Latin American Political Thought - JOHN D. MARTZ

Characteristics of Latin American Political ThoughtAuthor(s): John D. MartzSource: Journal of Inter-American Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan., 1966), pp. 54-74Published by: Center for Latin American Studies at the University of MiamiStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/165214 .Accessed: 19/05/2011 13:12

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JOHN D. MARTZ Department of Political Science University of North Carolina

CHARACTERISTICS OF LATIN AMERICAN

POLITICAL THOUGHT

I

IN FEW AREAS OF THE WORLD are the role and contribution of the intellectual elite more significant than in Latin America. Its mem- bership has historically been in the forefront of major political and

social movements, and there has been somewhat less of the distaste for politics and public responsibility than is often found elsewhere. Leading intellectuals are widely respected and nationally prominent, enjoying a degree of prestige that is scarcely exceeded in any other region. The pensador-sometimes likened to the eighteenth-century philosophe-- has been intimately involved in major political movements from colonial times to the present. Indeed, the function of the Latin American intellectual has been well characterized by Mannheim in a passage not intended specifically for this region:

Intellectual activity is not carried on exclusively by a so- cially rigidly defined class, such as a priesthood, but rather by a social stratum which is to a large degree unattached to any social class and which is recruited from an increasingly inclusive area of social life. This sociological fact determined essen-

Intellectual activity is not carried on exclusively by a so- tically not based upon the authority of a priesthood, which is not closed and finished, but which is rather dynamic, elastic,

I William Rex Crawford, A Century of Latin-American Thought, rev. ed. (Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 4.

LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

in a constant state of flux, and perpetually confronted by new problems....2

If such a statement has broad validity for Latin America, it would follow that the substance of the region's political thought bears considerable relevance. One of the leading North American students of the subject has expressed his "profound conviction" that an understanding of the ideas of Latin American thinkers and writers is fundamental in pursuing a concomitant comprehension of political and governmental affairs.3 The relative dearth of materials available in English stands in striking contrast to the volume of the literature emanating from Latin America since the eighteenth century. Clearly no one of the more com- monly identified historical periods in Latin America has failed to be rich both in speculative and in concrete treatments.

Before entering upon a synthesis of representative works and philosophic schools of thought, it is important to explain in descriptive terms the boundaries of this inquiry. The words "political thought" have been consciously employed rather than such alternatives as "political theory" or "political philosophy." "Political" itself is used with the broadest of connotations, embracing many works which upon occasion have substantial socio-economic content. As shall be stressed later, the writings of Latin American intellectual figures are broad in textual scope, often ambitiously sweeping in their subject matter. The implicit bias against specialization and narrow, restrictive discussion is such that a flexible definition of "political" writings will include much material which is in large part social, cultural, and broadly humanistic in its thrust.

The word "thought" is also understood here in the broader sense. Only a rather limited portion of writing could be genuinely denoted as political "theory" in the classical sense. Aside from the tendency to be more eclectic and derivative than original, the writings which concern us here-in many cases the most influential on the course of events in a given country-only infrequently proffer new or different contributions to the body of political thought. Certainly there have been intellectual followers of various original political theorists such as Rousseau, Comte, Spencer, Marx, and Hegel. However, it is questionable whether any Latin American has formulated the kind of unique or innovational thought which might on its own intellectual merits attain comparable

2 Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (New York: Harcourt, Brace Co., 1946), p. 139.

3 Harold Eugene Davis, Latin American Social Thought; The History of Its De- velopment since Independence with Selected Readings (Washington: The University Press of Washington, D.C., 1963), p. v.

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JOURNAL OF INTER-AMERICAN STUDIES

permanence. "Political thought" is therefore employed in this essay to include, among other things, works which are predominantly legal, juridical, historical, philosophical, and sociological.

It might well be argued that the literature of Latin American philosophy could more easily and justifiably be identified than that of political thought. It is not, perhaps, coincidental that North American scholars have devoted relatively greater attention to the former.4 Much of this has verged on the sociological and anthropological in dealing with diverse aspects of "culture," variously defined.5 Yet in many cases the most important pensadores have written essentially philosophic works which have been politically influential. Thus our usage of political thought must permit a substantial infusion of philosophical inquiry. With intellectual trends of major significance, even occasional ventures into the field of fiction and of poetry can be useful. In addition to the fact that literary surveys and anthologies6 often contain significant political passages, there are numerous cases in which literary essays, novels, and even poetry must be considered in terms of political content. The ideology of the Mexican Revolution, for example, is seen in a clearer light after a reading of Mariano Azuela's The Underdogs; the autobio- graphical writings of Jose Vasconcelos are important in the same country; Ruben Darfo's Ode to Roosevelt is representative of the literature of Yankeephobia, if but a pale image of his finest poetry; and

4 It is not possible, for example, to find a discussion of political thought which parallels Arthur Berndtson's "Teaching Latin-American Philosophy," The Americas, IX (January 1953). Furthermore, translations of Latin American writings have, to the present, been more concerned with largely philosophical matter. Cf. Anibal Sinchez Reulet, Contemporary Latin-American Philosophy: A Selection (Albuquerque: Univer- sity of New Mexico Press, 1954); Luis Recasens Siches, Latin American Legal Philos- ophy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948); Samuel Ramos, Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962); Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude; Life and Thought in Mexico (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1961).

5 A few of these, which sometimes are themselves philosophically oriented, include the following: John P. Gillin, "Modern Latin-American Culture," in Olen E. Leonard and Charles P. Loomis (eds.), Readings in Latin Social Organization and Institutions (East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1953); Gillin, "Changing Depths in Latin America," Journal of Inter-American Studies, II, No. 1 (January 1960); William J. Kilgore, "One America-Two Cultures," Journal of Inter-American Studies, VII, No. 2 (April 1965); and Ren6 de Visme Williamson, Culture and Policy: The United States and the Hispanic World (Nashville: University of Tennessee Press, 1949).

