respond

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• Early cooperation between populist and
  establishment (benefited from each other)
• First nonviolent mass movements in the regions
  history
• As long as populist leaders did not threaten
  existing power holders they prospered and gave
  Latin American politics a modern face
• By the mid 1950s populist began to upset older
  elites
• Army, church, industrialists

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Examples of Classic Populists

• Lazaro Cardenas - Mexico
• Getulio Vargas - Brazil
• Juan Peron - Argentina
• Haya de la Torre - Peru
• Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra - Ecuador
• Romulo Betancourt - Venezuela
• Victor Paz Estenssoro - Bolivia
• Jorge Eliecer Gaitan - Colombia
• Jose Pepe Figueres Ferrer - Costa Rica