Saturday, January 26, 2013

What kind of autocrat are you?

While Peron was not as extreme of an autocrat as Hitler or Mussolini, the shift of Peronism in Argentina's political history still marks a curious transfer of power that is worth examining closely. Indeed, some historians argue that Peron had fascist tendencies, and that Argentina's military was sympathetic towards Nazi Germany. So...what do you think--would it be wrong to call Peron a fascist?

13 comments:

  1. I believe that it would be neccissary to mention peron and fascisim in the same sentence. he would travel to places like italy to look at mussolinis rule and then to genmany and studied hitler. and what he saw, he really liked. he brought a lot of what he learned there back home. however, he did some of that with the united states aswell. He, like Canada, saw how good the new deal programs were working and decided to take some of those ideas to better his country. So what I'm saying is, yes there are much evidence of fascism but also some good that he did. So they weren't only for him. A lot of what he did was for his country.

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  2. I think the best prove for peron being a fascist is his explicit liking of fascist government. After the second world war, he received a bunch of escaped Nazis and let them live in Argentina. Argentines today even believe that Hitler actually didn't die in the bunker, but spent the rest of his life comfortably in Argentina. I am not kidding, this is what argentine kids are taught in school!
    Besides, his career in the military let's us assume already that he had a weakness for fascism.

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  3. When studying this period of history, one must remember that you cannot blame someone for liking Hitler in some circumstances. Hitler was such a persuasive character who had a plan for Germany which really brought back their economy after the aftermath of WWI. Hitler's ways of getting things done consisted of having complete power, and while of course I'm against everything that Hitler did in terms of discrimination and taking away of basic rights, from an economical standpoint he did a great job for his country. Therefore, you cannot really blame Peron for taking some of Hitler's ideals back to Argentina with the purpose of imporiving his country's economy.

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  4. I don't think it is wrong to call Peron a fascist, okay maybe not as fascist as others such as Hitler, but I can see many parallels between Nazi Germany and Argentina under Peron. First, the article talks about how Peron used language as a technique to rally the masses and convert people into supporters of his populist government. The article also states that his nationalism always "hinted strongly of anti-foreign sentiment". Similar to Hitler, Peron also valued a strong military presence in the country.

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  5. I think that it is not completely right to call Peron a fascist because even though he did take over and rule like a fascist leader, he was not a harsh and overbearing ruler like Hitler or Mussolini. The way he came into power was very interesting. He used his knowledge of the common people, the people who come out and vote in the highest numbers, to have the largest number of supporters. His way of campaigning, in a sense, was work from the bottom up. he wanted to make a sound impression on the lower and middle classes in order to gain the upper against his other opponents who were associated with the upper class. I do think that Peron had Fascist tendencies, but he was more nationalistic and for the people rather than for the state.

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  6. Peron definitely considered certain fascist policies but it seems like he checked out a lot of forms of government. Hitler and Mussolini were on the rage and seemed really powerful at the time, it makes sense that he would check their way of ruling out as well as looking at the new deal policies and what not. so perhaps he was slightly fascist in the way that he ruled but he also used other leader skills that were more for the people than the state, it simply depends on what policy you are looking at.

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  7. Peron's policies were based on many different governments and leader's ideas. He was influenced by Hitler and Mussolini, but to be fair their polices did help their nation's economies. He also used ideas from the New Deal, it seems to me that he was trying his hardest to see what worked out the best in other countries and apply it to his own.

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  8. I don't think Peron was completely facist. Like Alice said, he took policies from all different types of governments. He was not as strict or harsh as a facist leader. He believed in nationalism and populism. He valued military power, but I don't think that makes him facist. He looked up to Hitler because Hitler was persuasive-he had the ability of persuading and brainwashing people without them even knowing it. I think Peron wanted to be supported by the majority, and he learned how to do this by being influenced by facist leaders.

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  10. Peron was a fascist. He aspired to "centralize the labor movement in order to limit union autonomy" under the "national unity" lingo. This form of government was described as neither capitalist nor communist, just as fascism is described. The article blatantly says, "Peron himself may have been guided by the fascist and corporatist policies he had encountered as military atache in Mussolini's Italy..." In my opinion, although "populism" is being portrayed as completely divergent, many of its policies were contrary to those of fascism. Just because he was fascist does not mean he was unkind or unfavorable...fascism is based on policy, not on the emotions of the people.

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  11. It would not be unreasonable to call Perone a fascist. While not a fascist with a grand vision of world domination, Perone had a vision of systematically changing the economy of Argentina, and nationalizing its largest industries. While he adapted fascist policies, he was not entirely tyrannical or militaristic. His sympathy with Hitler was not the defining note of his reign. Hitler was a very worldly and popular man prior to WWII. Rather than a fascist, Perone was a worried leader who wanted things to be done in his country, to improve the lives of the Argentinians.

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  12. Before jump into conclution, i think it is important to make it clear that Fascism is the extream version of Nationalism. Every type of geverment have its own left wing and right wing,Hilter was nothing more but a extream version of Nationalism, compare to hilter, Peron indeed care about the power of the military, but he value the Populism and not as hardcore as Nazi. It would not be fair to clarifie Parmon as a facist just because he was found of Hilter like everybody did at the time, Argentina under Parson's administration acceptd Nazi leaders and jewish refugees at the same time which means Parson handelled his arthority well as a true partiot.

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  13. Peron was a militant, charismatic leader who easily fits the mold for a fascist figurehead. He developed the army through industry and rallied the masses through his powerful speeches. He was also a flaming nationalist. Although he never explicitly said he was a fascist, he had many pro fascist sentiments that could make a compelling case against him. During the war however, it would be unwise to show your true political leanings as to avoid incurring the wrath of a superpower that doesn't want a potential axis power within 5 time zones of it.

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