6 To name but a few, these include Germfn Arciniegas (ed.), The Green Conti- nent: A Comprehensive View of Latin America by Its Leading Writers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944); Isaac Goldberg, Brazilian Literature (New York: Dutton, 1922); Goldberg, Studies in Spanish American Literature (New York, 1920); Pedro Henriquez-Urefia, Literary Currents in Hispanic America (Cambridge: Harvard Univer- sity Press, 1945); Arturo Torres-Rioseco,, The Epic of Latin American Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 1942); and Torres-Rioseco, New World Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949).

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Da Cunha's Rebellion in the Backlands is a classic that the student of Brazilian political thought ignores at his peril.

The preceding suggests the scope of writings which are valid for the study of political thought in Latin America. The present undertaking consists largely of an examination of ideas and of intellectual currents which have come together to form a vast reservoir of material; it encompasses more inclusive discussions and more diverse writings than might ordinarily be the case. To establish a set of boundaries excluding legal, philosophic, humanistic, and literary efforts would be to limit unduly our field of concern. In an essay which represents primarily an effort at synthesis, this broad-gauged approach is not regarded as methodologically or taxonomically inappropriate. In the two succeeding sections political thought will be discussed in chronological fashion. The heuristically useful if unoriginal7 divisions will be those of the Enlighten- ment and Independence, Romantic Liberalism, Positivism, and the Twentieth Century.

The concluding section will present those characteristics which run like a unifying strand to reflect the continuity in intellectual inquiry over the better part of two centuries. However, the first two periods can be distinguished from the latter two; there has been a fundamentally different influence and contribution both direct and indirect from Spain, its customs and traditions. From the late colonial period through the first half of the nineteenth century and beyond, political thought almost without exception referred to the role and impact of Spain and of things Spanish. Although the emphasis varied somewhat, consistent attention was devoted to the relevance of the colonial experience and the continuing domination of Spanish modes of life and habits of thought. Only toward the latter part of the century, with the advent of positivism, did such elements gradually recede. And by the early 1900's, Spanish intellectual and historical characteristics were largely minimized; major European influences were no longer predominantly Iberian. More practical political issues centered not on Spain but upon the growing hegemony of the United States. Throughout the twentieth century, although Iberian influences have been preceived in such diverse pheno- mena as the impact of the Franco movement and of writings by men like Unamuno and Ortega y Gassett, European thought has nonetheless been largely other than Spanish or Portuguese. The break from the mother country thus became significant only with the advent of the positivist

7 Similar classifications can be found in various sources; that of Davis in his Latin American Social Thought is virtually identical.

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period, and it is on this basis that the next two sections of this essay are divided.

II The Enlightenment and Independence. The study of this crucial

historical period in Latin American history has been extensively excavated over a long period of time, and scholars continue devoting themselves to further inquiry. In the realm of ideas and of intellectual contributions much has been learned, and the present task is that of characterizing and highlighting certain relevant aspects of the experience rather than presenting conclusions running contrary to existing scholarship. The impact of the European Enlightenment upon colonial Latin America on the eve of the Wars of Independence was diffuse in nature, reflecting the same diversity and dissimilarity perceivable in Europe itself.

An intellectual movement traceable to the seventeenth century and even earlier, its single most important element was perhaps the thought that right reason could uncover true knowledge, ultimately guiding man to greater happiness. This also came to embrace an advocacy not merely of what was, but of what ought to be. With human conditions failing to parallel what was described as desirable and attainable, increasing attention began to focus on proposed changes and reforms, sometimes including the advocacy of revolutionary means. There also developed to some extent a reaction against the more absolutist strains of the Hobbesian state. Voltaire and others spoke of such things as world citizenship and a substitution of feelings of humanity for traditional parochial loyalties and nationalistic prejudices.

The Enlightenment, drawing to a close in Europe just as it began to register substantially on the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, offered above all else a conviction in the general progress of civilization, a belief that intellectual and social advance was inevitable. Humanity was march- ing toward perfectibility, with pure reason destined to be the ultimate master. And although the Enlightenment by the time of the French Revolution was in a state of deterioration, it was nonetheless providing for many Latin American intellectuals beliefs which themselves were among the oldest in Western civilization. Until fairly late in the 1700's, as Lanning has observed, intellectual predilections in Latin America favored an almost reverent repetition of Condillac and similar writers. The Lockian argument that the spiritual and physical man constituted "one harmonious whole" in nature was widespread.8 Furthermore, the

8 John Tate Lanning, "Reception of the Enlightenment in Latin America," from Arthur P. Whitaker (ed.), Latin America and the Enlightenment (New York: Appleton- Century Co., 1942).

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increasing trade and exchange of books and other materials, both covert and otherwise, brought a growing familiarity with Rousseau, Paine, and others.

Treatments of colonial existence were many; thus, more than fifty editions of Abbe Guillaume Raynal's Philosophical and Political His- tory of the Indies appeared during a thirty-year period. Montesquieu's semi-satirical discussion of monarchs and Church officials was circu- lated, as was Smith's Wealth of Nations. The attack in Europe on con- vention and tradition achieved the greatest currency in France, and Rous- seau inflamed colonial imaginations with his vivid description of the noble savage and the debauchery of his life and culture by conquerors. Rousseau's anti-clerical strain also drew considerable attention. The intellectual elite in the colonies became increasingly familiar with such works, and the French inspiration was especially powerful in Lima, Bogota, and Buenos Aires.9 The advent of great historic turmoil with the French and North American revolutions merely added to the intellectual discontent that was spreading.10 Events in Spain proceeding from the reforms of Charles III and continuing through the Napoleonic invasion of the early nineteenth century provided even greater immed- iacy and urgency to colonial ferment.

