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23 May 2010
20 May 2010
DE LANDETA, G. (2009) Alfonsín Government
Alfonsin’s Government
Doctor Alfonsín took the presidency on the 10th of December of 1983. This date was not by chance at all, he chosen it because that same day in the year 1948 the general assembly of the United Nations sanctioned The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which this government chose as a symbol for the fact that it proposed to re-establish the validity of The Human Rights in our country, and subdue the corporations which had been close to the de facto government and to the military corporations. On the other hand the demands in order to get economical improvements and the resistance which generated the attribution of responsibilities for the so called “Guerra Sucia”, or Proceso, just as the reforms that tended to modernize the society generated serious resistance and clashes with the militaries, the church, and the sindicalismo peronista. The most negative thing of his government was the march of the economy, towards 1989 with hyperinflation and loots, which provoked the weakening of the government, and the premature desert of power.
Many of the people who voted for Alfonsín did it because they longed for the reconstruction of a right government, maybe because of that the first measures adopted by the government were destined to the repression consequences and the serious social situation. On the 14th of December of 1983 the government repealed the autoamnistia law dictated by the General Bignone and stated the judgement of the members of the first three military juntas of the “Proceso de Re-organización Nacional”, at the same time it ordered the trial of the guerrilleros leaderships of the ERP (Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo) and montoneros. On the 15th of December the CONADEP (Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas) was created, which was an organization integrated by very prestigious people, just as Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. This organization elaborated a report called “Nunca Más”, because of which the society could know the names, ages and condition of thousands of missing people and the authors of those crimes. In addition, on the 19th of December the PAN (Programa Alimentario Nacional) was created, which started to distribute basic food to more than a million people. In 1984 the code of military justice was reformed, from then on, the civil justice took part as organ of appellation of the sentences to the militaries.
In 1984 the National Congress approved the San José de Costa Rica pact, which some years later, was incorporated to the National Constitution. The government tried to modernize the labour relationships introducing the ideological pluralism in the labour unions bringing in a national plan of health which looked to separate the medical insurance (obras socials) from the labour union control, as a reaction to this measure, the Azopardo CGT and the Brasil CGT, which were a divided labour union, left aside their differences and joint in the same cause in order to face the government, besides, the project was rejected at the senators chamber. The CGT carried out during Alfonsín’s government 13 general strikes, which were further from the defence of salaries and attacked the government modernization plans and its economical policy.
In relation to the economy, the radicalism had a great tradition of defence of public education. Due to the fact that the 1420 law did not adapt to the necessities of the moment, the government called a national pedagogical congress. Its objective was to renew the law. In that congress different matters were discussed, just as the illiterate problems, school desertion, and so on, looking between teachers, students, parents and representatives of the government to reach a consensus that legitimated a reform towards a more inclusive, open and popular education. The discussions extended in time and radicalism lost the initiative. A programme of massive literacy teaching was developed and the repressive mechanisms that were inside the school system were attacked.
What is more, the church begun to evolve hostility towards the radical government since it was irritated by the sanction of the divorce law, which was sanctioned in 1987 and established the possibility to dissolve the marital link and contract marriage again, because the church considers marriage as an insoluble link. Some time later the shared patria potestad was established ending with the paternal exclusivity. The church was also annoyed by the tone, which was in general secular, of the cultural discourse that circulated over the institutions and the state press. The church accused the government of all the evils of the century, just as drugs, terrorism, abortion, pornography, and so on.
During this government a freedom atmosphere was established which allowed the development of the artistic and cultural life giving great importance to universities and the scientific system of the state. Moreover, many intellectuals and scientists who had been exiled returned to our country.
The ethic discourse of the government centred on the values of democracy, peace, human rights, international solidarity and the independence of the states contributed to the reintegration of our country into the international community, the president gained great popularity in different parts of the world due to the strengthened of the local democratic institutions. The government had to face two unresolved external matters, the problem with Chile because of the Beagle Channel, and the problem with Great Britain because of the Malvinas islands. Regarding the Beagle Channel the arbitral award of the Pope (laudo arbitrarial) was assumed and in order to end with the internal resistance a popular referendum was announced. Regarding the case of the Malvinas, even though in the elections in the United Nations they were supported, they did not start negotiations that included the matter of sovereignty.
