Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
8
THE RISE OF POPULISM
(1930-1955)
The year 1930 was a turning point. Liberal age leaders cannot
be faulted for having produced too little economic growth
and expansion. The Generation of Eighty had succeeded in taking
advantage of favorable developments in international markets, mak-
ing good use of foreign talent and capital, and liberating the eco-
nomic potential of the population. At no other time had Argentina
experienced such an economic boom. Technological transformations
in transportation, food processing, and port facilities had paved
the way for phenomenal growth. Agricultural exports had diversi-
fied to raise productivity in the countryside, and interior provinces
such as Mendoza and Tucumán had become more integrated into
the national economy. Even domestic manufacturing had received a
boost in productivity. The nation, nonetheless, was unable to over-
come other shortcomings in order to carry the economic dynamism
beyond the Great Depression.
Neither the Generation of Eighty nor the Radicals had been able
to solve the country's social and political problems. On the one hand,
the liberals did not address social discrimination, growing caste and
class antagonisms, and the increasingly skewed division of income.
Nor, on the other hand, did they change the criollo politics they had
inherited. Corruption, insider deals, manipulation of the political pro-
cess, and administrative fiat thrived during the entire liberal age. Also,
the
porteño
powerbrokers collected taxes throughout the country but
spent most of it in Buenos Aires, a pattern little changed from viceregal
times. These shortcomings ultimately diluted the country's economic
dynamism, and conditions implied that economic growth had unjustly
favored the few over the many. It increased the rancor between the
haves and the have-nots.