With the fortifications of intellectual and political tradition besieged in much of Europe, the congruence of historical forces in Latin America contributed mightily to the movement toward independence However, the problems entailed by the winning of power from Spain and Portugal posed questions which proved more difficult of solution than had been anticipated. The essentially military experience of many independence leaders and the lack of political training soon became an evident handi- cap. Yet this should not imply either a lack of effort or an absence of concern, both practical and speculative, on the part of intellectual leaders. Writings of the period reflect a broad diversity of thought and of background. Practical manifestations came in the movements of Hidalgo and Morelos in Mexico, the contributions of Mariano Moreno in Ar-

9 One of the standard sources for this is Roland Hussey's "Traces of French En- lightenment in Colonial Hispanic America," from ibid.

10 Much of the preceding has minimal applicability for the colonial Portuguese holdings in the New World. Brazil was far less receptive to developing intellectual and political currents at the time. An excellent picture is provided in the work of Joao Cruz Costa, happily made available in English through a recent translation by Suzette Macedo under the title A History of Ideas in Brazil; The Development of Philosophy in Brazil and the Evolution of National History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1964). Cf. pp. 13-43.

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gentina, and the growing influence of the Venezuelan Andres Bello. Cer- tainly there was no want of intellectual inquiry, either abstract or pragmatic.

Within a few years, the most notable feature of political thought was the denunciation of the colonial heritage; the Latin Americans dis- coursed extensively on the continuation of colonial forms despite the departure of European rule. While there was some attention to socio- economic matters - early indigenistas were already discussing the plight of the native - the major emphasis had been placed on political eman- cipation, on the expulsion of agents of the crown and the institution of local rule in place of that controlled by peninsulares. It was supposed that military victory would more or less automatically bring about a drastic new order. As the early years of independence gave the lie to this expectation, complaints multiplied over the fact that the exchange of Spanish for national rulers had brought little true political emancipa- tion. The disillusionment over the continuation of Spanish habits, customs and traditions became widespread. In time the negativism of colonial attacks on the evils of royal control was recognized as being in a sense futile. Thus, in the quest for a genuinely American philosophy, in the effort to locate and then to apply prescriptions of an original nature, thinkers and writers began to redirect their attention to different foreign works. From this search for a new philosophic foundation emerged the writings which underlay intellectual speculation for the half-century following the military defeat of the Spanish.

Romantic Liberalism. Such European intellectual developments as the utopian socialism of Saint Simon, the utilitarianism of Bentham and James Mill, and the idealistic aspects of a scientific philosophy of history as expounded by German thinkers, stood out as identifiable in the work of Latin Americans. In addition to this, however, many expositions of the period reflected a basic effort to take stock of the situation. Pensa- dores were anything but blind to divergent, indeed fundamentally dis- tinct environmental circumstances which to a degree militated against the applicability of European ideas. Many recognized the perils of at- tempting to transfer the European experience to Latin America. Further- more, certain elements of European thought were directly repudiated.

In the early 1830's and after, the Latin Americans reacted sharply against Spain. An intellectual process of desespanolizacion was notice- able, nowhere stronger than in Argentina and Chile. From the former came members of the Generation of '37; Esteban Echeverria bemoaned the Argentine inheritance of Spanish customs on the one hand and, on

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the other, Spanish laws and legislation. He saw revolution in his country as merely having torn down the outward forms of colonial tyranny without actually replacing them. The colonial spirit survived to stifle the people, and the ingredients of knowledge and understanding necessary to the development of a modern spirit were absent. His colleague Juan Bautista Alberdi, perhaps the most realistically inclined of the Ar- gentines at the time, shared a comparable view of the colonial years. While more outspoken in his admiration for North American constitutional forms and perhaps more deeply involved in the problems of fed- eralism and centralism, he too saw his country as retaining colonial customs and traditions which were harmful to its future development."

Similar strains of anti-Spanish thought and of bitterly negative intellectual resurrections of the past were observable in Chile.12 There the emerging Generation of '42, benefiting from the influence of Bello and his work, responded sharply under the increasing restiveness emanating from the Conservative hegemony established by Diego Portales. Jose Victorino Lastarria wrote of Chilean needs in overcoming the past influence of the Spanish. The struggle for independence had only destroyed the visible, or directly political power of the Spanish; the invisible, the social and economic bases remained. Thus a renewed attack was necessary for the destruction of the latter. Impressed by North American progress, aware of distinctions between Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic colonial patterns, he argued that his countrymen needed to discard remaining customs and practices, thereby renouncing the past and committing themselves to the sovereignty of law. At virtually the same time the fiery Francisco Bilbao was advocating a new philosophical synthesis, one in which the feudalism of what he termed "Middle Ages Catholicism" would give way to modern republicanism. In his view the Chilean people needed to make a choice between Catholicism and republicanism, recognizing that old beliefs had to be changed if true liberty and freedom were to be achieved.

There were, of course, positive responses to European thought as well. Romantic or utopian socialism was imported from France by many who had studied there. Elements of Saint Simonism were apparent in Echeverria's Dogma Socialista, for example, in addition to the revolutionary ideas of the Association of May which in 1838 had been or-

11 For an acute analysis, see Jose Luis Romero, A History of Argentine Political Thought, trans. by Thomas F. McGann (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963), pp. 126-64.

12 See the discussions in Ricardo Donoso, Las Ideas Politicas en Chile (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1946); also Tomnas Lago, Sobre el Romanticismo en 1842 (Santiago: Universidad de Chile, 1942).