All in all, Alfonsín was recognized as the leader of a pact with civility, in which he could realize that the discourse he had to appeal was the one of full legality, the restoration of justice and the struggle against authoritarianism. The constant resistance of the sectors that faced his government and the serious economical difficulties that his government continuously had weakened it and could not constitute into a great third historical movement, in spite of that the solid ethic convictions that his government held stand out.
Bibliography
Caraballo. Charlier. Garuli. 1998. Documentos de historia argentina. Ed. Eudeba.
Privitellio, Luciano. Et all. 1998. Historia de la Argentina Contemporánea, desde la construcción del Mercado, el estado y la Nación hasta nuestros días. Ed. Santillana.
Pucciarelli, Alfredo. 2009. Los años de Alfonsín. Ed. Siglo XXI.
Romero, Luis Alberto, translated by Brennan, James P. 2002. A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century. Pennsylvania State University Press.
19 May 2010
ARGENTINE COUNTRYSIDE. DE LANDETTA, G. (2009)
Argentine Countryside
The Argentine economy of the second half of the 19th C was based on the exportation of agricultural products. In order to give an incentive to the inclination of the country, in 1866 the SRA (Sociedad Rural Argentina) is founded and it was integrated by a group of the most important landowners of the country which were dedicated to the breed of ovine cattle. This society proposed to modernize the agricultural production, in order to do so, they spread new techniques of innovation in the process of crossbreeding and in the organization of the agriculture of the country. Their slogan was: “cultivar el suelo es servir a la patria”.
From 19th C on the bovine cattle begun to improve and the production of cereals grew. At the end of the 19th C the cold stores appeared which allowed the exportation of quality meat. The first cold stores had strong influence of British capitals. The necessity of working people motivated the arrival of immigrants which settled down basically in Buenos Aires, the littoral provinces and Córdoba. Many of them worked as tenant farmers and lessees. During the first decades of the 20th C this farmers had more and more difficulties to fulfil the conditions established in the contracts signed by the colonizer enterprises or the landowners.
In 1913 there were new strikes produced by the chacareros. The great majority of FAA leaders were socialists and anarchists. This movement did not questioned the model and it did not wanted to destroy it, it wanted to make it more benevolent, all the same, for the landowners the pretentions of the lessees meant the loss of great benefits, and for this reason, they tried to destroy that organization but they could not. The farmers left the crisis strengthened and joined in trade unions.
The agricultural exporter model generated an uneven economic growth which privileged the pampa húmeda and excluded the rest of the country with exception of Cuyo (wine production) and Tucumán (sugar production with destiny to the intern market). The outbreak of World War One altered the commercial circuits and generated an economical-agricultural exporter crisis. The foreign capitals baked down on their entered to the country.
The crisis unleashed from 1919 and which is prolonged in the 1930’s set out a change related to the economy. The state takes part more openly and adopts some financial measurements and a series of organizations to support the exporter sectors, for instance, the Banco Central, the board of grains, the board of meat, wine and cotton. Their job was to buy the production at fixed prices in order to protect exportation. A series of public works were implemented creating the national highway administration. The treaty Roca-Runciman had a great repercussion, with this treaty England had to maintain the amount of meat that they bought to Argentina, at the same time, Argentina guaranteed a safe market for England’s exportations and services, and it also gave a benevolent treaty to British enterprises assuring their interests. They also assured to Britain the monopoly of the public services, for instance, the tranvias anglo. In these years industrialization by substitution of importations that concentrated in Buenos Aires, Gran Buenos Aires and in the rich areas of the littoral was produced, strengthening the regional imbalance that the agricultural economy had generated.
In 1922 an episode called 'the Agrarian Matter' was produced when the farmers of Alcorta village faced the landowners and decided to use the strike as an instrument of protest. During their struggle they demanded a better period of contracting, a lowered in the prices of the rent and of the percentage of the production that had to be given to “aparceros” and “exenciones” of taxes. The strike was spread to the south of Santa Fe, south of Córdoba and north and west of Buenos Aires. In July of 1912 the Federación Agraria Argentina (FAA, Argentine Agrarian Federation) was organized. It was an organization of the chacareros which were on strike which helped them to improve their contracts.
