Characteristics of Latin American Political Thought Author(s): John D. Martz Source: Journal of Inter-American Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan.

, 1966), pp. 54-74 Published by: Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/165214 . Accessed: 19/05/2011 13:12
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JOHND. MARTZ Department of Political Science University of North Carolina

OF CHARACTERISTICS LATINAMERICAN THOUGHT POLITICAL

I

IN

FEW AREASOF THE WORLDare the role and contribution of the

intellectual elite more significant than in Latin America. Its membership 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 socially rigidly defined class, such as a priesthood,but ratherby a social stratumwhich is to a large degree unattachedto any social class and which is recruitedfrom an increasinglyinclusive area of social life. This sociologicalfact determinedessenIntellectual activity is not carried on exclusively by a sotically not based upon the authorityof 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. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 4.

LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

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in a constantstate of flux, and perpetually confrontedby newproblems....2 If such a statementhas broadvalidityfor Latin America,it would follow that the substanceof the region's political thought bears considerablerelevance.One of the leadingNorth Americanstudentsof the subjecthas expressedhis "profoundconviction"that an understanding of the ideas of Latin Americanthinkersand writersis fundamental in a concomitant of and governmental comprehension political pursuing affairs.3The relativedearthof materialsavailablein English stands in strikingcontrastto the volume of the literatureemanatingfrom Latin Americasince the eighteenthcentury.Clearlyno one of the more commonly identifiedhistoricalperiods in Latin America has failed to be rich both in speculativeand in concretetreatments. Before enteringupon a synthesisof representative worksand philoto explainin descriptive terms sophic schools of thought,it is important of this inquiry.The words "politicalthought"have been the boundaries as "politicaltheory" consciouslyemployedratherthan such alternatives itself is used with the broadestof or "politicalphilosophy.""Political" connotations,embracingmany works which upon occasion have substantialsocio-economiccontent. As shall be stressedlater, the writings of Latin Americanintellectualfiguresare broad in textual scope, often ambitiouslysweepingin their subject matter. The implicit bias against specializationand narrow,restrictivediscussionis such that a flexible definitionof "political" writingswill include much materialwhich is in social, cultural,and broadlyhumanisticin its thrust. large part is also understoodhere in the broadersense. The word "thought" limited a rather Only portion of writing could be genuinely denoted as political "theory"in the classical sense. Aside from the tendencyto than original,the writingswhich concern be more eclectic and derivative on the course of events in a us here-in many cases the most influential or differentcontributions new given country-only infrequently proffer to the body of political thought. Certainlythere have been intellectual followersof variousoriginalpoliticaltheoristssuch as Rousseau,Comte, Spencer, Marx, and Hegel. However, it is questionablewhether any Latin American has formulatedthe kind of unique or innovational thought which might on its own intellectualmerits 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 Development since Independence with Selected Readings (Washington: The University Press of Washington, D.C., 1963), p. v.

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permanence."Politicalthought"is thereforeemployedin this essay to include, among other things, works which are predominantlylegal, juridical,historical,philosophical,and sociological. It might well be argued that the literature of Latin American philosophycould more easily and justifiablybe identifiedthan that of political thought. It is not, perhaps,coincidentalthat North American scholarshave devotedrelativelygreaterattentionto the former.4Much in dealingwith of this has vergedon the sociologicaland anthropological diverse aspects of "culture," variouslydefined.5Yet in many cases the most importantpensadoreshave written essentiallyphilosophicworks which have been politically influential. Thus our usage of political infusionof philosophical thoughtmustpermita substantial inquiry.With intellectualtrends of major significance,even occasional venturesinto the field of fiction and of poetry can be useful. In additionto the fact often contain significantpolitical that literarysurveysand anthologies6 in are cases which there numerous passages, literaryessays, 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 the autobiolight after a readingof MarianoAzuela's The Underdogs; of Jose Vasconcelos are in graphical writings important the same Ode to Roosevelt is country; Ruben Darfo's representativeof the if but a pale image of his finestpoetry;and of Yankeephobia, literature
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: University of New Mexico Press, 1954); Luis Recasens Siches, Latin American Legal Philosophy (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 Continent: 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 University 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'sRebellion in the Backlandsis a classic that the studentof Brazilianpolitical thought ignores at his peril. The precedingsuggeststhe scope of writingswhich are valid for the studyof politicalthoughtin Latin America.The presentundertaking consistslargely of an examinationof ideas and of intellectualcurrents which have come together to form a vast reservoir of material; it more inclusivediscussionsand more diversewritingsthan encompasses be the case. To establisha set of boundariesexcluding mightordinarily legal, philosophic,humanistic,and literary efforts would be to limit undulyour field of concern.In an essay which representsprimarilyan effort at synthesis, this broad-gaugedapproach is not regarded as or taxonomically In the two succeeding methodologically inappropriate. sectionspoliticalthoughtwill be discussedin chronological fashion. The
heuristically useful if unoriginal7 divisions will be those of the Enlighten-

