Democrats’ mistakes and the birth of authoritarian rule: ramón s. castillo and the fall of conservative democracy in Argentina

• Autores: Taccone, Nicolás; López, Ignacio Alejandro
• Año de publicación: 2023
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Journal of Latin American Studies. 2023
• Materia: ANALISIS POLITICO; DEMOCRACIA; AUTORITARISMO; CRISIS POLITICA; REGIMEN DE GOBIERNO; Castillo, Ramón S. (Ramón Santiago), 1873-1944
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina

Fil: López, Ignacio Alejandro. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina
Fil: López, Ignacio Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana "Dr. Emilio Ravignani”; Argentina
Fil: López, Ignacio Alejandro. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina
Fil: Taccone, Nicolás. Brown University. Department of Political Science; Estados Unidos
Abstract: On 4 June 1943, a military coup crushed Argentina’s democracy, marking the end of the oligarchic era and ‘planting the seeds’ of Peronism. This case sheds light on how rulers’ mistakes can operate as a key independent variable in producing regime changes. We argue that the former conservative president, Ramón S. Castillo, provoked an otherwise avoidable democratic breakdown. Specifically, Castillo’s misguided relationships with regime insiders and outsiders unintentionally eroded political stability and triggered the fall of democracy. Until now, agent-based scholarship has fallen short in tracing incumbents’ mistakes and linking them to regime-change processes. We test the argument by conducting a within-case analysis of Argentina’s democratic fall in the early 1940s, scrutinising the president’s errors at five critical events. We conclude that critical-event analysis can help disentangle the role of leaders’ mistakes in other episodes of regime change.