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ganized in opposition to Juan Manuel Rosas. Echeverria saw utopian socialism as providing ultimately an effective framework upon which a new order might be erected. Across the Andes, Bilbao and his Chilean colleagues for a time even wrote under literary pseudonyms taken from French Girondists, and there were undertones reminiscent of such men as Lamennais, especially where religious matters were scrutinized.

Intellectual currents identifiable with European utilitarianism also existed. Again there were cases in which personal experience in Europe had influenced the pensador; among the leading examples were Andres Bello, Mexico's Jose Maria Luis Mora,'3 and the Central American Jose Cecilio del Valle.14 Bello had been directly exposed to British ideas on political economy before his arrival in Chile in 1829, while Mora followed Smith and Bentham in his advocacy of political liberalism as it emerged in Mexico during the formulation of the 1825 federal constitu- tion and after. Del Valle followed in fairly orthodox fashion the ideas of economic liberalism represented by free trade and limited governmental responsibility, notwithstanding broadly conservative inclinations. For such men and those who sympathized with them, utilitarianism was attractive in permitting comparisons derived from North America. The apparent similarities between the United States and Latin America with regard to undeveloped territory and available natural resources suggested to many that the success of the pragmatism used by the neighbor to the north might in part justify its emulation elsewhere.

The attraction to German writings in this period was somewhat weaker. Perhaps the two major figures of this period who admired the stress on a form of historical determinism were the Mexican Lucas Alaman and the Cuban Jose Luz y Caballero. Alaman came to the view that independence in Mexico had been inappropriately timed, merely exacerbating existing problems rather than leading to a rational effort at amelioration. Luz y Caballero was among those Cubans who wrestled with the implications of political independence as influenced by the problems already being encountered by the new republics of the hemisphere. Seeing the continuation of a struggle between principles of en- lightened self-government and the well-entrenched landed aristocracy, he spent his final years in training a younger generation of Cubans,

13 An analysis which does justice to the subtleties of Mora's thought has recently appeared by Charles A. Hale, "Jos6 Maria Luis Mora and the Structure of Mexican Liberalism," Hispanic American Historical Review, XLV, No. 2 (May 1965), 196-227.

14 Already the subject of Franklin D. Parker's Jose Cecilio del Valle and the Establishment of the Central American Confederation (Tegucigalpa: 1954), he has more recently been the subject of a full-length biography by Louis E. Bumgartner, Jose del Valle of Central America (Durham: Duke University Press, 1963).

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many of whom were to participate in the ferment which culminated in armed rebellion against Spain.'5

The years of Romantic Liberalism in the hemisphere, in short, were characterized broadly by the search for a new basis to a truly American order of things. This meant different emphases from different men; Alberdi thought it was largely a matter of education, emphasizing technical and vocational training rather than the classical examination of the so-called moral sciences. Mora in Mexico opposed unduly theoretical discussions of forms of government, which he saw as less important than social and cultural development. Mora also exemplified the interest in work and industry, which it was hoped would oppose the anarchy and despotism which continued to be widespread. With men such as Alberdi and to a lesser extent Lastarria, there was a concomitant appre- ciation of North American material accomplishments.

The preoccupation with the reality of the past and its omnipresent influence was great. The negative and pessimistic view of the Hispanic colonial period led to a reiteration of the conviction that political independence had accomplished relatively little. With true freedom a mere formality, independence was viewed as meaning no more than emanci- pation from the Spanish throne itself. Dictatorships such as those of Iturbide, Rivadavia, O'Higgins, Francia, and many others had been created allegedly to permit extensive popular freedom and economic well-being; instead, conditions had worsened, while privilege and elitism remained prevalent. Thus renewed efforts were necessary if the spirit of feudalism was to be overcome. Given the need for a new approach, the intellectual soil was fertile for the advent of positivism. Receptive to new ideas, the pensadores gradually turned toward positivism in free- ing themselves from the almost psychopathic preoccupation with Spain. While various European influences were important, the Iberian emphasis began to recede. It is this abatement of the preoccupation with Spain and its heritage that permits a clear distinction between the pre-positivist years and those which followed.

III Positivism. As the seventeenth century in Europe had been over-

shadowed by Newton and the eighteenth was the age of the Enlighten- ment, the nineteenth century has been recorded as powerfully shaped by

15 In addition to Luz y Caballero's own voluminous writings, a useful if dated treatment is that of Manuel Sanguily, Jose de la Luz y Caballero (Habana: Editorial O'Reilly, 1890).

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positivism. Growing out of concern for a scientific method and an effort to be nothing if not systematic, positivism placed great reliance upon observation. If Marx, Spencer and Comte were intellectually dominant figures in Europe, the latter two also helped to set the tone for a kind of thought which received wide acceptance in Latin America. It was from Comte in particular that a theoretical, scientific system was de- vised; the world was ordered rationally, and there were laws of social development and interaction susceptible to human analysis and understanding. For Comte, convinced as he was that man and society were rational, the millenium seemed just around the corner. Scientific investi- gation and rational study would unlock the door to a utopia unparalleled in human experience.

The coming of positivism and of scientific thought meant for many Latin Americans the answer to the intellectual quest which had for years seemed fruitless. Comtean thought, although appearing in Europe as early as the 1830's, did not become widely known in Latin America until some thirty years later, when it began to enjoy great currency there. As Zea has remarked, aside from the scholasticism of the colonial period "no other philosophical movement has gained the importance that positivism has had in Hispanic America."16 It shone out as a re- deeming doctrine, and Spanish Americans (giving a different emphasis than the Brazilians) saw it as "suitable for imposing a new intellectual order which would replace the one destroyed, thus ending a long era of violence and political and social anarchy.""17

Positivism seemed to hold genuine promise for Latin America. Problems to be confronted included the failure of constitutional democratic forms, the absence of economic prosperity, the increasing social tensions arising among classes and in some cases among races, and the unending frustrations of Church-state relations.18 For Latin Americans, a response to these seemed both feasible and desirable through the scientific outlook of positivism as they understood it. And aside from its appeal to intellectuals, positivism was also viewed with approval by members of the ruling classes. They interpreted it as a justification of efforts to disrupt the activities of radical and impatient reform elements. Positivism, with its slogan of order and progress, would encourage a moderate and gradualistic approach to national problems. Progress

16 Leopoldo Zea, The Latin-American Mind, trans. by James H. Abbott and Lowell Dunham (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), p. 26.