ment and Independence,Romantic Liberalism, Positivism, and the TwentiethCentury. The concludingsectionwill presentthose characteristics which run like a unifyingstrandto reflectthe continuityin intellectualinquiryover the better part of two centuries.However, the first two periods can be distinguishedfrom the latter two; there has been a fundamentally different influenceand contribution both direct and indirectfrom Spain, its customs and traditions.From the late colonial period through the firsthalf of the nineteenthcenturyand beyond, politicalthoughtalmost withoutexceptionreferred to the role and impactof Spain and of things Spanish.Although the emphasisvaried somewhat,consistent attention was devotedto the relevanceof the colonialexperienceand the continuing dominationof Spanishmodes of life and habits of thought. Only towardthe latter part of the century,with the advent of positivism,did such elements gradually recede. And by the early 1900's, Spanish intellectualand historicalcharacteristics were largely minimized;major influences were no European longer predominantlyIberian. More issues centered not on Spain but upon the growing practicalpolitical of the States. United hegemony Throughout the twentieth century, Iberian influences have been although preceivedin such diversephenomenaas the impactof the Francomovementand of writingsby men like Unamunoand Ortegay Gassett,Europeanthoughthas nonethelessbeen largely other than Spanishor Portuguese.The break from the mother countrythus became significantonly 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 excavatedover a long period of time, and scholars continue devoting themselvesto furtherinquiry.In the realm of ideas and of intellectual contributions much has been learned, and the present task is that of and highlighting certainrelevantaspectsof the experience characterizing ratherthan presentingconclusionsrunningcontraryto existingscholarship. The impact of the EuropeanEnlightenment upon colonial Latin was diffusein nature, Americaon the eve of the Warsof Independence the samediversityand dissimilarity in Europeitself. reflecting perceivable An intellectual movementtraceableto the seventeenthcenturyand even earlier,its single most importantelementwas perhapsthe thought that rightreason could uncovertrue knowledge,ultimatelyguidingman to greaterhappiness.This also came to embracean advocacynot merely of what was, but of what ought to be. With humanconditionsfailing to parallel what was described as desirable and attainable, increasing attentionbegan to focus on proposedchanges and reforms,sometimes means. There also developedto includingthe advocacyof revolutionary some extent a reaction against the more absolutist strains of the Hobbesian state. Voltaire and others spoke of such things as world citizenshipand a substitutionof feelings of humanity for traditional parochialloyalties and nationalisticprejudices. The Enlightenment, drawingto a close in Europejust as it began to registersubstantially on the Spanishand Portuguesecolonies, offered above all else a convictionin the generalprogressof civilization,a belief thatintellectual and social advancewas inevitable.Humanity was marchwith pure reason destinedto be the ultimate ing towardperfectibility, master. And although the Enlightenmentby the time of the French Revolutionwas in a state of deterioration, it was nonethelessproviding for many Latin American intellectualsbeliefs which themselveswere amongthe oldest in Westerncivilization.Until fairlylate in the 1700's, as Lanning has observed, intellectualpredilectionsin Latin America favoredan almost reverentrepetitionof Condillacand similarwriters. The Lockian argumentthat the spiritualand physical man constituted "one harmoniouswhole" in naturewas widespread.8 the Furthermore,
8 John Tate Lanning, "Reception of the Enlightenment in Latin America," from Arthur P. Whitaker (ed.), Latin America and the Enlightenment (New York: AppletonCentury Co., 1942).

