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The Liberal Republic and the Failure of Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Diego Abente
Diego Abente*
Affiliation:
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
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Extract

Although the study of the liberal republic (1870-1936) could shed considerable light on the overall pattern of political development, this period has remained one of the most under-studied and undervalued of the already under-researched history of Paraguay. In an attempt to fill that lacuna—albeit partially—this article reexamines the available data, discusses new evidence, and reinterprets the period with different theoretical categories. In this manner, it seeks to answer the question of why, in spite of a relatively favorable ideological environment, liberal democracy failed to consolidate and how this failure eventually opened the doors to the authoritarian regime of General Alfredo Stroessner.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , April 1989 , pp. 525 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1989

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References

1 For example, Warren, Harris G., Paraguay and the Triple Alliance: The Post-War Decade 1869–1878 (Austin, 1978)Google Scholar and The Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic. The First Colorado Era 1878–1904 (Pittsburgh, 1985); Miranda, Anibal, Apuntes Sobre el Desarrollo en el Paraguay, 2 vols. (Asunción, 1979 and 1980)Google Scholar; Aquino, Ricardo Caballero, La Segunda República Paraguaya (Asunción, 1984)Google Scholar; Herken, Juan C., Ferrocarriles, Negocios, y Política en el Paraguay (Asunción, 1984)Google Scholar, and El Paraguay Rural Entre 1869 y 1913 (Asunción, 1984); and Lewis, Paul H., “Paraguay From the War of the Triple Alliance to the Chaco War 1870–1932,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed. Cambridge History of Latin America Vol. 5 (London, 1986), 475–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Rivarola, Juan Bautista, La Ciudad de Asunción y la Cédula Real del 12 de Septiembre de 1537 (Asunción, 1952).Google Scholar

3 López, Adalberto, The Revolt of the Comuneros (Cambridge, 1976), 74.Google Scholar

4 Lozano, Pedro, Historia de las revoluciones de la provincia del Paraguay, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1905), II, 419–420.Google Scholar

5 López, The Revolt of the Comuneros, 113. Says Lozano: “Much has this bad man Mompó inculcated the power of the común of any republic, city, village, or hamlet, teaching that it e común is more powerful than the King himself …” Not surprisingly, the Governor of Buenos Aires Bruno Mauricio de Zabala (the “pacifier” of Paraguay) upon inflicting the final defeat on the comuneros proclaimed in a bando that “no one, regardless of civil state, sex, or age, dare from now on to join with others, in however small a number, neither public nor secretly, neither in the city nor outside of it, neither in a house nor in any other place, with the pretext of General Assembly or común or any other similar one: under pain that because of that alone, with no other justifications, they (sic) will be declared seditious and troublemakers … and condemned to the death penalty and to the loss of all their possessions …” Lozano, Historia de las revoluciones, II, 4 and 421–422. These and all other quotes from Spanish are my translation.

6 Cardozo, Efraím, El Paraguay Colonial (Asunción, 1959), 145–147 and 179–180.Google Scholar

7 See, for example, Stoetzer, O. Carlos, The Scholastic Roots of the Spanish American Revolution (New York, 1979), 18–32 and 262.Google Scholar

8 Be it the Spirit through the idea of God and Liberty, as in Efraím Cardozo’s El Paraguay Colonial, the Iberian Catholic tradition as in Wiarda’s, Howard J. “Toward a Framework for the Study of Political Change in the Iberic-Latin Tradition: The Corporative Model,” in World Politics, 25:3 (Jan. 1973), 206–235,CrossRefGoogle Scholar or for that matter any other a-historical, unchanged, absolute given.

9 As for example Benjamín Vargas Peña explains the Franciata in Espías del Dictador Francia (Asunción, 1982) and Secreta Política del Dictador Francia (Asunción, 1985). Both books make very interesting revelations and raise important and long-neglected issues but are marred, among other things, by a rather simplistic all-encompassing conspiratorial theory.