17 Ibid., p. 27. 18 Davis, Latin American Social Thought, pp. 187-88.

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would mean for the rulers economic development in which order would be paramount. For those who hoped to continue in the exercise of relative political, social and economic hegemony, positivism permitted a rationalization of the status quo.

Among intellectual circles, there were expectations that positivism would first remove all vestiges of the colonial heritage, then guide the region toward true progress. The adaptations and adjustments of positivism were diverse, depending as they did upon the situations in specif- ic countries. In Mexico, where the liberalism of Benito Juarez had changed life less than many had hoped, the new philosophy was seen as a means of bringing peace and order out of incessant violence and civil war. The lengthy rule of Porfirio Diaz provided an ideal vehicle, and the Mexican positivists assumed increasingly important governmental positions. By the end of the century, these so-called cientificos provided the major impetus to the regime. Education was stressed under the guidance of Justo Sierra, the teacher and scholar who stood for years in the forefront of Mexican positivism. In his Evolucion politica del pueblo mexicano and elsewhere, Sierra argued that the nation's future strength must be based on an educational foundation. A true national conscience was needed to bring about an organized social order conducive to progress and growth; for Sierra this meant the pursuit of positivist goals as embodied largely in porfrismo.

Mexican positivists were more attracted to Mill and Spencer than to Comte. They felt that the tendency of Comtean positivism was to call for undue subordination of the individual to society. Like most of their contemporaries they rejected Comte's "Religion of Humanity." For the cientificos of the administration, social evolution was regarded as the primary factor; until order and stability might be achieved, the political development of freedom would be secondary. Thus Sierra could write that Diaz as national leader needed effective political and social authority, not merely the legal constitutional trappings of office. Only if the President became the arbiter of social peace and order could the populace come to appreciate and understand freedom and liberty. Cien- tificos such as Jose Limantour and others directed their efforts in large measure toward a rationalization of the administration, emphasizing effi- ciency and competence. While increasing graft and corruption crept into the regime in its later years, those who remained consistent with the positivist gospel emphasized honest and effective, scientifically rational administration.

Among the Andean countries the positivist influence was directed

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both toward recovery from national disaster and toward the effort to grapple with problems relating to the Indian. Peru and Bolivia, emerging as shattered and factious entities following the cataclysmic blow to national prestige in the War of the Pacific, sought in positivism a means of building, indeed of self-resurrection. In the former country, Manuel Gonzalez Prada emerged as the nation's conscience as it confronted and considered the factors leading to the war and discussed approaches to postwar recovery. Having begun essentially as a romanticist before turn- ing to positivist analysis, Gonzalez Prada paralleled many others in his emphasis on education, a special, "scientific" kind of education. Al- though finding Comte personally distasteful for what he regarded as an arbitrary tinge, Gonzalez Prada felt that the scientific approach provided the solution to Peruvian regeneration. This position was argued even more strongly by such men as Mariano Cornejo and Alejandro Deustua. Again, although by no means accepting in entirety the tenets of positivism, they followed the general intellectual trend.19

They were concerned as well with the position of the Indian. Rejecting the inclination of the Mexicans to regard non-Caucasians as inferior beings, they were less paternalistic in their writings. Although conceding the low level of life characterizing the Peruvian Indians, they saw this as the product of circumstances imposed by the white man. Racial inequality had been inherited from the colonial era, it was argued, and the parasitical social role of the Indians had been imposed by the whites. Thus it was possible for a variety of reforms to be proposed, not excluding Cornejo's insistence that illiterates should have the right to vote-an exceedingly radical proposal in Peru at that time. The Bolivian positivists shared in the Peruvian concern over the wartime fiasco against Chile as well as the secondary position of the Indians. Coming to national prominence through the Liberal party movement in 1889, they attained no little influence within the government. Although unable to develop what was termed a reconciliation of positivistic science and humanistic philosophy, they remained influential for some years, dropping from prominence only in the 1920's.

Further south, the Chileans and Argentines were concerned with a different set of questions. In both countries the intellectual influence of positivism was represented by rival schools, and incessant polemics were exchanged between the orthodox and heterodox positivists. In Chile of the 1860's the Lagarrigue brothers stood for orthodox Comtean posi-

19 See Jose Guillermo Legufa, Estudios histdricos (Santiago: Ercilla, 1939), and also his Hombres e ideas en el Perd (Santiago: Ercilla, 1941).

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tivism, while an opposing school accepted only portions of it, tending to follow the ideas enunciated by Lastarria in his final years. Controversy raged within the Academy of Belles Lettres and other cultural organizations for a full generation. The heterodox group, concerned by the logical problems of reconciling progress with order, never escaped an underlying suspicion that positivism might well lead to the reification of absolutist government; the commitment to positivism, indeed to Mill as well to Spencer and to Comte, was less than wholehearted.

