The Origins of Argentina's Revolution of the Right (review)

This volume, as arcane as it first appears, addresses two of the major themes (neither of them new) that dominate the contemporary analysis of Argentine politics. The first is the failure to fulfill the country's economic and social promise, which was so bright during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The second is the Left's electoral insignificance. Alberto Spektorowski's book gives us insight into both of these issues. However, it does so in a plodding manner that does not shed much light until its last 30 or so pages. The author presents an encyclopedic view of the intellectuals and ideologues of Argentina's radical Right from the 1920 s through the 1940 s—mostly a group of mediocre thinkers, all of whom were opposed to liberal democracy and whose writings are a muddle of fascist and semifascist ideas. What makes the book worth reading is the author's thesis that these thinkers successfully married a corporatist view of society to a doctrine of social justice and anti-imperialism that "shaped the political repertoire of most anti-liberal political leaders following the military upheaval of 1930 " (p. 3 ). Spektorowski goes on to note, "The political attempt by these groups to establish an authoritarian agenda that was very regressive in terms of liberal rights and social egalitarianism, yet modernizing in terms of popular mobilization, social justice, and anti-imperialism, were to give right-wing nationalism its new face" (p. 141 ).

There is nothing shockingly new about the author's discussion of the fascist implications and conservative Catholic Weltanschauung of these figures. Howard Wiarda and Kalman Silvert, among others, have written extensively about Hispanic corporatism in Latin America—what Silvert referred to as "Mediterranean Syndicalism," which he saw as deeply antinational in regard to the functionality of a liberal democratic polity. The author's contribution to this literature is his linking Catholic corporatism to populist themes concerning social justice and national independence. The "third way" that Spektorowski's subjects argued for rejected both liberal democracy and Marxism by seeking modernization through an authoritarian corporatist state that would recognize the rights of workers and demands for social justice. This vision, the author argues, was at the heart of Uriburu's 1930 coup, would continue with the military governments of the 1940 s, and imbued at least the first presidential term of Juan Perón.

Spektorowski handles the question of Argentine neutrality during most of World War II fairly well. I would have liked to see a broader discussion of anti-Semitism (or the official lack thereof during the Perón presidency), since this dimension has always been one of the litmus tests when discussing whether Peronism was fascist. I also would have liked the author to address the tension between the authoritarian corporatist state envisaged and the populist promise held out by these ideologues. Mobilization does not equal participation, and state-controlled unions have not been a formula for real workers' rights. The historic failure of Argentine democracy can in part be explained by the chasm between corporatist state power and a socially just society.

The book's unengaging style could have used more editing along the way. Such terms as "integral nationalism," "anti-modernist members of the national right," or "radical integral-populist program" are constantly thrown at the reader without definitional clarity. In sum, this volume helps us understand the intellectual background of right-wing politics in Argentina and its co-opting of such traditionally leftist themes as social justice and workers' rights, but it does so with an overreliance on the work of mediocre and unsystematic thinkers.