This work aims to provide a comprehensive and impartial review of the Argentine constitutional process. The author, a professor of law in the University of the Litoral at Santa Fe, places constitutional developments firmly within a historical context. He begins with an analysis of the colonial roots of the Argentine Constitution of 1853, in which he argues that the cabildo was an important antecedent to a federal, democratic tradition. The main emphasis is on the nineteenth century, with a detailed examination of the struggle for independence, the frustrated attempts at national organization immediately following the break from Spain, and the eventual emergence of a coherent national entity under a single governing document. The twentieth century receives only scant and summary attention.
Throughout, López Rosas stresses two principal themes. First, to his mind, the Constitution of 1853 and the process which produced it were uniquely Argentine. Although external ideas and influences were important, no single source or individual determined the course of events in the formulation of the constitution, nor was the charter itself copied uncritically from foreign models. Second, and perhaps more prominently, the author highlights and sympathizes with the federalist strain in Argentine history, by which he means the struggle of the provincial governments, the “thirteen ranches,” to resist the absorbing centralism of the city of Buenos Aires. His defense of this position, often spirited and convincing, occasionally brings into question his commitment to an “impartial” approach to Argentine history.
Students of Argentina will find little that is new in this work which is based on secondary sources and which reviews generally well-known information. The style is straightforward and dry and the approach traditional. Legal and political history are stressed and there is almost no consideration of social and economic factors. Moreover, on important matters of historical debate, such as judgements on the rule of Juan Manuel de Rosas, the author invariably takes the middle ground between what he describes as extreme interpretations. In so doing he often seems to be seeking a safe haven rather than addressing himself squarely to the issues presented. Nevertheless, this updated and revised edition appears at a propitious time to remind Argentines of their substantial constitutional and democratic heritage and of their past attempts to establish a rule of law, not of men.
