This book is, according to its Introduction, “an historical analysis of the elections which were held between 1910 and 1966.” For purposes of description, the book’s contents can be divided into five parts: (1) It begins with a periodization of Argentine electoral politics and a description of the types of political parties active in each period. Very little in this section is in any way new. (2) Next is a description of the adoption of the Sáenz Peña election law and an analysis of its effects. Most interesting here is the thesis that the post-1912 increase in voter turnout is not attributable to the law’s provision for obligatory male suffrage. (3) There is also a new typology of Argentine political parties based upon (a) concern with improvement in the conditions of the working class, (b) strict adherence to the letter of the law, and (c) domestic vs. international orientation. One should probably not be surprised to discover that the Radicals of the 1916-1930 period and the Peronists of 1946-1955 fall into the same category. Unfortunately, this typology is not put to any real use. (4) Least successful, in my opinion, is the attempt to examine the social basis of Argentina’s major political parties by means of a series of ecological correlations. Many of the correlations are presented without any interpretation in spite of the fact that their purpose is not readily apparent. For example, what conclusions are to be drawn from the fact that between 1916 and 1930 there was a very high negative correlation (−0.90) between voter turnout and the percentage of the vote received by the Socialists? (5) Last, and most interesting, is a discussion of factionalism within the Radical and Peronist parties. Especially good is the differentiation between the Laborites and the dissident Radicals who supported Perón in 1946, and between the hard-line Peronists and neo-Peronists of 1965.
Almost half of the book is composed of a series of about 150 relatively lengthy quotations grouped at the end of each chapter. These fragmentos, which come primarily from daily newspapers, the Chamber of Deputies Diarios de Sesiones, and the Revista Argentina de Ciencia Política, deal almost exclusively with the period between 1912 and 1930, principally because the author believes that this was the last period in which bourgeois democracy was able to function in Argentina. In most instances, these well chosen citations offer excellent illustrations of the points made by the author in the main body of the text.
Perhaps Canton’s earlier works, such as El Parlamento Argentino en épocas de cambio: 1890, 1916 y 1946 and La política de los militares argentinos: 1900-1971 have led me to expect too much of him, for I must confess that I was somewhat disappointed by this book. I should emphasize, however, that although I do not believe that this book is up to the very high standards set by Canton’s earlier works, it is still a valuable introduction to an important topic.