During the Peronist stage (1946-1955) the tendency of the state intervention to the economy continued and it also extended. Two important institutions arose, the Banco de Crédito Industrial, which gave credits to PyMes, and the Instituto Argentino para la Promoción del Intercabio (IAPI), which controlled the exterior commerce buying the harvests and selling them in the intern markets and, and at the same time, it was in charge of buying merchandise in the exterior.
In this stage, the Argentine government created and bought a group of enterprises that transformed the state into businessman, for instance, Somisa, or the growth of military fabrications, the nationalization of the railways, telephones, which had great importance as symbols of sovereignty. From 1949 on, the march of the economy began to get difficult since the state had spent great reservations of currencies with which the country counted after the Second World War. It had great difficulties to face the payment balance, it accepted its capacity of importation and this affected the industrial activity which depended on the importation of basic consumables, as the petrol and steel, equipment and spares.
In 1952 the government proclaimed a new five-year plan which persecuted the fall of consume, the support to the agricultural production, the control of the salary demands and the opening to foreign capital. In 1955 this government was overthrown by a coup d’état, and in 1958 Frondizi took the presidency, he was candidate of the UCRI (Unión Cívica Radical Intransigente). An economical plan which wanted to impulse the heavy industry (metallurgy, iron and steel sector, petrochemical) was proposed with the contribution of foreign capital and technology investments, this plan also wanted to modernize the countryside improving the mechanization of rural works and raising the production of the sector. Between 1959 and 1962 the foreign inversions grew spectacularly. Over 60% were of American origin and the 66% of the total concentrated on the petrochemical industry and in the production of tractors and cars. In 1962 the president was overthrown by the military forces.
In 1966 a new coup d'etat ended with the presidency of Illia, who was from the Radical party, and imposed as President the General Onganía. That same year, the Economy Minister, Krieger Basana, proposed the new economical measurements. He devaluated the peso in order to reduce the financial pressure and he wanted to incentivize the industrial activity offering loans, he established retentions to the agricultural exportations and diminished the prices of importations. In 1970 Onganía retired and in 1973 Cámpora took on the presidency, he belonged to the FREJULI party (Frente Justicia Unión y Libertad, Justice Union and Liberty Front).
The coup of 1976 sets the idea of the intervention of the state in order to secure the free market, to attract foreign inversions that had to reactivate the economy of the country, to provide facilities to the entering of imported products, and the financial market was liberalized. The UIA (Unión Industrial Argentina, Argentine Industrial Union) faced the Economy Minister Martinez de Hoz because he was against their interests. The SRA (Sociedad Rural Argentina) stayed close to the military government although it had some conflicts with the damages that the dollar value generated to the importations.
The successive democratic governments: Alfonsin’s, Menem’s and so on, could not stop the continuum economical and social crisis, and the increase of poverty, which finally broke out in 2001, this was the reason why President De la Rua resigned the presidency. After a period of presidential successions, in 2003 Nestor Kirchner was elected president, and then, in 2007 his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who positioned her government as a continuum of the government of Néstor Kirchner, was elected president. In 2008 shortly after Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took the presidency a confrontation with the countryside representatives took place. The conflict arose when the government impulsed a series of mobile retentions to the grain exportations, which had as an objective to eliminate the impact of the international values over the internal market. The economy minister, Martín Lousteau, made public the sketch of the mobile retentions, flour, oil, chicken, pork and even milk entered into the sketch of analysis of the government and in the drawing of a new price scenery, in which incentives and more retentions would be part of the government resolutions. The original thing was that, since the resolution, a mechanism of mobile retentions would look that the net price of the exporter continued being approximately the same, although the international value moved violently upwards or downwards.