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tradeand exchangeof books and other materials,both covert increasing and otherwise,broughta growingfamiliarity with Rousseau,Paine, and others. Treatmentsof colonial existencewere many; thus, more than fifty editions of Abbe GuillaumeRaynal's Philosophicaland Political History of the Indies appearedduringa thirty-yearperiod. Montesquieu's semi-satiricaldiscussion of monarchsand Church officials was circulated, as was Smith'sWealthof Nations. The attackin Europe on conventionandtraditionachievedthe greatestcurrency in France,andRousseau inflamedcolonial imaginationswith his vivid descriptionof the noble savage and the debauchery of his life and cultureby conquerors. Rousseau'santi-clerical strainalso drew considerableattention.The intellectual elite in the colonies became increasinglyfamiliar with such works, and the French inspirationwas especially powerful in Lima, Bogota, and Buenos Aires.9 The advent of great historic turmoil with the French and North Americanrevolutionsmerely added to the intellectualdiscontentthat was spreading.10 Events in Spain proceeding from the reformsof CharlesIII and continuingthroughthe Napoleonic invasionof the early nineteenthcenturyprovidedeven greaterimmediacy and urgencyto colonialferment. Withthe fortifications of intellectualand politicaltraditionbesieged in much of Europe,the congruence of historicalforces in Latin America contributedmightilyto the movementtoward independenceHowever, the problemsentailedby the winningof power from Spain and Portugal posed questionswhich proved more difficultof solution than had been anticipated.The essentiallymilitaryexperienceof many independence leadersand the lack of politicaltrainingsoon became an evidenthandicap. Yet this should not imply either a lack of effort or an absence of concern,both practicaland speculative,on the part of intellectualleaders. Writingsof the period reflect a broad diversityof thought and of Practicalmanifestations came in the movementsof Hidalgo background. and Morelos in Mexico, the contributions of MarianoMoreno in Ar9 One of the standard sources for this is Roland Hussey's "Traces of French Enlightenment 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 growinginfluenceof the VenezuelanAndresBello. Certainly there was no want of intellectualinquiry,either abstractor pragmatic. Within a few years, the most notable feature of political thought of the colonial heritage;the Latin Americansdiswas the denunciation coursed extensivelyon the continuationof colonial forms despite the departureof Europeanrule. While there was some attentionto sociowere alreadydiscussing the plight economicmatters- earlyindigenistas of the native- the majoremphasishad been placed on politicalemancipation,on the expulsionof agents of the crown and the institutionof
local rule in place of that controlled by peninsulares. It was supposed

that militaryvictory would more or less automatically bring about a drasticnew order. As the early years of independencegave the lie to this expectation,complaintsmultipliedover the fact that the exchange of Spanishfor nationalrulershad broughtlittle true politicalemancipation. The disillusionment over the continuationof Spanishhabits, customs and traditionsbecame widespread.In time the negativismof colonial attackson the evils of royal controlwas recognizedas being in a sense futile. Thus, in the quest for a genuinelyAmericanphilosophy, in the effort to locate and then to apply prescriptions of an originalnato different to redirect their and writers attention thinkers ture, began a for new works. From search this foreign philosophic foundation which the intellectual writings underlay emerged speculationfor the of the the defeat following military Spanish. half-century as RomanticLiberalism.Such Europeanintellectualdevelopments of Benthamand the utopiansocialismof Saint Simon,the utilitarianism JamesMill, and the idealisticaspectsof a scientificphilosophyof history in the work as expoundedby Germanthinkers,stood out as identifiable of Latin Americans.In additionto this, however,many expositionsof the period reflecteda basic effort to take stock of the situation.Pensadores were anythingbut blind to divergent,indeed fundamentally diswhich to a degree militatedagainst circumstances tinct environmental of Europeanideas. Many recognizedthe perils of atthe applicability to Latin America.Furtherto the Europeanexperience transfer tempting elements of certain more, Europeanthought were directly repudiated. In the early 1830's and after, the Latin Americansreactedsharply was noticeagainstSpain. An intellectualprocess of desespanolizacion and Chile. From in the former than nowhere able, stronger Argentina bemoaned came membersof the Generationof '37; EstebanEcheverria of Spanishcustomson the one hand and, on the Argentineinheritance

