Nation-Making (1910–1964)

Abstract

In 1910 much of Latin America was celebrating one hundred years of independence in a mood of great optimism with economic development delivering and political unification largely completed. This is the period that includes that of the “National-Popular” development and hegemony construction in Latin America as we shall explore below. It is a time of nation-building and of construction of a historic bloc, which incorporates popular aspirations. There is a convergence around a new development matrix that began to construct new forms of hegemony based on the so-called populist state. It is also the period in which the “Subalterns” come onto the political scene. The process of proletarianization under the previous oligarchic regime had created new social classes not bound by traditional identities. Instead anarchism, syndicalism, and socialism were now becoming considerable contestatory force. These subaltern classes and groups were to become part of the populist order that emerged during this period that provided encouragement to and set limits on their activation at the same time. The collapse of the old liberal economic model after the 1929 crash led to the emergence of a new National Development model through import substitution industrialization. This model was statist in orientation, protectionist, and strongly developmentalist, creating new social layers and new consumption needs.