Argentina 1955 to the present:
Politics and the Economy

Prof. Pablo A. Pozzi

Argentina: a nation of contradictions? This Seminar will focus on the political and economic aspect of society between 1955 (the overthrow of Juan Domingo Peron) and present day Argentina. The main question we will seek to answer will be: what are the causes of fifty years of political instability in Argentina? The course combines readings, films, and speakers focusing mainly on an exposure to the virtues and problems of Argentina today. It will focus heavily on class participation.

All students are required to read the following:

Martin Andersen. Dossier secreto. Argentina’s Desaparecidos and the myth of the “Dirty War” (Boston: Westview Press, 1993).

I. Politics
— Political instability in Argentina
— Why so many coup d’etats
— Three hypothesis: “organic crisis”; “a weak bourgeoisie”; “the political system”
— Argentine politics and the Peronist tradition
— Social upheaval and dictatorship 1983-1996: an end to instability?
— A “democratic” decade?

Readings:
B rian Loveman and Thomas Davies, Jr., eds. The Politics of Antipolitics. The Military in Latin America (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1978); pg. 178-180; 229-241.

Pablo Pozzi and Alejandro Schneider, “Argentina in the Hour of the Furnaces”; New Politics (1996)

II. Society
— Labor
— Women
— Shanty town
— Buenos Aires and the provinces
— Immigration
— Class

Readings:
James Petras et alia. Class, State and Power in the Third World (Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman & Littlefield, 1981); chap. 14 “Terror and the Hydra: the Resurgence of the Argentine Working Class”, pg. 255-264.

III. Economics

— The “Argentine Cycle”
— A rich nation?
— Industrialized underdevelopment
— Economic policies from 1955 to 1989
— The “Menem solution”
— Regional markets (MERCOSUR) and their effects
— Neoconservatism and social conflict

Readings:
William C. Smith, “State, Market and Neoliberalism in Post-Transition Argentina: the Menem Experiment”; Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs (1992).

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). “Debt: Latin America Hangs in the Balance”; NACLA. Report on the Americas Vol. XIX, 2 (March/April 1985).

Mariano Toledo, “Argentina: Nine Months of Military Government”; Monthly Review 28 (April 1977).

Miguel Teubal, “Argentina: The Crisis of Ultramonetarism”; Monthly Review 34 (February 1983).

Sergio Serulnikov, “When Looting Becomes a Right. Urban Poverty and Food Riots in Argentina”; Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Summer 1994).

IV. Social change and social conflict

— The “Peronist Resistance” (1955-1962)
— The Cordobazo and the puebladas (1969-1972)
— The “Lost Patrol”: Argentina’s guerrillas (1967-1979)
— Conflict and the Catholic Church: the Third World Priests
— Labor “from the bottom-up”

Readings
Nancy Caro Hollander, “Si Evita Viviera...”, Latin American Perspectives, Vol. I, No. 3 (Fall 1974).

Juan Corradi, “Argentina and Peronism: Fragments of the Puzzle”; Latin American Perspectives, Vol. I, No. 3 (Fall 1974).

Michael Dodson, “Priests and Peronism: Radical Clergy and Argentine Politics”; Latin American Perspectives, Vol. I, No. 3 (Fall 1974).

Pablo Pozzi, “Memory, Collective Identity, and Argentine Guerrillas: the PRT-ERP” (mimeo)

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aapbuenosaires@yahoo.com.ar