Selective appropriations of Iberian dictatorships and the radical right in Argentina and Chile in the 1930s

Abstract

In the context of the 1929 International Crisis, radical right political groups and intellectual circles that criticised liberal democracy and its party system started spreading in Argentina and Chile. They advocated a "New Order" based on "organic democracy" and a harmonic and hierarchical society. Here we analyse the circulation of authoritarian proposals as an alternative to Italian fascism. We are particularly interested in analysing which elements of Primo de Rivera´s dictatorship and the regimes of Francisco Franco and Antonio Oliveira Salazar were the most attractive for a segment of the radical right groups. For this reason, we analyse the Argentinian magazines La Nueva República and Criterio, and the Chilean Estudios, as well as political organizations such as Legión Cívica Argentina, Acción Nacionalista Argentina, Movimiento Nacional Socialista Chileno and Milicia Republicana. These political groups and intellectual circles found a way to reject the communism with corporatism by means of a strong arbitrating State.