The Argentines divided similarly; unconvinced that the personal- istic, arbitrary tendencies exemplified by Juan Manuel Rosas had fully been uprooted from Argentine soil, they differed widely in their interpretations. Traditional Comtean positivism was advocated by those affiliated with the Normal School at Parana. Established by Sarmiento in 1870, it sought a totally new and different order, arguing that Rosas and the tendencies he personified had been eradicated. It was felt that problems related to the construction of a unified nation were no longer basic; the important thing was to bring about a greater stimulation of an "individualistic" brand of positivism. Men like J. Alfredo Ferreira spent years arguing in favor of original, creative approaches. Following in part the intellectual paths trod earlier by Echeverria, Alberdi and others, the experimental and innovational were underlined, while many aspects of positivism were discarded as irrelevant.

Perhaps nowhere in the hemisphere was the assimilation of positivism more extraordinary than in Brazil, where it was adopted with very little alteration.20 The Brazilians saw positivism as permitting a further development along existing lines; it did not represent for them, as it did in the Spanish American republics, a means of destroying the past in order to introduce something wholly new. Benjamin Constant founded the Positivist Society in 1871, and within the decade a positivist church was in operation. Comte's Religion of Humanity was received approv- ingly, and the Temple of Humanity became a center of orthodox Comtean influence. Brazilian positivists also became strongly wedded to the movement urging the overthrow of the Empire. Calling for a "positivist republic" which in no way resembled a democratic or representative regime, they saw it as providing a means of stable, effective, rational management of national affairs. For a few months after the forced abdication of Dom Pedro II in 1889 the positivists exercised

20 In addition to relevant chapters in Cruz Costa's A History oJ Ideas in Brazil, one should also consult Ivan Lins, Hist6ria do positivismo no Brasil (Sao Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1964).

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some governmental responsibility, but the military soon asserted its strength, and positivism receded rapidly from its temporary position of national political prominence.

Throughout the Latin American portion of the hemisphere, then, positivism was adopted as a new instrument for the attainment of immediate national political goals, all the while offering a philosophic basis for what was intended, except in Brazil, to be a new and different order. With time, disillusionment slowly set in. Oligarchical interests by and large continued to monopolize public affairs; increased economic wealth was not a,ccompanied by its equitable distribution, and individual interests rehmained narrowly selfish. Colonialism seemed to be reappear- ing in North American guise, while true political liberalism and democracy remained more the exception than the rule. Violence and disorder survived as before, conditions generally seemed unresponsive to the positivist approach and, with the coming of the twentieth century, Latin American intellectuals turned once more to their search for some miraculous set of ideas which might prove the great panacea, the definitive solution to problems which yet remained embedded in the substance of the past.

The Twentieth Century. Perhaps the most overwhelming character- istic of Latin American political thought since the century's turn has been the virtual impossibility of characterizing it neatly and conveniently. As positivism declined, the advent of economic, industrial and technological developments encouraged greater diversity. As a consequence, this century shows an exceptionally rich variety of political ideas and approaches, ranging from communism and socialism to the polar extremes of fascism. One can find philosophic speculation on a highly abstract plane, as well as pragmatic political programs which are strong on policy proposals but uncertain in overall ideological content. To describe thought in this period, one must accept the' task of examining individual trends and developments.

Two rather basically distinctive kinds of thought can be identified. The first verges on the purely philosophical, while the second is more directly connected with political analysis. With the former-mentioned only in passing-one notes such elements as existentialism, neo- Thomism, and humanism. Existentialist thought has been derived from Kierkegaard, Unamuno, Bergson, and others. No single Latin American has emerged as the leading existentialist thinker, but the collective intellectual impact has been significant. Neo-Thomism has been strength- ened through the writings of Jacques Maritain, while such papal

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statements as Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum have been influential, providing intellectual inspiration for the recent formation of Christian Demo- cratic political parties. Chilean President Eduardo Frei has been a spokesman for such views over the years,21 while Brazil's Alceu Amo- roso Lima has followed a similar intellectual course. Humanistic writers have adopted elements from such diverse figures as Krause, Unamuno and Nietzsche, with Mexico in particular noted for such writers as Samuel Ramos and Antonio Caso.

Without denigrating such writings, it is nonetheless true that they have tended to be somewhat less than fundamentally important on the political scene. More avowedly political writings, however, have been substantial in volume as well as diversity. Among the more pervasive influences has been that of Marxism. It has stressed the importance of the role of the state, while the emphasis on a planned approach to economic problems has been somewhat akin to that of the positivists earlier, although adding the element of class struggle to its analysis.22 Going further, the division between socialism and communism has been perceptible, while each has in turn shown a variety of indigenous adaptations. Communism itself has had an exceedingly uneven development through the years, notwithstanding certain unchanging features.23 The affiliation of Communist leaders with the international movement, accepting in most cases tactical as well as ideological direction emanating from Moscow, has given this a flavor of opportunism which has in the long run reduced somewhat the breadth of its appeal. Ideological divisions have become deeper within the past decade, reflecting both the Sino-Soviet split and the impact of the fidelista variant which emerged in Cuba. Most of the writing by Latin American Communists has come from political activists who provide party-line polemics; among these are Blas Roca and Juan Marinello of Cuba, the Machado brothers of Venezuela, and Luis Carlos Prestes of Brazil.

The socialist element has been perhaps more striking intellectually. Although classic treatments of socialism have been penned by such men as Argentina's Alfredo Palacios, the greatest historical impact has come

21 Of particular interest is Frei's La politica y el espiritu (Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico, 1946). More current political views appear in his Una tercera posicion (Lima: Editorial Universitaria, 1960).

22 Harold E. Davis, "Trends in Social Thought in Twentieth Century Latin Am- erica," Journal of Inter-American Studies, I, No. 1 (January 1959), 59.

23 The two standard works in English are Robert J. Alexander, Communism in Latin America (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960); and Rollie Poppino, International Communism in Latin America: A History of the Movement 1917-1963 (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964), esp. pp. 97-117.