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the other,Spanishlaws and legislation.He saw revolutionin his country as merely having torn down the outward forms of colonial tyranny without actually replacingthem. The colonial spirit survived to stifle the people, and the ingredientsof knowledgeand understanding necesto the of a modern were absent. His sary development spirit colleague JuanBautistaAlberdi,perhapsthe most realistically inclinedof the Argentines at the time, shared a comparableview of the colonial years. While more outspokenin his admiration for North Americanconstitutional forms and perhapsmore deeply involved in the problemsof federalismand centralism, he too saw his countryas retainingcolonial customs and traditionswhich were harmful to its future development." Similarstrainsof anti-Spanish thoughtand of bitterlynegativeintellectual resurrections of the past were observablein Chile.12There the emergingGenerationof '42, benefitingfrom the influenceof Bello and his work, respondedsharplyunder the increasingrestivenessemanatingfrom the Conservative hegemonyestablishedby Diego Portales. Jose Victorino Lastarriawrote of Chilean needs in overcoming the past influenceof the Spanish.The strugglefor independencehad only destroyedthe visible, or directly political power of the Spanish; the invisible,the social and economic bases remained.Thus a renewed attack was necessaryfor the destruction of the latter. Impressedby North of aware distinctions American progress, between Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic colonial patterns,he argued that his countrymenneeded to discardremainingcustoms and practices,thereby renouncingthe past and committingthemselvesto the sovereigntyof law. At virtuallythe sametime the fieryFranciscoBilbaowas advocating a new philosophical synthesis,one in which the feudalismof what he termed "MiddleAges Catholicism" would give way to modernrepublicanism. In his view the Chileanpeople needed to make a choice between Catholicismand rethat old beliefshad to be changedif true liberty recognizing publicanism, and freedomwere to be achieved. There were, of course, positive responsesto Europeanthought as well. Romanticor utopiansocialismwas importedfrom Franceby many who had studied there. Elements of Saint Simonismwere apparentin Echeverria's Dogma Socialista,for example,in additionto the revolutionary ideas of the Association of May which in 1838 had been or11 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 TomnasLago, Sobre el Romanticismo en 1842 (Santiago: Universidad de Chile, 1942).

