Crossed paths: institutions and industrialization in Argentina and Brazil (1930-1962)

Abstract

It is evident that the evolution of Argentina and Brazil in the 20th century was largely dissimilar. Argentina entered the period of the first wave of globalization in far more advantageous conditions than its neighbor. Beginning with the 1930 crisis, the disruption of productive sectors linked to international trade circuits altered the political order and economic policies. Although political life in both countries had been dominated by liberalism up to that point—more democratic in Argentina and more elitist in Brazil nationalism and populism emerged thereafter as a response to the new realities. The developmentalism of the 1950s was a continuation of that national-populism, adding to the defense of national objectives and social policies a push toward a more integrated industrialization. In this process, the results were mixed. The transition from national populism to developmentalism in Brazil was fruitful in economic and social terms. Brazil was able to sustain the development policies that culminated in the “Brazilian Miracle”. Conversely, Argentina had experienced a traumatic path during this shift. While it managed to modify its economic structure through import-substitution industrialization, its growth rate was highly volatile, affecting social order and political stability.