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Argentina: A Short History PDF

273 Pages·2002·0.96 MB·English
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Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page i Argentina A Short History Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page ii OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES Britain:AShort History, T. A. Jenkins, ISBN 1–85168–266–X Egypt:A Short History, James Jankowski, ISBN 1–85168–240–6 India and South Asia:A Short History, David Ludden, ISBN 1–85168–237–6 Ireland: AShort History, Joseph Coohill, ISBN 1–85168–238–4 Japan:A Short History, Mikiso Hane, ISBN 1–85168–239–2 Russia: A Short History, Abraham Ascher, ISBN 1–85168–242–2 Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page iii Argentina A Short History . COLIN M LEWIS Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page iv ARGENTINA: A SHORT HISTORY Oneworld Publications (Sales and Editorial) 185 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7AR England www.oneworld-publications.com © Colin M. Lewis 2002 All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 1–85168–300–3 Cover design by Design Deluxe Cover photograph of Gauchos on Horses by Torres © Galen Rowell/CORBIS Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby, UK Printed and bound in Britain by Bell &Bain Ltd, Glasgow NL08 Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page v Contents Foreword vii Acknowledgements ix Maps xi Introduction 1 PART 1: INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT Introduction: Defining a place in the world 17 ONE The regional dimensions of national 26 consolidation TWO Independent internationalism: a secure 36 place in the global order? THREE Neutrality and nationalism: the cost of 52 charting an independent course FOUR Reaction, realism and global reinsertion: 65 ideology versus pragmatism Conclusion: Internationalism and nationalism 80 Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page vi vi Argentina: A Short History PART 2: ECONOMY AND SOCIETY Introduction: Golden eras and missed opportunities 87 – a long-run perspective FIVE Imperfect transition: the flawed belle époque 93 SIX Industrialisation and development: aspiration 125 and obsession SEVEN Restructuring economy and society: 144 the political economy of violence EIGHT Convertibility, poverty and corruption: 160 a future found and lost Conclusion: In search of efficiency and equity 180 PART 3: POLITICS Introduction: Conflict and crisis – failure to embed 185 a national project NINE A possible republic and the real republic 189 TEN Class politics: parties, power and democracy 199 ELEVEN Distributional conflict: the politics of frustration 206 Conclusion: State, politics and citizenship 224 Conclusion 227 Bibliographical essay 236 Index 245 Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page vii Foreword Failure to sustain growth, and the process of relative (or absolute) decline, is of more than academic interest. At the end of 2001, the Argentine authorities made the long-anticipated announcement that the country was unable to meet obligations to private foreign and domestic creditors, triggering the largest debt default in world history. This was not the first occasion that Argentina had defaulted. In 1889/90 the Baring Crisis, caused by default in Buenos Aires, provoked a panic in the City of London that almost broke the Bank of England. In the 1980s, Argentine indebtedness (in relative terms Argentina was the largest Latin American debtor) brought the international banking system to the brink of disaster. The distinctness of the 2001/2 default, apart from the sheer scale of the crisis, is that the international fallout has been limited. Is this because Argentina has become a serial defaulter? For much of the period addressed by this book, Argentines have been aware of the international economic ‘ranking’ of their country. Drawing positive comparisons between the republic and the USA, in the second half of the nineteenth century, several commentators forecast a bright future. Political leaders predicted a continental leadership role for the country predicated on political and social modernisation. Immigrants from Italy and Spain, who arrived in large numbers in the 1880s and the 1900s, testified to the fact that material conditions were then massively better in the republic than in many parts of Europe. By the 1920s per capita incomes were high by European and Latin American standards, and improving relative to other areas of recent settlement like vii Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page viii viii Argentina: A Short History Australia. During the inter-war decades, Argentina was easily the most prosperous economy in South America – accounting for around half continental output and overseas trade – and by far the most industrialised. This position was maintained for much of the second quarter of the twentieth century. In 1950, Argentina was still the largest economy in Latin America, accounting for one- quarter of continental GDP, and significantly bigger than either Brazil or Mexico. Yet, by the 1960s, negative contrasts were being made with the course and pace of development in neighbouring republics and other economies. Having aspired to First World status and continental leadership, Argentines felt that their country was slipping into the Third World. In per capita terms it was becoming clear that little growth had occurred between the 1950s and the 1980s and at this point Argentines were even less confident about their prosperity and international ranking. They were aware that output per capita, which had been significantly higher than that of Austria, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, and Spain and several times greater than that of the soon-to-be East Asian tiger economies at mid century, was much lower than all these countries by 1985. During the 1990s there was a return of confidence and sense of a capacity to ‘recapture’ a lost future, only for that future to be jeopardised by the 2001/2 crisis. This book explores the history of Argentina in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in order to explain the development paradox: namely, the transition from confidence in the future to a sense of near collapse; from nineteenth-century ‘tiger economy’ to late twentieth-century ‘basket case’; from an aspiring democracy to institutional terrorism; and from societal integration to social atomisation. Why did Argentina experience so much difficulty in effecting a relatively smooth transition from rapid growth and insti- tutional change at the end of the nineteenth century to a developed polity and economy during the second half of the twentieth? Prelims.qxd 04/10/02 07:38 Page ix Acknowledgements Much of this book was written at the Latin American Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford, while on sabbatical leave from the Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science. I am grateful to the Department for its support and to the Centre for its hospitality, particularly the then Director, Rosemary Thorp. Many colleagues, directly and indirectly, have contributed to the views expressed in this book, which also reflect opinions formed as the result of reading and writing – and teaching – aspects of Argentine history for many years. Exchanges with friends, academics and officials – in seminars, conferences and over a mate – have shaped the tone and approach of the book. Particular thanks are due to Jeremy Adelman, Samuel Amaral, María Fernanda Arias, Camila Arza, María Inés Barbero, Gustavo Beliz, James P. Brennan, Roberto Cortés Conde, Gerardo della Paolera, Bernardo Duggan, Raúl Fernández, Jorge Fodor, Raúl García Heras, Ezequiel Gallo, Klaus Gallo, Austin Ivereigh, María Alejandra Irigoin, Juan Carlos Korol, Bernardo Kosacoff, Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, John Lynch, Gabriel Molteni, Juan Carlos Nicolau, Mário Rapoport, Andrés Regalsky, Fernando Rocchi, Hilda Sabato, Ricardo Salvatore, Arnd Schneider, Dora Schwarzstein, Celia Szusterman, Enrique Tandeter, Alan M. Taylor, Diana Tussie,

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With special focus on political intrigue, military power, and such key figures as Eva Peron and Videla, this is a engaging survey of the driving forces behind Argentina, its dramatic rise, and recent problems.
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