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from party movements which are characterized as national revolutionary or aprista. The prototype of such organizations, the Peruvian APRA (Alianza popular revolucionaria americana), includes the contributions of an intellectual forerunner, Jose Carlos Mariategui, as well as of the movement's caudillo, Victor Raiil Haya de la Torre.24 The latter has added personal interpretations, perhaps the best known being his ideas of relativism and pluralism in his discussion on historical time-space.25 Elsewhere, prominent political figures have adapted comparable views to national circumstances; among these are R6mulo Betancourt of Venezuela, Jose Figueres of Costa Rica, Juan Bosch of the Dominican Republic and, with the added element of Yankeephobia, Guatemala's Juan Jose Arevalo. Such men have suggested a kind of criollo socialism which is identified broadly with Latin America's non-Communist left, embracing a liberal reformism which stresses an emphasis on agrarianism and, in some cases, indigenismo.

Moving to the opposite extreme, various adaptations of European fascism have also existed, the leading example of which is the justicialismo of Juan Per6n. Based in part upon the ideas of conflict taken from Hegel and Marx, justicialismo described itself as representing a third position which would harmoniously balance the four elements of mater- ialism, idealism, collectivism, and individualism. While debate even today revolves about the nature of the peronista regime and the validity of its fascism, the leading student of justicialismo in a telling analysis has concluded that it was no more than a pseudo-ideology, representing a form of opportunism which permitted Per6n to interpret events and formulate policy on the basis of wholly personal and expedient judgments.26

Writings which fall into the fascist category include large doses of intellectually artificial thought. Included are many loosely argued justifi- cations of broadly unrepresentative regimes. Typical was the rationalization of Juan Vicente G6mez' personal dictatorship in Venezuela as expressed by Laureano Vallenilla Lanz; the son of the latter was to reiterate similar statements in defense of the authoritarianism of Marcos Perez Jimenez. Of slightly greater merit were the writings in

24 Intellectual origins of the movement are included in Harry Kantor's Ideology and Program of the Peruvian Aprista Party (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1953).

25 For a full discussion, see Haya de la Torre's gY despuds de la guerra, que? (Lima: Editorial P.T.C.M., 1946).

26 George I. Blanksten, Perdn's Argentina (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953), esp. pp. 276-306.

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support of the Vargas regime in Brazil.27 For several years after 1937 the "Novo Estado" was discussed as representing a kind of "authori- tarian democracy" providing a balance between liberty and authority. Vargas' Minister of Justice Francisco Campos in 1940 published 0 estado nacional, crediting the regime with a fascist outlook. Few took this very seriously, however, even aside from the fact that the necessities of wartime alliances soon demanded a cessation of such analyses.

Several other intellectual groups of thought can be cited briefly. The "Yankeephobia" engendered by North American policies in the Carib- bean early in the century gave rise to a largely irrational and polemical body of writings which nonetheless was widely read. The attacks of Eduardo Prado, Manuel Ugarte, Rufino Blanco-Fombona, and Isidro Fabela were not lacking in vitriol and indignation, although the philosophic merits were generally minimal. A more recent body of thought, also related to current political and socio-economic problems, is the ideology of development. Having emerged since the conclusion of World War II, it includes notably Mexico's Victor Urquidi, Brazil's Celso Furtado, and UNECLA economist Raul Prebisch. North Americans are also becoming increasingly aware of such writings, an excellent summary of which appears in the work of Hirschman.28 One final group of writings can also be singled out; this centers on problems of cultural change and racial assimilation. The indigenismo of Mexico and several Andean countries is typical, while an Afro-American variant comes from Brazil, dating back to Da Cunha and receiving its greatest contemporary impetus from Gilberto Freyre with his emphasis on regional and cultural development. Somewhat similar ideas appear in Fernando Ortiz' discussions of the sugar economy in Cuba.

Twentieth century intellectual contributions to political thought, striking in their diversity and relative lack of cohesion, have ranged over a broad spectrum; likewise, foreign influences have been diverse. Underlying most of the thought, however, is the continuing effort to find some rationale upon which progress and development may be sought. At least implicitly, writers have reiterated what they feel to be a need for a distinctive, original, and uniquely indigenous set of ideas which will prove timeless in validity and constructive in hemispheric significance. It is this spirit, along with other tendencies to be discussed below, which

27 See the discussion at several points in Lark Loewenstein, Brazil Under Vargas (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1942).

28 "Ideologies of Economic Development in Latin America," in Albert 0. Hirsch- man (ed.), Latin American Issues; Essays and Comments (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1961).

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stands out in this century's continuing intellectual inquiry.

IV Over the years there has been ambivalence on the part of many who

have studied Latin American thought and intellectual currents. Harold E. Davis has put it well when observing that the frequent reaction has been either one of "presenting the thought as a pale, attenuated, cor- rupted version of European social philosophy, having little connection with realities of the Latin American scene or, going to the other extreme, naively picturing a thought which has no roots in the past, either European or American."29 Certainly any effort to characterize the literature must consider the relative degree of originality. Given the impact of European and occasional North American contributions, originality is often minimal. In view of the historic and geographic circumstances, this is unsurprising. A student of Latin American philosophy has spoken of Latin American thought as being manifested by the proclivity of many pensadores to prefer "not . . the creative development of the content of philosophy but rather . . . support which philosophical positions could provide proponents of the status quo or reform- ers with a basis for justification of social, political, educational, economic or religious programs."30

L. L. Bernard has written that problems in the social sciences have often been handled with imagination and ingenuity, and yet "the fact that this civilization was less well developed than those of Europe and North America has made the Latin Americans in large measure dependent upon their distant neighbors for much of the method and content of that part of their social sciences which is not of indigenous origin."31 Although the search for a distinctly American philosophy has been a continuing phenomenon, little of real significance has failed to owe a debt to some source outside Latin America itself. The major collective exception would lie in twentieth century advocates of indigenismo; yet this has been limited, due in no small part to the irrelevance of Indian problems in many countries. The Latin American experience has either directly or indirectly been related to the philosophy and spirit of Catholicism. Harvey L. Johnson pertinently commented that Spanish American culture was neither wholly European nor Indian. While

29 Davis, Latin American Social Thought, p. 1. 30 W. J. Kilgore, "Latin American Philosophy and the Place of Alejandro Korn,"

Journal of Inter-American Studies, II, No. 1 (January 1960), 77. 31 L. L. Bernard, "The Social Sciences as Disciplines: Latin America," Encyclopedia

of the Social Sciences, I (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1950), 320.