When these public measurements were made public diverse countryside organizations reacted with a lockout. The four rural entities announced the continuity of the protest and the conflict seemed to enter into a dead end. The CARBAP (Confederación de Asociaciones Rurales de Buenos Aires y La Pampa) rejected the constant and increasing tax to the agricultural sector and considerate the increase of the retentions as a new abuse from the government. Our country was divided between people who supported the government and the opposition.
Finally the conflict reached the parliament, in the deputy chamber the resolution was approved, but when it reached senators chamber it was draw (empate) and the one who broke the deadlock (desempatar) was the vice president Julio Cobos, who consolidated an institutional fracture and, as a consequence, the president Cristina Kirchner removed the resolution.
In conclusion, it can be seen that there was an uneven model of growth which benefited the Pampa Húmeda but not the rest of the country. There was also the creation of an economical dependant model which became more pronounced with the government of Peron, it consisted on the industrialization by substitution of importations. From the 1960s on the policies which tended to transform the country in an industrialized one incremented. This modernizer or developing model would reach some rates of growth but it also would suffer different disruptions because of the continuum political crisis and also because of the alternation between civil and military governments. With the coup of 1976, self denominated “Proceso de Reorganización Nacional”, the economy minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz generated a change placing as dynamic sector of the economy the financial sector.
In the year 2008, the government established a project of retentions to the agricultural activity which was rejected by the federations which nucleated the sector and divided the society between those who supported the government with this measure, and the opposition, which supported the agricultural sector. The parliament rejected the resolution and the government decided to remove it. Although this produced a diminution in the conflict, it is still latent nowadays.
Bibliography:
Vázquez, Alonso. (1999). Historia de la Argentina Contemporánea. Ed. Aique Polimodal.
Recalde, Héctor. (2000). La Argentina Contemporánea- desde la caída de Rosas hasta la presidencia de Menem. Ed. Aula taller.
The Argentine growth has always been strongly related to exportation among its history: the exportation of leather in a first instance and then of salted meat, which was the first product of the argentine industry. Then these products were replaced by the exportation of wool and finally in the last decades of the 19th C of frozen meat and cereals, mainly wheat. The last decades of the 19th C were characterized by the full implement of the agricultural exporter system related to the production of quality meat and cereals, in order to do so, capitals were required (mainly British), working people to be employed in the production, (that’s why European people were interested in immigrating here), and the distribution of lands for the production of large states (latifundios), where the immigrants settled as lessees. Although this model of production generated much wealth, it also expressed its limits: the dependence of the production of one or two products which made the economy vulnerable and stress the dependence on England, who imposed the rules of this second colonial pact.
The Argentine economy of the second half of the 19th C was based on the exportation of agricultural products. In order to give an incentive to the inclination of the country, in 1866 the SRA (Sociedad Rural Argentina) is founded and it was integrated by a group of the most important landowners of the country which were dedicated to the breed of ovine cattle. This society proposed to modernize the agricultural production, in order to do so, they spread new techniques of innovation in the process of crossbreeding and in the organization of the agriculture of the country. Their slogan was: “cultivar el suelo es servir a la patria”.
From 19th C on the bovine cattle begun to improve and the production of cereals grew. At the end of the 19th C the cold stores appeared which allowed the exportation of quality meat. The first cold stores had strong influence of British capitals. The necessity of working people motivated the arrival of immigrants which settled down basically in Buenos Aires, the littoral provinces and Córdoba. Many of them worked as tenant farmers and lessees. During the first decades of the 20th C this farmers had more and more difficulties to fulfil the conditions established in the contracts signed by the colonizer enterprises or the landowners.
In 1913 there were new strikes produced by the chacareros. The great majority of FAA leaders were socialists and anarchists. This movement did not questioned the model and it did not wanted to destroy it, it wanted to make it more benevolent, all the same, for the landowners the pretentions of the lessees meant the loss of great benefits, and for this reason, they tried to destroy that organization but they could not. The farmers left the crisis strengthened and joined in trade unions.
The agricultural exporter model generated an uneven economic growth which privileged the pampa húmeda and excluded the rest of the country with exception of Cuyo (wine production) and Tucumán (sugar production with destiny to the intern market). The outbreak of World War One altered the commercial circuits and generated an economical-agricultural exporter crisis. The foreign capitals baked down on their entered to the country.
