Dignifying Argentina

Peronism, Citizenship, and Mass Consumption

Bibliographic Data

ID2810728
AuthorsNatalia Milanesio (0000-0002-6530-4844, University of Houston, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume92
Issue3
Pages582-583
Publication date2012-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-1600587
OpenAlexW2312338363
LanguageEN
Citations received13

Eduardo Elena’s innovative study of consumption during Juan Domingo Perón’s first and second governments (1946 – 55) shows that many fundamental facets of Peronism, one of the most researched subjects in Argentine historiography, have yet to be discovered. Elena joins a cohort of US and Argentine scholars interested in the “democratization of well-being” during the Peronist era, that is, the improvement of living conditions based on new forms of government planning for consumption, housing, education, tourism, and health. In his important contribution to this scholarship, Elena asks why Peronism has become the major turning point of twentieth-century Argentine history and searches for answers at the intersection between political culture and political economy. In response to this question, Elena persuasively points to an original definition of social citizenship that articulated quotidian consumption — both commercial and nonmarket — as an essential component of social justice and economic inclusion. In the vibrant context of mid-twentieth-century industrialization, urbanization, and cultural modernization, the Peronist government proposed the construction of a “New Argentina” based on the ideal of a “dignified life”: a comprehensive elevation of the standard of living that required wage earners to be fully incorporated into the nation as active economic members.Elena shows that before Peronism the challenges of getting and spending were essentially private struggles that lacked political visibility and, consequently, merited no major government intervention. Ironically, while Argentina was a leading agricultural exporter, workers struggled with belt-tightening household economies and widespread misery. After the Second World War, however, the newly appointed Peronist policy makers faced a changing international economy and the redefinition of Argentina’s role within it. Peronism ventilated frustrations with the inequality and exploitation inherent to capitalism, but its proposed “third way” between capitalism and communism promised to uplift the working population without really destroying the existing order. In effect, mass consumption was the weapon to fight the evils of capitalism, channeling wartime industrialization, conveying an anti-imperialistic vision of national progress, and delivering higher standards of living through income redistribution via state planning. Elena effectively argues that while initially the government used higher wages to materialize the promise of social justice, the core of the Peronist political economy was the antispeculation measures that were implemented when inflation and shortages threatened people’s chance to attain a dignified life. The government then waged a “war against usury,” a campaign of price controls and police inspections of retail shops and manufacturers to safeguard income redistribution. The state-led crusade strengthened the relationship between the government and its followers by placing the blame upon a recognizable set of “enemies” including unscrupulous and greedy shopkeepers and unpatriotic industrialists. Furthermore, in the fight against unjust commerce, the Peronist state reaffirmed a traditional gendered view of citizen-consumers by requesting that women collaborate as the main administrators of the household economy, and that men perform as prolific breadwinners since higher spending power necessitated increases in workforce productivity.According to Elena, collective consumption — public works, housing, tourism, and other services, especially those provided by the Eva Perón Foundation — mitigated the erosion of spending power in the early 1950s. Here Elena explores a better-known territory, as Peronist social programs have attracted considerable attention among historians. His conceptualization of Peronist welfare as noncommercial consumption is novel, but I wish Elena had explored the intermingling between market and nonmarket consumption in detail rather than pointing it out. Similarly, it would have been interesting to see Elena examine the implications of collective consumption for the Peronist definition of citizenship with the same level of attention he paid to commercial consumption.In an analysis primarily focused on the state, Elena assesses the impact of Peronist ideology and politics by analyzing a rich collection of letters written by ordinary citizens with the goal of sharing policy recommendations with President Perón. Elena affirms that people complained openly about inflation, merchant profiteering, and corrupt inspectors to demonstrate that for many, it was more difficult to live a dignified life than the government propaganda claimed. Equally revealing, Elena shows the pervasiveness of the Peronist idea of citizenship among the letter writers, who employed a language of entitlement to well-being and adopted a Manichean understanding of the nation divided between the people, alongside the Peróns, versus a cast of familiar unpatriotic villains from the propertied classes. Moreover, in spite of criticism and frustration, the correspondence clearly conveyed the strong belief of ordinary citizens in the transformative power of state planning to achieve social justice.Elena’s book should be required reading for those interested in a fresh interpretation of Peronism and an original look at postwar policy making and political economy. Readers searching for a compelling analysis of the always complex yet fascinating relationship between the state and citizen-consumers will not be disappointed

Citizenship · Consumption (sociology) · Context (archaeology) · Democracy · Democratization · Economics · Economy · Geography · Government (linguistics) · Modernization theory · Peasant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Borges, Kipling, and Jewish Identity · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law

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