10 The emphasis on timing of political development was largely sparked by Gerschenkron, Alexander Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, 1962).Google Scholar For an application to the Latin American case see, for example, Collier, David “Timing of Economic Growth and Regime Characteristics in Latin America,” Comparative Politics, 7:3 (April 1975), 331–359,CrossRefGoogle Scholar Remmer, Karen L., Party Competition and Public Policy in Argentina and Chile 1870–1930, (Lincoln, Nebraska: 1984),Google Scholar and Mouzelis, Nicos, Politics in the Semi-Periphery. Early Parliamentarism and Late Industrialization in the Balkans and in Latin America (New York, 1986).Google Scholar

11 Aquino, Ricardo Caballero, La Segunda República Paraguaya (Asunción, 1985), 180–83,Google Scholar and Warren, Harris G., The Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic. The First Colorado Era 1878–1904 (Pittsburgh, 1985), 90–93.Google Scholar

12 William J. O’Toole to Secretary of State, Confidential, Asunción, September 23, 1922, Dispatch No. 1168, United States National Archives, Decimal Files, 1910–1929, Records of the Department of State Relating to Political Relations Between Brazil and Other States, (thereafter USNA RBOS), M–526, roll 2.

13 W. J. O’Toole to Secretary of State, September 23, 1922, No. 1168, USNA RBOS.

14 I have data for 38 of the 43 presidents since 1870. 27 of them, or 82 percent, were born in the countryside and 11 in Asunción. The data was elaborated based on Kallsen, Osvaldo, Historia del Paraguay Contemporáneo, 1869–1983 (Asunción, 1983).Google Scholar

15 Migraciones (Ensayos Escritos en Berna en 1915) (Santiago de Chile, 1941), 50, 54, and 58. Ayala himself, however, may have been a beneficiary of the very same ills he criticized as he had apparently accepted stocks from the Mennonite company to which his government granted a concession to settle in the Chaco. O. Schmieder and Wilheng, H.W., Deutsche Ackerbausiedlungen in sud-americanische Grassland, Pampa, und Grand Chaco, (Leipzig, 1938), 93,Google Scholar as quoted in Herken, El Paraguay Rural, 171.

16 A contradiction between the public control of the governmental apparatus and the private control of the financial and monetary realm that resembles, mutatis mutandi, that of the European mass democracies that Otto Kircheimer analyzes in his excellent “Changes in the Structure of Political Compromise,” in Politics, Law, and Social Change. Selected Essays of Otto Kircheimer, edited by Frederic S. Burin and Kurt L. Schell, (New York, 1969), 133.

17 See Abente, Diego, “Foreign Capital, Economic Elites, and the State in Paraguay During the Liberal Republic (1870–1936),” Journal of Latin American Studies, forthcoming, February 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Manuel Gondra was the son of an Argentine father but his mother, Natividad Pereira, belonged to an old Paraguayan family of the town of Ypane. Gondra was born in Buenos Aires but lived in Paraguay from his early infancy.

19 Abente, “Foreign Capital, Economic Elites, and the State.”

20 Of course, politicians and intellectuals had their own motives as well. For example, in a long report written for the U.S. Minister to Uruguay and Paraguay, progressive writer Rafael Barret described the pre-revoiutionary situation as characterized by widespread corruption and oppression and expressed sympathy for the revolution. Enclosed to Edward J. O’Brien to Elihu Root, Montevideo, December 12, 1904, Dispatch No. 64, United States National Archives (RG 59), General Records of the Department of State, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to Paraguay and Uruguay (thereafter USNA DUSMPU) M–128, roll 18.

21 Abente, “Foreign Capital, Economic Elites, and the State.”

22 See also Herken, Ferrocarriles, Negocios y política.

23 To date, no systematic study of this topic is available. President Félix Paiva’s doctoral dissertation dealt with the subject, but I have not been able to locate a copy of it. As this article goes to press I became acquainted with an unpublished manuscript by Margarita R. Elías “La República Liberal (1904–1936): Tres Décadas de Poder,” Asunción, 1987, which devotes a chapter (pp. 54–85) to the electoral question. This welcome study provides a wealth of data both on legislation as well as on electoral returns. One can only hope that the author will pursue her research further.

24 Mackie, Thomas T. and Rose, Richard, The International Almanac of Electoral History, (New York, 1974), 382.Google Scholar It should be noted, of course, that females were excluded at a time when they represented an overwhelming majority of the population due to the extermination of the male population as a result of the war. Demographic balance was relatively quickly restored, however. More importantly though, the exclusion of women from the franchise in 1870 does not pose a problem if one considers that that had been the case elsewhere until well in the twentieth century.

25 Paraguay, , Actas de la Convención Nacional Constituyente, (Asunción, 1897),Google Scholar Sesíon del 22 de Octubre de 1870, np.