The crisis unleashed from 1919 and which is prolonged in the 1930’s set out a change related to the economy. The state takes part more openly and adopts some financial measurements and a series of organizations to support the exporter sectors, for instance, the Banco Central, the board of grains, the board of meat, wine and cotton. Their job was to buy the production at fixed prices in order to protect exportation. A series of public works were implemented creating the national highway administration. The treaty Roca-Runciman had a great repercussion, with this treaty England had to maintain the amount of meat that they bought to Argentina, at the same time, Argentina guaranteed a safe market for England’s exportations and services, and it also gave a benevolent treaty to British enterprises assuring their interests. They also assured to Britain the monopoly of the public services, for instance, the tranvias anglo. In these years industrialization by substitution of importations that concentrated in Buenos Aires, Gran Buenos Aires and in the rich areas of the littoral was produced, strengthening the regional imbalance that the agricultural economy had generated.
In 1922 an episode called 'the Agrarian Matter' was produced when the farmers of Alcorta village faced the landowners and decided to use the strike as an instrument of protest. During their struggle they demanded a better period of contracting, a lowered in the prices of the rent and of the percentage of the production that had to be given to “aparceros” and “exenciones” of taxes. The strike was spread to the south of Santa Fe, south of Córdoba and north and west of Buenos Aires. In July of 1912 the Federación Agraria Argentina (FAA, Argentine Agrarian Federation) was organized. It was an organization of the chacareros which were on strike which helped them to improve their contracts.
During the Peronist stage (1946-1955) the tendency of the state intervention to the economy continued and it also extended. Two important institutions arose, the Banco de Crédito Industrial, which gave credits to PyMes, and the Instituto Argentino para la Promoción del Intercabio (IAPI), which controlled the exterior commerce buying the harvests and selling them in the intern markets and, and at the same time, it was in charge of buying merchandise in the exterior.
In this stage, the Argentine government created and bought a group of enterprises that transformed the state into businessman, for instance, Somisa, or the growth of military fabrications, the nationalization of the railways, telephones, which had great importance as symbols of sovereignty. From 1949 on, the march of the economy began to get difficult since the state had spent great reservations of currencies with which the country counted after the Second World War. It had great difficulties to face the payment balance, it accepted its capacity of importation and this affected the industrial activity which depended on the importation of basic consumables, as the petrol and steel, equipment and spares.
In 1952 the government proclaimed a new five-year plan which persecuted the fall of consume, the support to the agricultural production, the control of the salary demands and the opening to foreign capital. In 1955 this government was overthrown by a coup d’état, and in 1958 Frondizi took the presidency, he was candidate of the UCRI (Unión Cívica Radical Intransigente). An economical plan which wanted to impulse the heavy industry (metallurgy, iron and steel sector, petrochemical) was proposed with the contribution of foreign capital and technology investments, this plan also wanted to modernize the countryside improving the mechanization of rural works and raising the production of the sector. Between 1959 and 1962 the foreign inversions grew spectacularly. Over 60% were of American origin and the 66% of the total concentrated on the petrochemical industry and in the production of tractors and cars. In 1962 the president was overthrown by the military forces.
In 1966 a new coup d'etat ended with the presidency of Illia, who was from the Radical party, and imposed as President the General Onganía. That same year, the Economy Minister, Krieger Basana, proposed the new economical measurements. He devaluated the peso in order to reduce the financial pressure and he wanted to incentivize the industrial activity offering loans, he established retentions to the agricultural exportations and diminished the prices of importations. In 1970 Onganía retired and in 1973 Cámpora took on the presidency, he belonged to the FREJULI party (Frente Justicia Unión y Libertad, Justice Union and Liberty Front).
The coup of 1976 sets the idea of the intervention of the state in order to secure the free market, to attract foreign inversions that had to reactivate the economy of the country, to provide facilities to the entering of imported products, and the financial market was liberalized. The UIA (Unión Industrial Argentina, Argentine Industrial Union) faced the Economy Minister Martinez de Hoz because he was against their interests. The SRA (Sociedad Rural Argentina) stayed close to the military government although it had some conflicts with the damages that the dollar value generated to the importations.
