Was Peron A Populist

To What Extent Was Peron a Populist?

Peron, the leader of argentina for over 50 years left a mark on a country that he loved. Though he loved his homeland, when he came to power he showed anything but. After winning over the population through his acts of kindness among the lower classes, Peron’s true colors began to show. Peron was not a populist but rather a true authoritarian as he encouraged extreme obedience among Argentina.

To evaluate Peron's true motives behind his governing style, his background leading up to power must be reviewed in detail. Throughout his entire childhood, he has been surrounded by some type of military environment. He went to a military academy as a child and always dreamed of becoming highly ranked in the army.

In the sense of helping the people, Peron was a populist, but as a whole he leaned more towards nationalism due to his extreme love for Argentina. Becuase of his mass following, he became president on February 1946 and had control over the entire country. Under this new position he was able to create a new ideology as he already had the country standing behind him. He created peronism which was essentially populism but stood on three major values: social justice, autarky, and national political sovereignty. Along with these values he created the “twenty truths” which are a set of assertions. The truth that stands out the most is number 8, “In political action, the peronist accepts the following order of values: first fatherland, then movement and then men” (Peron Twenty Truths). If peron was supposed to be a populist than men should be the first value listed. Because the fatherland is listed first as the most important, Peron shows that Argentina comes before the issues of men. This leads many to believe that if these are supposed to be the “truths” of this ideology than truth number 8 shows that Peron is simply not a populist, or he simply does not care about one of the his core values;

Though at first his ideals were populist, he soon discovered that he had the ability to become authoritarian and violent towards opposition as he held the dominant power. In August 1945, Peron says a speech referring to his newly made peronism. He says that the peronists have “won the right to repress them violently” (Peron 1), which clearly was not the case. Peron’s power grew and so did his governing style. He believed that because of his power, he had the ability and responsibility to “help” Argentina through whatever mean necessary. Peron continues with the most disturbing statement of all, he speaks to the people of Argentina and tells them that the solution to opposition is to “answer a violent act with another violent act” (Peron 1). Peron’s authoritarian values began to show and became present throughout the rest of his rule. On the other hand, in a speech during his earlier years of power he continues to relish in the great ideas of Mussolini. He explains that to have an ordered population the form of government must be “the true people’s democracy [and], the true social democracy” (The Red Phoenix 3). Due to this speech, peron received much criticism from Argentina communists and socialists, who believes that the people should not have a vote. They believed that by enforcing this political form, it would further divide classes, and “preserve capitalist exploitation” (The red phoenix