British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Giuseppe Mazzini and the Globalization of Democratic Nationalism 1805-2005
Abstract
Esteban Echeverria's critique of universal suffrage.
The traumatic development of democracy in Argentina, 1821-1852
Klaus Gallo, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires
Mazzini's Young Italy had a notable influence among the dissident youth of the River Plate region; one of their intellectual leaders Esteban Echeverría (1805-1851) - Romantic poet, socialist utopian and pioneer of Argentina's 'generation of 37' or 'romantic generation', and also author of El Dogma Socialista - for example, proclaimed a Young Argentina, as he firmly believed that it was necessary to establish mazzinian styled associations to help re-formulate the direction of political and literary culture in both Argentina and Uruguay. Both these nations were in those years suffering the consequences of the dictatorial regimes of Juan Manuel de Rosas and Manuel Oribe respectively, which would later be confronted by Garibaldi and other European legionaries who had crossed the Atlantic to assist the local adversaries of these two governments. This work focusses specifically on certain aspects of Echeverria's democratic thought, and particularly the criticism he directed towards the law of universal male suffrage decreed by the Government of Buenos Aires in 1821 whilst he was a youngster. He claimed that this decree had been largely responsible for the arrival to power in Buenos Aires of Rosas (in power during the 1829-1832; 1835-1852 periods) which he and other prominent members of the Generation of 37 fiercely opposed.