The successive democratic governments: Alfonsin’s, Menem’s and so on, could not stop the continuum economical and social crisis, and the increase of poverty, which finally broke out in 2001, this was the reason why President De la Rua resigned the presidency. After a period of presidential successions, in 2003 Nestor Kirchner was elected president, and then, in 2007 his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who positioned her government as a continuum of the government of Néstor Kirchner, was elected president. In 2008 shortly after Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took the presidency a confrontation with the countryside representatives took place. The conflict arose when the government impulsed a series of mobile retentions to the grain exportations, which had as an objective to eliminate the impact of the international values over the internal market. The economy minister, Martín Lousteau, made public the sketch of the mobile retentions, flour, oil, chicken, pork and even milk entered into the sketch of analysis of the government and in the drawing of a new price scenery, in which incentives and more retentions would be part of the government resolutions. The original thing was that, since the resolution, a mechanism of mobile retentions would look that the net price of the exporter continued being approximately the same, although the international value moved violently upwards or downwards.
When these public measurements were made public diverse countryside organizations reacted with a lockout. The four rural entities announced the continuity of the protest and the conflict seemed to enter into a dead end. The CARBAP (Confederación de Asociaciones Rurales de Buenos Aires y La Pampa) rejected the constant and increasing tax to the agricultural sector and considerate the increase of the retentions as a new abuse from the government. Our country was divided between people who supported the government and the opposition.
Finally the conflict reached the parliament, in the deputy chamber the resolution was approved, but when it reached senators chamber it was draw (empate) and the one who broke the deadlock (desempatar) was the vice president Julio Cobos, who consolidated an institutional fracture and, as a consequence, the president Cristina Kirchner removed the resolution.
In conclusion, it can be seen that there was an uneven model of growth which benefited the Pampa Húmeda but not the rest of the country. There was also the creation of an economical dependant model which became more pronounced with the government of Peron, it consisted on the industrialization by substitution of importations. From the 1960s on the policies which tended to transform the country in an industrialized one incremented. This modernizer or developing model would reach some rates of growth but it also would suffer different disruptions because of the continuum political crisis and also because of the alternation between civil and military governments. With the coup of 1976, self denominated “Proceso de Reorganización Nacional”, the economy minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz generated a change placing as dynamic sector of the economy the financial sector.
In the year 2008, the government established a project of retentions to the agricultural activity which was rejected by the federations which nucleated the sector and divided the society between those who supported the government with this measure, and the opposition, which supported the agricultural sector. The parliament rejected the resolution and the government decided to remove it. Although this produced a diminution in the conflict, it is still latent nowadays.
Bibliography:
Vázquez, Alonso. (1999). Historia de la Argentina Contemporánea. Ed. Aique Polimodal.
Recalde, Héctor. (2000). La Argentina Contemporánea- desde la caída de Rosas hasta la presidencia de Menem. Ed. Aula taller.
PARADIGM. DE LANDETTA, G. (2009)
A paradigm represents the way in which a society perceives the world and the reality depending on the historical context, the scientific thinking and different cultures.
The social contractualists lived between the 17thC and the 18thC. They are considered contractualists because they conceive the relationship between government and people as a contractual relationship, that is to say, an agreement between different parts. All of them agree in the necessity of a government. Nevertheless they differ in their main preconceptions. The different thinkers show interest in the study of the political theories about government, its nature and its source of power.
Hobbes had the idea that a socio-political order based on the absolute monarchy was needed to control the anarchic behaviour that men had in their nature. So we can say that he supported the aristocracy. On the contrary, Locke thought that men had rational nature and that power had to be rational too. Montesquieu followed the same thinking as Locke. He proposed the division of the power into three in order to limit it. These three powers were: a legislative power to sanction laws, an executive power for the administration of the interest of the public, and a judicial power for the correct application of justice. Rousseau also followed Locke and he considered that power emerges from the general will and that it was the source of law. Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau supported the bourgeoisie.