26 In the case of Costa Rica, for example, John Booth points out that “Liberal and conservative elite political factions struggled for power using manipulated elections, fraud, and even military force.” “Costa Rican Democracy,” World Affairs, 150:1 (Summer 1987), 44. Although the franchise was extended between 1905 and 1914, it was only much later that the Costa Rican electoral system became significantly competitive.

27 La Prensa (Buenos Aires), March 6, 1917, p. 9.

28 Gómes Freiré Esteves, “Historia Contemporánea de la República” in Esteves, Luis Freiré and González Peña, Juan C., eds. El Paraguay Constitucional (Asunción, 1921), 263 Google Scholar; Valle, Florentino Del, Cartilla Politica. Proceso Politico del Paraguay 1870–1950 (Buenos Aires, 1951), 90–91 Google Scholar; Bordón, Arturo, Verdades del Barquero (Asunción, 1962), 75–79.Google Scholar

29 La Prensa (Buenos Aires) April 16, 1928, p. 11; and The New York Times, April 19, 1928, p. 12.

30 Natalicio González, J. and Ynsfran, Pablo M., El Paraguay Constitucional, (Paris, 1929), 35,Google Scholar put the registered voters at 164,000.

31 Story, Dale, The Mexican Ruling Party. Stability and Authority (New York, 1986), 45–46.Google Scholar

32 The Colombian elections of 1857 showed an unusual 8.5 percent of the population voting, but that was a unique case and a similar rate of participation was not to be reached again until eight decades later. For this and the other electoral data cited in the text, see Wilkie, James W. and Lorey, David, Statistical Abstracts of Latin America, Vol. 25, (Los Angeles, 1987),Google Scholar 869, 874, 888, 896.

33 Constitución de 1844, reproduced in Paiva, Félix, Estudios de la Constitución, 2 vols. (Asunción, 1926), I, 323–25.Google Scholar

34 Pastore, , La Lucha Por La Tierra, 165–68Google Scholar; Chaves, Julio César, El Presidente López (Buenos Aires, 1955), 244–245.Google Scholar

35 As Justo Pastor Benítez states: “It would be a mistake to believe that liberalism e Liberal party has been the result of a doctrine. No. It has instead been a social reality “un hecho social” in search of a doctrine that affiliated itself with the universal and human tendency of freedom......Liberalism chose a banner: electoral freedom; and a program: the enforcement of the Constitution.” Ensayos Sobre el Liberalismo Paraguayo, (Asunción, 1932), p. 10.

36 In La République du Paraguay (Paris, 1973), François Chartrain points out that while the Colorado Party is depicted as nationalist and the Liberal as legionnaire, no one single legionnaire signed the founding document of the latter while many prominent ones did join in the constitution of the former. Attempts at falsifying or otherwise manipulating history for partisan purposes are not new. In the last few decades, nevertheless, the Stroessner regime has embarked in the most massive and systematic effort yet to rewrite history according to its legitimation needs. As a result, the record has been twisted to support the far-fetched claim that Stroessner has re-tied the thread of history, broken since 1904, and that there is a natural ideological-political continuity between Francia, the Lópezes, Caballero, and Stroessner. No evidence for such a blatant attempt at distorting the meaning of Paraguayan political development can of course be produced. Recent findings of ongoing research by Professor Paul H. Lewis, on the contrary, conclusively shows that generational rather than ideological cleavages better explain party alignment in the 1880s. “The Ideological Origins of the Paraguayan Parties,” Paper presented at the XIV International Congress, Latin American Studies Association, New Orleans, Lousiana, 17–19 March 1988.

37 Karen L. Remmer, Party Competition, and Nicos Mouzelis, Politics in the Semi-Periphery.

38 Remmer, , Party Competition and Public Policy, 175–202.Google Scholar

39 Schurz, Warren L., Paraguay. A Commercial Handbook, U. S. Department of Commerce, Special Agents Series No. 199 (Washington, 1920), 89 Google Scholar; and Herken, , El Paraguay Rural, 86.Google Scholar

40 For example, Barret, Rafael Lo que son los Yerbales (Montevideo, 1911).Google Scholar

41 Which even led to the creation of a “Partido Católico” that participated in the congressional elections of 1921. Francois Chartrain, “L’Église et les Partis dans la vie politique du Paraguay depuis l’Indépendance,” Doctoral Dissertation, Université de Paris I, 1972, 293–296.

