The Landowners of the Argentine Pampas: A Social and Political History, 1860-1945 (review)

This is the story that Roy Hora would like us to reconsider: Power in Argentina was wielded between the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth by fabulously wealthy families in control of the pampas' agricultural and pastoral production. This oligarchy formed a consensual and hegemonic block that maintained itself in office through rigged elections until World War I. Thereafter, they remained extraordinarily powerful even if the 1912 electoral reforms kept them from reaching national office. Their self-serving practices were invigorated, however, through participation in the notoriously corrupt governments that followed the military coup of 1930 and taking advantage of the decade's infamously rigged elections. All this, Hora ably notes, does not fit the empirical evidence. Nonetheless, the concept of an oligarchy consisting of the landed elites has long played a central role in the popular and scholarly perception of Argentine politics, holding undue sway in the Argentine imagination. His study invites us to rethink the internal dynamics of the major landowners as a group and the roles they played in steering the nation's political and economic outcomes.

By the 1860s, the acceleration of capitalist development in the pampas set the conditions for the emergence of a new consciousness among a small group of estancieros who formed the Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA). Their exceptional vision went far beyond the thinking of most landowners. The SRA's founders looked to Europe for models of modern, forward-thinking landowners. There, they saw the infrequency of absentee landownership and the effective political lobbying of the landowning interests. Nevertheless, it would take two more decades of urging by SRA leaders for stronger engagement and more professional attitudes—including better organization, more modern and scientific approaches to production, and sustained promotion of its members' interests—to resonate with its membership.

By 1880, land availability, infrastructure and the reliability of the state as a partner changed matters dramatically. The eradication of the Indians as a threat along the frontier infused 30 million hectares of land. The state encouraged the transfers of enormous tracts, providing strong incentives to landowners to change their normally distant relations to the central authorities. The pattern of land distribution reinforced the economic power of the landowners of Buenos Aires and raised to primacy the land-intensive estancia within the national economy.

Political conditions and the relationship between the national government and the Buenos Aires landowning group underwent a sea change in 1880. The federalization of the port-city that year and the submission of the provincial elites to a wider national development project under a newly efficient electoral machine, the Partido Autónomo Nacional (PAN), signalled the end of militarized factionalism and the beginning of political continuity. With the presidency of General Julio A. Roca, patronage became pervasive and the fortunes of the landowners were intimately tied to the system, even if they themselves were not office-holders. In this more complex set of relationships, the SRA became the indispensable interlocutor and its forward-looking projects on stock improvement and infrastructural support gained wide adherence.

However, success and strong economic performance prevented the emergence of an industrialization plan to complement agrarian activities. Despite growing signs that the urban sector presented new economic opportunities, the estanciero class remained committed to its lands, furthering its isolation for the dynamic urban and industrial sectors. Grain prices declined significantly in the 1920s, and Europe would no longer absorb Argentine productive capacity. By contrast, industrial activity in the major cities was beginning to represent a significant sector of economic production. By 1940, manufacturing contributed almost a quarter of Argentina's total output, a larger share than agriculture.

The political balance was also shifting away from the landowners. While estancieros refrained from direct political participation, the SRA had spoken for them...