Transcript Populism - Baltimore City College

Populism
Vargas and Peron
Definition of Populism
Debate: which is more accurate? Which fits
Peron and/or Vargas more accurately?
Traditional Definition
• Expansionary economic
policies
• Personalistic political
leadership
• Heterogeneous social
foundation
• Extension of social benefits
• ISI
Political Definition
• Political leaders who desire
power and are willing to do
what they need to do to
grab it and hold on to it –
(accounts for wishy-washy
ideology and changing
policies)
Rise to Power and Maintaining Power
Peron 1946-1975
Vargas 1929-1954
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• Brazil’s loose federation of states
dominated since 1891 by café-aulait alliance between Sao Paulo
(coffee producers) Minas Gerais
(cattle producers)
• Minor states, including Rio
Grande de Sul, form alliance
against gov’t and nominate
Vargas as candidate in 1929
elections
• Vargas loses, but political unrest
causes military junta to install
Vargas as pres in 1930
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Built some public support among
working classes as labor secretary,
then was VP
Won a basically free/fair election in
1946
Opposition (radicals/socialists)
were weak
Laboring classes frustrated by neoliberal governments of the 1930s
Peron’s charisma and personalism
Debate: did he win because of his
personality and political ability? Or
because the opposition was so
weak?
Economic Policies
Peron 1946-1975
Vargas 1929-1954
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1946-1948 economic boom, declared
economic independence
Increased wages, decreased price of
beef, supported worker strikes (at first)
Nationalization of central bank,
telephone, railways, docks
IAPI (bought ag products at low prices,
sold abroad at high prices) profits
subsidized domestic industrialization
and welfare programs
ISI hurt rural areas
After 1949 economic crisis – inflation,
no industrial output, beef and wheat
prices collapsed because of Marshall
Plan rebuilding of Europe response was
to freeze wages, turned to foreign
investors
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1930 middle of great depression
1930-1937 focused on centralization of government
power, some industrialization, but coffee prices
slumped causing economy to fail
Estado Novo = response to the economic problems,
started economic nationalism
EN began ISI – industrialization a main focus
State help mining, oil, steel, electricity, chemicals,
motor vehicles and aircraft
Used profit from agriculture to fund industry
Regulated sale of coffee to make more profit
Welcomed foreign capital and transnational firms
1941 – played US and Germany off one another,
benefitted from selling to both, ultimately allied
with the US in 1944
1950 – controlling debt and inflation compete with
Vargas’s populist political platform – he can’t make
the economic choices he needs to and the
opposition grows
Social Policies
Peron 1946-1975
Vargas 1930-1954
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Decalogue of Workers’ Rights in the
Constitution of 1949 – wage increases,
better working conditions, more rights
to strike
Eva Peron Foundation– gave workers
(“shirtless ones”) welfare, better health
care – only semi-governmental
Justicialismo – loose ideology of
Peronism, in favor of working class,
workers’rights, social justice
Gave women the right to vote in 1947
La Communidad Organizado extended
state control over unions, schools,
universities, employers’ organizations
Shut down free press, jailed opposition
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Empowered industrialists, entrepeneurs,
middle class, organized working class
through state trade unions
Workers’ rights – 8 hour work day, paid
holidays, employment security, right to
strike, minimum wage, health and safety
Estado Novo – curtailed civil liberties,
outlawed political parties
Sindicatos – state-run labor unions that were
supposed to provide base of political support
and workers’ rights, but no one really joined
them
National Economic Council – organization of
workers unions and employers where all
trade disputes were supposed to be worked
out
Sindicato policies discouraged women from
working
Political Policies
Peron 1946-1975
• New constitution of 1949,
increased state control,
created direct elections
(i.e., no electoral college
type bureaucracy)
• Used authoritarianism
• Political base continued to
be the workers – “shirtless”
• Nationalist policies
Vargas 1930-1954
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Immediately replaced regional governors
with own “interventors” to consolidate
federal power
1932 Sao Paulo rebellion crushed
1934 New constitution with more federal
gov’t power, Vargas elected as President
Integralists (fascists) and ALN
(communists/socialists) fight for power in
new gov’t
ALN crushed by Vargas in 1937
Vargas suspends constitution because he
can’t be elected any more and creates Estada
Novo – dictatorship, offers Integralist Salgado
a position, Salgado refuses and Vargas
crushes the Greenshirts
1945 Vargas leaves office to his minion
Duarta
Elected a Senator from Rio Grande de Sul
1950 Elected President again
Treatment of Opposition
Peron 1946-1975
• Maintained election,
opposition was allowed to
exist, 30% on average in
elections
• Control of dissidents varied
– depending on how well
things were going
• Jailed opposition when
needed to
• Outlawed dissident
newspapers
Vargas 1930-1954
• Crushed ALN and
Integralists
• Outlawed political parties in
the Estada Novo
• Jailed opposition
Successes
Peron 1946-1975
• Mystical control over the
masses, influence lasted
while he was in exile
• Workers’ rights
• Made unions stronger
• Woman suffrage
• Initial economic successes
• Welfare and public health
programs
• Some industrialization
Vargas 1930-1954
• EN had initial economic
success
• Some industrialization
• Created stronger federal
government
Failures
Peron 1946-1975
• Economy after 1949 went
down – rampant inflation,
increased foreign debt,
trade imbalance
• ISI hurt rural areas,
damaged production of
wheat and beef
• Political and economic
instability left years of
governmental changes
Vargas 1930-1954
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Urban workers actually saw an
overall reduction in income
Never really gained the popularity
of the masses –was relatively
popular, but nothing like Peron
Could not resolve the tension
between his populist rhetoric and
failed populist economic policies
Didn’t have a real ideology
ISI hurt rural areas, damaged coffee
and cattle production
State-run trade-unions didn’t work
(no one joined them)
Political and economic instability
left years of governmental changes
Sample Thesis Statements
• (this works for #8 or #5 –though they are
slightly different questions)
In examining the administrations of Juan Peron
in Argentina and Getulio Vargas in Brazil, one
can see that short-term successes in economic
policy led to long-term economic problems,
social policies provided benefits to the
working class and authoritarian political
regimes created long-term instability.
Sample Thesis Statements
#7
Take this one out – I need to give you more
information on this. Which I will do!
Sample Thesis Statements
#10 (cross out the either – you need to do both)
Define populism in introduction (see powerpoint –
expanding the economy, increasing welfare state,
industrializing, charismatic leaders)
Peron and Vargas can both be considered as having
pursued populist policies because of their expansionist
economic plans, which resulted in economic instability
in both countries; their appeal to the working classes,
which was more successful for Peron than for Vargas;
and their introduction of the welfare state, which
resulted in better rights for workers, but fewer civil
liberties.