Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The new president was not one to pass up a symbolic act, so in 1948,
he exchanged 2.5 billion gold pesos worth of Argentine beef and
gold reserves for 16,000 miles of British-owned railways. Whether or
not people knew the railways were run down, the public responded
enthusiastically to Perón's nationalistic act. However, once the British-
owned railways became Argentine property, problems arose. The
workers criticized the new railway administration, which was filled
with middle-class appointees with no expertise in industrial manage-
ment, and they particularly resented the imposition of new union
leaders “qualified only by their influence in a certain political sector
[and] completely ignorant of matters related to the railroad indus-
try” (Brown 1997, 176). The politicians sought to streamline railway
operations at labor's expense. To cut operating costs, the government
kept most of its newly hired political appointees but laid off some
17,000 workers. In late 1950, dissident leaders organized hundreds of
wildcat strikes and paralyzed the industry. Ultimately, Perón gave in to
the strikers, giving them a pay raise and abandoning efforts to reduce
the number of personnel.
Despite these problems, the populists could still mobilize popular
support at election time. The creation of a network of Peronist politi-
cal clubs in working-class neighborhoods helped, as did the govern-
ment's 1947 decision to grant women the right to vote. Perhaps due
to the prominent political role of Perón's wife, Eva Duarte de Perón
(popularly called Evita), women proved to be more ardent supporters
of Perón than men. In late 1951, they helped elect Perón for a second
presidential term, this time giving him 64 percent of the vote. Within a
year, a full-blown recession would threaten the cohesion of the popu-
list alliance.
Part of the economic problem could be traced to rising state defi-
cits, for the Peronists were discovering that inflation had become the
Achilles' heel of populism. To satisfy and balance his middle-class
and labor constituencies, Perón's government engaged in deficit
spending. Management overstaffing and production inefficiencies
increased expenditures in the outmoded railway system as well as
other state companies in petroleum, electricity, telephones, and meat-
packing. With bureaucratic sleight of hand, therefore, government
accountants carried each year's growing deficits over into next year's
ledgers.
The Peronists further contributed to their own deficits by democ-
ratizing corruption, heretofore the prerogative of the privileged few.