What we can see is that as we reach the end of the 17thC and enter the 18thC the paradigm based on the theory of absolute power little by little is changed for a paradigm that conceives people as rational humans with rights and because of that the monarchy is limited by the natural rights and the constitution. The critic to the absolute monarchy begins and a new paradigm which is followed by the bourgeoisie arises. It is based on a government that respects the laws and has limited powers: the paradigm of the constitutional monarchy.
Towards the end of the 18thC a series of events produce the outbreak of the French Revolution. These events were of economical, social, political and ideological nature. The French society was an agricultural one. On the economical side there were many years of severe drought that resulted in the risen of the prices of cereals, which were essential for the production of bread. This generated social discontent. Besides, the economic situation was hardened by the participation of the State in the American War. On the social side the French society was divided on different social sectors strongly differentiated with a privileged group which was constituted by the nobility and the clergy, on the other hand there was another group denominated Third State integrated by the bourgeoisie, the peasants and the craftsmen who formed the 98% of the total population. On the political and ideological side the critic to the absolute monarchy led by the bourgeoisie finds in the social contractualists the theoretical bases to a political reform that will allow them to participate in the political life and limit the powers of the king.
Taking into account the gravity of the crisis, the king Luis XVI called the General States with the objective of sanctioning the increase of the taxes. The people opposed to that and decided to self proclaim a National Assembly. The king had to acknowledge the Assembly when thousands of Frenchmen demonstrated their support to it. On the 26th of August of 1789 the declaration of Rights of Men and Citizens was established. The principles included there summarized the liberal ideas of the bourgeoisie. On 1791 a constitution with division of powers was promulgated. Then France became a limited monarchy.
All in all we can see that as years passed paradigms changed from a paradigm which considered absolute monarchy as the greatest form of government to one that establishes that government should respect power division and citizen’s rights. The ideas of liberty, equality and rights that were promoted by the French Revolution transformed men into citizens and incorporated new rights: first civil and political rights, then in the 20thC social rights. This paradigm not only imposed in Europe the beginning of the Constitutional Monarchy but also as time went by consolidated the principles that are supported by the modern republics nowadays.
This article has been published with the expressed consent of the author.
RLH (tutor)
VICTORIAN AGE. DE LANDETTA, G. (2009)
We call Victorian Age the period in which Queen Victoria reigned (1837-1901). This was a long period of prosperity and political and economical stability. England became the maritime commerce leader and the people of England dedicated with great impulse to industry and commerce. This era marked the political and economical apogee of the United Kingdom leading throughout her reign a series of transformations: from the political point of view, in 1832 a new parliamentary regime started with participation of the conservative and liberals. Its most important leaders were Disraeli and Gladstone respectively. From these political alternatives, the election would provide the future prime minister. Which social group felt identified with the rules of the Victorian Age and why?
Taking into account the economical perspective, the free trade, which impulse the growth of the English industries, was adopted. Consequently, social problems of the working class worsened with the growth of the factories because people worked a lot of hours a day for insignificant salaries.
As a counterpart, the bourgeoisie was the dominant group that identified with the interests of the monarchy and which maintained a series of norms of behaviour that constituted the Victorian Morality.
Economical perspective
On this period on the economical perspective the industrial revolution takes place. First it is related to the textile industry, manufacturing spinning and cotton cloths, and then to the manufacture of other products. On this new stage factories appear. Their owners, who were members of the bourgeoisie, used that physical space to place the machines modifying the traditional conditions of work. Traditionally out of crop and sowing season workers complemented their incomes performing other kinds of jobs. With the industrial revolution workers had to go to the factories and install themselves on the cities, in that way cities grow in population and in conflicts because the new inhabitants lacked of resources and lived in marginality and poverty conditions.
Besides the knitting and spinning machines another kinds of machines were developed in different areas, for example, low pressure machines that were used in the mines to take out the water that flooded them. There were also high pressure machines, on this period Watt creates a machine that generates movement, it is the beginning of the locomotive and the invention of the trains.
Steam was used on the ships making transportation cheaper and reducing distances. For the first time man separates from his natural conditions and feels that he dominates and controls the earth, examples of this kind of thinking can be found on literature, on the novels written by Jules Verne, for example, Around the World in Eighty Days. These kinds of work are the reflex of the confidence that Europeans gained by means of scientific and technological discoveries.