42 Gaona, Francisco, Historia Social y Gremial del Paraguay (Buenos Aires, 1967)Google Scholar is the only available source entirely devoted to discuss the importance and intensity of labor unrest and the history of working class organizations. Most foreign envoys reports also convey a picture of significant working class activism. Says Schurz, for example: “Strikes have become very common in Paraguay. In fact, it may be said that the Paraguayan laborer learned to strike before he had passed through even his appren-ticeship in a modern industrial system.” Paraguay, 129.

43 A sector of the Colorado party known as abstencionista rejected the agreements. The rationale for the position of this group is explained in Chilavert, Emilio, La Dictadura Liberal y el Ejército (Asunción, 1928),Google Scholar especially 35–39.

44 For a liberal reading of that and other details of the pact that includes excerpts of articles in the Colorado paper, Patria, see Cardozo, Efraím, 23 de Octubre: Una Página de Historia Contemporánea del Paraguay (Buenos Aires, 1956), 90–95.Google Scholar González and Ynsfran present the limitation of seats to the two largest parties as the expression of “the desire of preventing access to Parliament and other elected bodies to small and disturbing minorities … that have contributed in no small measure to the graves crises of parliamentarism in Europe and the Americas.” El Paraguay, 35. The Colorado abstencionista view is articulated by Chilavert, La Dictadura Liberal, 35–39.

45 Jaeggli, Alfredo L., Albino Jara. Un Varón Meteórico (Buenos Aires, 1963), 226–29Google Scholar reproduces the text of these pacts.

46 For a similar observation in the case of Colombia, see Wilde, Alexander “Conversations among Gentlemen: Oligarchical Democracy in Colombia,” in Linz, Juan J. and Stepan, Alfred, eds., The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes. Latin American (Baltimore, Md., 1978).Google Scholar

47 Decoud, Arsenio López, Album Gráfico de la República del Paraguay (Buenos Aires, 1911), 249–50Google Scholar; Freiré Esteves “Historia Contemporánea,” 70; and Jaeggli, Albino Jara, 29.

48 Gen. Carlos Ibañez del Campo is said to have considered Col. Schenoni the brightest of all Paraguayan officers in training in Chile. Jaeggli, Albino Jara, 29.

49 Freire Esteves “Historia Contemporánea,” 138; Bray, Arturo, Armas y Letras, 2 vols. (Asunción, 1981), 1, 100–101 Google Scholar; and De Los Santos, Tomás, La Revolución de 1922, 2 vols. (Asunción, 1984), 1, 106–110.Google Scholar

50 Bray, , Armas y Letras, 1, 99.Google Scholar

51 Nunn, Frederick, Yesterday’s Soldiers (Lincoln, 1983), 101–111 Google Scholar; and Herrera, Genaro Amagada, El Pensamiento Político de los Militares (Santiago de Chile, 1981), 71–107.Google Scholar

52 The only and brief study of the French military mission that I am aware of is Angela Beatriz Ferreira Mena “Missions Militaires Françaises au Paraguay. Influence de l’Enseignement et des Armes Franćises dans l’Organization Militaire Paraguayenne. Ses Effets sur la Guerre du Chaco,” Asunción, Universidad Nacional, unpublished manuscript, n.d.

53 English, Adrian J., Armed Forces of Latin America (London, 1984), 348–349 Google Scholar; Bray, Armas y Letras, I, 100.

54 Probably the first to point this “French connection” was Cardozo in El 23 de Octubre, 105–108. Later, Santiago Dávalos, J. and Lorenzo, Livieres B. in their “El Problema de la Historia en el Paraguay,” reprinted in ABC Suplemento Cultural, 1 February 1981,4–5,Google Scholar also addressed the issue. But the most complete treatment to date is that of Guido Rodríguez Alcalá, the first of whose several pieces on the topic is “El Nacionalismo Integral de Charles Maurras y de Juan E. O’Leary,” ABC Suplemento Cultural, 28 February 1982, 4–5.

55 As Chartrain rightly points out “Paraguay, unlike most Latin American countries, has always been ruled by civilians.” “L’Eglise et les Partis,” 262 (my translation).

56 In fact, the practice of granting military ranks to civilians was not uncommon, at least in the first decade of this century. Thus, for example, Eduardo Schaerer and Guillermo Sosa held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of “Guardias Nacionales.” Kallsen, , Historia del Paraguay, 87.Google Scholar