This insightful synthesis of politics and popular culture in Peronist Argentina is the most recent contribution of the well-known political scientist Alberto Ciria to our understanding of twentieth-century Argentina. His purpose is to delineate the theory and practice of Peronist ideology from 1946 to 1955 and to elucidate the themes common both to this ideology and to Argentine popular culture. To make this ambitious undertaking possible, he restricts his focus to the Peronist regime and especially to the Chamber of Deputies and the Partido Peronista.
Ciria’s analysis is based on several important revisionist assumptions. First, Peronism must be perceived from the point of view of the Peronists as well as that of their critics if it is to be properly understood. This means seeking out the opinions of the Peronist actors expressed in contemporary accounts, newspapers, speeches, propaganda, and popular culture. Second, Peronism is deeply rooted in Argentine history, politics, and culture and must be viewed within these contexts. And third, Justicialism was a cohesive doctrine, not simply a reactive opportunistic collection of rationalizations.
Building on these assumptions, the author is able to explore the complexity of Peronist ideology. Chapter 1 identifies the sources of Peronist doctrine and then describes the elements of that ideology as it emerged in the 1940–55 period. Chapter 2 sets forth the conflict between the Peronists and the Radicals in Congress and focuses on the mechanisms and tactics of legislative control of the Peronist majority. Chapter 3 describes the Partido Peronista and the doctrine of verticalidad in terms of a bureaucratic pyramid with Perón at the top. In a particularly insightful passage, Ciria describes Perón’s philosophy of organization as controlled disorder; using a quote from Bustos Fierro, he explains that he who controls disorder, has more authority than he who controls order” (p. 203). Chapter 4 documents the cultural self-perception of Peronism manifested in textbooks (school and university), theater, movies, music, and the church. And Chapter 5 deals with the major symbols and myths of Peronism.
Ciria succeeds in presenting Peronist ideology in theory and reality from the contemporary and internal Peronist view and in effectively placing his analysis in the context of Peronist and Argentine historiography. The result is a more complex and sophisticated analysis of Peronism and its apparent contradictions than we have had before. It is especially good on the double nature of historic Peronism—the democratic and authoritarian tendencies which operated simultaneously in Congress, the Partido Peronista, and in the Confederación General del Trabajo. This is a must book for anyone wishing to understand historical Peronism or the evolution and importance of Peronism in Argentina since that time.