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largely Catholic, it has been different in many ways from that of Spain. Indeed, the culture "tends to be humanistic. Ideologically, Spanish America has been influenced by the Enlightenment, by the American and French revolutions, by Existentialism, etc." A page later he also underlines the fact that Spanish American culture can best be understood and evaluated in terms of its own history and present circumstances. This seems an obvious point, yet it bears repetition here.32

The preceding is merely to emphasize the derivative nature of much of the literature we have been discussing. One cannot fully understand Latin American political thought without at the same time having some familiarity with the foreign writings upon which it has so often been based. Running through a large portion of Latin American thought has been additionally a strain of optimism. Beginning with the creole rebellion against authority, and continuing to the present time, one sees the continuing belief that progress and development will in one fashion or another be achieved. Today this emerges in the writings of Latin American students of development and socio-economic reform.

Among the general characteristics is the relatively influential position of the Latin American pensador. Without a detailed discussion here, it can at least be said that the role and contribution of the pensador have tended to make a stronger and more immediate impact on political affairs than has been the case in the United States and, much of the time, in Europe as well. Occasionally the Latin American will be projected directly into political affairs, as with the Mexican cientificos or the Generation of '37 in Argentina. More frequently an individual may assume the position illustrated by Peru's Gonzalez Prada, who became the conscience and spokesman of his country; comparable examples are Marti in Cuba, Rod6 in Uruguay and Dario in Nicaragua. Even aside from such cases, it can be said generally that the pensador achieves widespread respect during his lifetime, while his views exert swift influence on his country's contemporary political and social life.

The content of the literature is significant for its intellectual range. Although this may today be in the process of change, it has been historically true that Latin Americans have been widely concerned with many different issues. Generalists rather than specialists, they have considered broad questions of life, society and culture. As noted at the outset, it is frequently difficult to distinguish purely "political," "economic" or other writings by a given individual. More likely his inquiries

32 Harvey L. Johnson, "Some Aspects of Spanish American Culture," The Am- ericas, XVII, No. 4 (April 1961), 355.

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over a period of time will impinge on history, philosophy, education, science, and spiritual and cultural values. There is a concomitant tendency to avoid close identification with or advocacy of ideas representing a particular political or philosophical school. Positivism stands as the major exception, yet even there, given the widely differing interpretations and sometimes contradictory teachings of different Euro- pean positivists, most of the prominent pensadores were fairly eclectic.

Latin American political thought has been consistent in its concern with the place of individual countries in the stream of history. National development, construed in the broadest sense, has usually been central to the thought of the pensadores. The past has been examined in spiritual and cultural as well as political and economic terms, often leading to prescriptions whereby the development and self-fulfillment of the individual would be possible. The element of humanism has emerged through the intellectual search for individual as well as national progress. There has been a feeling that, at least potentially, Latin American civilization has a role to play which might contribute to the march of man- kind. Occasionally this has appeared as a sense of superiority; once aimed toward the life and ideas of the Old World, this later came to be directed more toward the United States.

Without overstressing the point, it should be concluded that the effort to identify an indigenous, singularly American approach to the problems of humanity continues. Today this often takes the form of a somewhat amorphous "third position" resting somewhere between the understanding given to capitalism and to communism, seeking to combine the best features of both while shedding harmful or destructive elements. Some might argue that the intellectual quest is overly ambitious, that it seeks a utopia which intellectuals elsewhere have concluded to be beyond the ability of the human mind. Yet it is through the deepseated humanitarianism, the blending of the cultural and spiritual with the material and the tangible, that speculative inquiry by Latin American thinkers attempts to realize its fullest development.

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Article Contentsp. [54]p. 55p. 56p. 57p. 58p. 59p. 60p. 61p. 62p. 63p. 64p. 65p. 66p. 67p. 68p. 69p. 70p. 71p. 72p. 73p. 74

Issue Table of ContentsJournal of Inter-American Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan., 1966), pp. i-vi+1-186Front Matter [pp. i - vi]Interacao Eurotropical: Aspectos de Alguns Dos Seus Varios Processos, Inclusive o Lusotropical [pp. 1 - 10]Public Finance and Development in Colombia [pp. 11 - 33]Literatura Peruana Reciente (1964-1965) [pp. 34 - 43]La Position D'Haiti et de la Culture Francaise en Amerique [pp. 44 - 53]Characteristics of Latin American Political Thought [pp. 54 - 74]Agrarian Reform in Colombia Problems of Social Reform [pp. 75 - 88]O Sociologo na Correnteza Politica [pp. 89 - 111]Peronismo without Peron Ten Years after the Fall (1955-1965) [pp. 112 - 128]La Estructura del Liderazgo y Sus Caracteristicas en Una Comunidad de Costa Rica [pp. 129 - 141]Ernesto Sabato: Sintoma de Una Epoca [pp. 142 - 155]The Origin and Development of Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha: Introductory Note: Longfellow and Latin America [pp. 156 - 182]In Memoriam [pp. 183 - 185]Back Matter

Latin American Political Thought - JOHN D. MARTZ

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