Peronism Without Perón (Stanford, 1997)
Peronism without Perón portrays Argentina’s Peronist movement as a collective identity built around a personalistic leader, a set of powerful trade unions, and a weakly institutionalized political party. The book examines the origins of Peronism’s weak party institutionalization, explains why Peronism continued to be weakly institutionalized as a party after Perón was overthrown in 1955, and argues that Peronism’s weak party institutionalization has impeded the consolidation of Argentine democracy. The book pays special attention to the periods from 1962 to 1966 and from 1984 to 1988, when some Peronist politicians and union leaders tried, but failed, to infuse the movement’s party structures with value. By identifying the forces that led to these efforts at party institutionalization, and by analyzing the counter-forces that thwarted them, the book calls attention to obstacles and opportunities that Peronists have faced in building a better-institutionalized party — and, in so doing, to one set of obstacles that Argentines have faced in consolidating democracy. Drawing on this interpretation of Peronism, Peronism without Perón develops a distributive conflict – political party explanation for Argentina’s democratic instability, and contrasts it to alternatives that stress economic dependency, populist economic policies, political culture, and military interventionism.
Reviews (to read most of these reviews your institution must subscribe to the linked journal):
1. Adelman, Jeremy (History, Princeton), in The Americas, July 1998.
2. [Anonymous] in British Bulletin of Publications, April 2001.
3. [Anonymous] in Forum for Modern Language Studies, July 2001.
4. Blake, Charles (Political Science, James Madison), in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Fall 1998.
5. Brennan, James (History, UC Riverside), in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January 1999.
6. Caimari, Leila (History, Mercy College), in H-Net Reviews, May 1998.
7. Chen, Linda (Political Science, Indiana U. at South Bend), in Choice, March 1998.
8. Cuya, Esteban (Dokumentations und Informationszentrum Menschenrechte in Lateinamerika), in Iberoamericana, Vol. 1 No. 4, 2001.
9. Ducatenzeiler, Graciela (Political Science, U. de Montréal), in Canadian Journal of Political Science, September 1998.
10. Fagan, G. Honor (Sociology, National University of Ireland), in Bulletin of Latin American Research, April 1999.
11. González, Marcela (University of Buenos Aires), in International Labor and Working Class History, Spring 1999.
12. Gordillo, Mónica (History, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), in Canadian Journal of History, Summer 1998.
13. Horowitz, Joel (History, St. Bonaventure), in American Historical Review, December 1998.
14. Huete García, María Ángeles (Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Pablo de Olavida, Sevilla), in América Latina Hoy, April 2000.
15. Levitsky, Steven (Political Science, Harvard University), in Journal of Latin American Studies, February 2001
16. Levitsky, Steven (Political Science, Harvard University), as part of a review article of five books in Studies in Comparative International Development, Summer 2001
17. Lewis, Colin (Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science), in International Affairs, January 2000.
18. Manzetti, Luigi (Political Science, Southern Methodist University), in Latin American Research Review 34 No. 3 (1999).
19. McSherry, J. Patrice (Political Science, LIU/Brooklyn), in American Political Science Review, September 1998.
20. Mutschler, Claudia (Latin American Studies, South African Institute of International Affairs), in South African Journal of International Affairs, Winter 2000, 225-27.
21. Newton, Ronald (Latin American Studies, Simon Fraser University), in Labour/Le Travail, Spring 1999.
22. Philip, George (Government, London School of Economics), in Political Studies, September 2000.
23. Ranis, Peter (Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center), in Journal of Politics, February 1999.
24. Spalding, Hobart (History, Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center), in Hispanic American Historical Review, February 2000.