Radical Nationalist and Philo-Fascist Movements in Argentina in the 1930s

Abstract

As in many Western countries, in Argentina in the interwar period, an influential right-wing radical movement arose, close in its ideological and political characteristics to European fascism. Initially, it was an intellectual movement that was able to form a political movement that took an important place in Argentine politics, the extreme expression of which was the military-civilian coup of J. F. Uriburu in 1930. In the ideological baggage of the philo-fascists there were theses about the totalitarian state, about the struggle against liberalism and democracy, about the corporate state structure, anti-imperialism and anti-Semitism. The peculiarity of Argentina was such a phenomenon as clero-fascism, a trend that arose from the union of nationalism and Catholic integrism under the banner of right-wing authoritarianism, philo-fascism and clericalism. An attempt to launch right-wing, corporatist reforms during the Uriburu dictatorship failed primarily because of the reluctance of the Argentine ruling elite to change the development model. As a result, philo-fascist groups and movements were pushed out of the political scene, marginalized, but at the same time they retained intellectual and social influence in the country, which was reflected in the following years with the advent of Peronism in the political life of Argentina.