On that time workers were subjected to terrible working conditions: great quantity of hours a day, commonly 16 or more, and the rigorousity of the leader. Women and children’s work was very rigorous and subjected to very cruel conditions, for example in the case of pregnant women and children who worked in the mines.
On this period labour conditions were not subjected to any legislation that controlled them because it was thought that they would get better naturally as competence between different factories arose. This implicated an extreme liberalism.
The industries growth made the search of economical row materials necessary to reduce costs. New markets were needed to place the production. Also on this period the Imperial Expansion of England begins over Africa and Asia where they established colonies under their dominion. This expansion policy is incentivised by the queen, who acquires a great international prestige by doing so.
These liberal English policies were favourable for the industrial bourgeoisie which would begin a golden period of economical growth and social prestige. This bourgeoisie disseminated a series of “good” customs that would form the called Victorian Morality according to the characteristics supported by the queen.
Meanwhile in Argentina around 1830 the “Rosista” period begins after the war with Brazil and the failure of Rivadavia’s presidency, which was of Unitarian tendency. On that moment the litoral provinces and Buenos Aires dedicated to leather and tasajo exportation. The principal costumer of this kind of products was England, from whom industrial products were imported.
On this stage the attempts of national unity failed and the predominance of the Federals, which was extended until 1852 when Urquiza defeated them in the Casero’s battle, is produced. Urquiza calls the agreement of San Nicolás where deputies of the provinces concurred. In 1853 the National Constitution is sanctioned and Urquiza is chosen president.
The differences between Buenos Aires and the interior become stronger and they separated. In 1861the Pavon battle, in which Buenos Aires defeated the confederation, took place. Buenos Aires troops were leaded by Mitre. In 1862 Mitre is chosen president of the Nation. A strengthened stage of the national organization begins with three historical presidencies: Mitre’s (1862-1868), Sarmiento’s (1868-1874) and Avellaneda’s (1874-1880). On this stage cereals for the local population were produced and the cattle begun to get better. In 1880 a new stage from the political and economical point of view appears.
From the political perspective this stage that begun with Roca’s government was characterised by the fraudulent election and an elite that installs on the government.
On the economical point of view the model of agricultural export appeared. Argentina becomes a good quality meat and cereals exporter especially for the English market. Argentina specialises on frozen meat, a product called chilled, which was specially made to supply England who was immersed in the process of Industrial Revolution.
On the social aspect the necessity of workers encourages the European immigration and a growth of the population is produced. In 1880 a system of train transport is organized in the country which flows into Buenos Aires in funnel form.
At the beginning of the 20th C the first social conflicts took place because the workers claimed for improvements in the working conditions. In 1905 the residence law appears which allowed the government to deport foreigners who created conflicts. On 1910 the hundredth anniversary of the May revolution is celebrated and representatives of the major European potencies concurred. On 1914 the First World War breaks out. Argentina was neutral in front of the conflict and its economy is affected because war reduces commerce. Strikes and social demands increased. In 1916 Hipolito Hyrigoyen is chosen president, he belonged to the Union Cívica Radical. With him the predominance of the elite and oligarchy finished.
All in all we can affirm that during this stage the bourgeoisie prospered. They saw their incomes grow because of the state policies which did not get involved neither on the working conditions nor in the regulation of the market. This kind of behaviour allowed a series of abuses and arbitrariness by the bourgeoisie. They generated an accumulation of capitals and their re investments increased the process of industrialization. Besides during the Victorian age extra continental colonies were established. The English crown protected the rights of the English traders abroad which allowed them to get row materials at a low cost and to place the merchandise on the colonies and new markets.
From the enomical side Argentina has been related to England since a long time basically as a supplier of row materials and receiver of industrialized products. This relationship becomes stronger in 1880 when Argentina participates of the international job division as a specialized country on the production of high quality food. Argentina will be respected from the point of view of its political independence but it will be influenced by England on its economical decisions.
This article has been published with the expressed consent of the author.
RLH tutor
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