Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
7
THE DECLINE OF LIBERALISM
(1916-1930)
After more than three decades in power, the conservatives of the
National Autonomist Party (PAN) began to lose their political
edge. General Julio A. Roca finished a second term as president in
1904 and died shortly thereafter. Factionalism began to erode the
will and direction of the PAN. The Generation of Eighty and their
political descendants faced a serious challenge from the opposition
Radicals. Formed by dissident oligarchs, the Radical Party had gained
support from farmers and rural tenants in the provinces of Santa Fe
and Entre Ríos. The sons of immigrants (women could not vote)
supported the Radicals as a viable alternative to the corrupt conser-
vatives of the PAN, who seemingly kept themselves in power only
through electoral fraud. Three minor rebellions within the military
in 1890, 1893, and 1905 showed that many officers also favored the
Radicals.
Finally, one faction of the PAN proposed a novel approach to save
the party. President Roque Sáenz Peña sought to outflank the oppo-
sition Radicals with a series of electoral reforms. Under the Sáenz
Peña laws, the responsibility of overseeing elections fell to the army,
a supposedly neutral observer. Voting became compulsory (as a way
of “forcing” voters to be good citizens) for all male citizens over 18
years of age. Balloting became secret. The Sáenz Peña laws of 1912
enfranchised the native-born working and middle classes because
their leaders considered them controllable; aspiring foreigners, on the
other hand, were not to be trusted with such rights. Altogether the
electoral reforms added much needed transparency to the electoral
process and expanded the electorate, but they did not accomplish
what the conservatives had hoped.