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ganizedin oppositionto Juan Manuel Rosas. Echeverriasaw utopian socialism as providingultimatelyan effective frameworkupon which a new ordermightbe erected.Across the Andes, Bilbao and his Chilean taken from colleaguesfor a time even wrote underliterarypseudonyms French Girondists,and there were undertonesreminiscent of such men as Lamennais,especiallywhere religiousmatterswere scrutinized. Intellectualcurrentsidentifiablewith Europeanutilitarianism also existed.Again there were cases in which personalexperiencein Europe had influencedthe pensador;amongthe leadingexampleswere Andres Bello, Mexico's Jose Maria Luis Mora,'3 and the Central American Jose Ceciliodel Valle.14Bello had been directlyexposedto Britishideas on political economy before his arrivalin Chile in 1829, while Mora followedSmithand Benthamin his advocacyof politicalliberalismas it of the 1825 federalconstituemergedin Mexico duringthe formulation tion and after. Del Valle followed in fairly orthodoxfashion the ideas of economicliberalism by free tradeand limitedgovernmenrepresented inclinations.For tal responsibility, broadlyconservative notwithstanding was such men and those who sympathizedwith them, utilitarianism The attractivein permitting from North America. derived comparisons similaritiesbetweenthe United States and Latin Americawith apparent and availablenaturalresourcessuggested regardto undeveloped territory used by the neighborto the to many that the successof the pragmatism north might in part justify its emulationelsewhere. The attractionto German writingsin this period was somewhat weaker.Perhapsthe two majorfiguresof this period who admiredthe stress on a form of historical determinismwere the Mexican Lucas Alamanand the CubanJose Luz y Caballero. Alamancame to the view that independencein Mexico had been inappropriately timed, merely existingproblemsratherthan leading to a rationaleffort exacerbating Luz y Caballerowas amongthose Cubanswho wrestled at amelioration. with the implicationsof political independenceas influenced by the by the new republicsof the hemisproblemsalreadybeing encountered phere. Seeing the continuationof a strugglebetween principlesof enlanded aristocracy, and the well-entrenched lightened self-government he spent his final years in training a younger generationof 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 participatein the fermentwhich culminatedin armedrebellionagainstSpain.'5 The years of Romantic Liberalismin the hemisphere,in short, were characterized broadly by the search for a new basis to a truly Americanorderof things.This meant differentemphasesfrom different men; Alberdithoughtit was largelya matterof education,emphasizing technicaland vocationaltrainingratherthan the classicalexamination of the so-calledmoralsciences.Morain Mexico opposedundulytheoretical discussionsof forms of government,which he saw as less important than social and culturaldevelopment. Mora also exemplifiedthe interest in work and industry,which it was hoped would oppose the anarchy and despotismwhich continuedto be widespread.With men such as Alberdiand to a lesser extent Lastarria, there was a concomitantappreciation of North Americanmaterialaccomplishments. with the realityof the past and its omnipresent The preoccupation influencewas great. The negative and pessimisticview of the Hispanic colonial period led to a reiteration of the convictionthat politicalinderelativelylittle. With true freedom a mere pendencehad accomplished formality,independencewas viewed as meaningno more than emancipation from the Spanish throne itself. Dictatorshipssuch as those of Iturbide, Rivadavia, O'Higgins, Francia, and many others had been created allegedly to permit extensive popular freedom and economic instead,conditionshad worsened,while privilegeand elitism well-being; remainedprevalent.Thus renewed efforts were necessary if the spirit of feudalismwas to be overcome.Given the need for a new approach, the intellectualsoil was fertile for the advent of positivism.Receptive turnedtowardpositivismin freeto new ideas, the pensadoresgradually with Spain. ing themselvesfrom the almostpsychopathic preoccupation the Iberianemphasis WhilevariousEuropeaninfluenceswere important, began to recede. It is this abatementof the preoccupationwith Spain betweenthe pre-positivist and its heritagethat permitsa clear distinction and which those followed. years III Positivism.As the seventeenthcenturyin Europe had been overshadowedby Newton and the eighteenthwas the age of the Enlightenment, the nineteenth centuryhas been recordedas powerfullyshapedby
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 devised; 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 investigation 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 redeeming 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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in which orderwould would mean for the rulerseconomicdevelopment be paramount. For those who hoped to continuein the exerciseof relative political, social and economic hegemony, positivism permitteda of the status quo. rationalization Among intellectualcircles, there were expectationsthat positivism would first remove all vestiges of the colonial heritage,then guide the of posiregion towardtrue progress.The adaptationsand adjustments tivismwere diverse,dependingas they did upon the situationsin specific countries. In Mexico, where the liberalism of Benito Juarez had changedlife less than many had hoped, the new philosophywas seen as a means of bringingpeace and order out of incessantviolence and civil war. The lengthy rule of PorfirioDiaz providedan ideal vehicle, and the Mexicanpositivistsassumedincreasingly importantgovernmental positions.By the end of the century,these so-called cientificosprovided the major impetus to the regime. Educationwas stressed under the guidance of Justo Sierra, the teacher and scholar who stood for years in the forefrontof Mexican positivism.In his Evolucion politica del pueblo mexicano and elsewhere,Sierraarguedthat the nation'sfuture strengthmust be based on an educationalfoundation.A true national consciencewas needed to bring about an organizedsocial order conduciveto progressand growth;for Sierrathis meant the pursuitof positivistgoals as embodiedlargelyin porfrismo. Mexican positivistswere more attractedto Mill and Spencerthan to Comte. They felt that the tendency of Comtean positivismwas to of the individualto society. Like most of call for undue subordination their contemporaries they rejected Comte's "Religion of Humanity." social evolutionwas regarded For the cientificosof the administration, as the primaryfactor; until order and stabilitymight be achieved, the of freedomwouldbe secondary.Thus Sierracould politicaldevelopment write that Diaz as nationalleader needed effective political and social authority,not merely the legal constitutionaltrappingsof office. Only if the Presidentbecame the arbiterof social peace and order could the freedomand liberty.Cienand understand populacecome to appreciate tificos such as Jose Limantourand others directedtheir efforts in large effiof the administration, measuretowarda rationalization emphasizing and While and increasinggraft crept into corruption ciency competence. remained consistent with the the regime in its later years, those who positivistgospel emphasizedhonest and effective, scientificallyrational administration. Among the Andean countriesthe positivistinfluencewas directed

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both toward recoveryfrom national disasterand toward the effort to grapplewith problemsrelatingto the Indian.Peru and Bolivia, emerging as shatteredand factious entitiesfollowingthe cataclysmicblow to national prestigein the War of the Pacific, sought in positivisma means In the formercountry,Manuel of building,indeed of self-resurrection. GonzalezPradaemergedas the nation'sconscienceas it confrontedand consideredthe factors leading to the war and discussedapproachesto beforeturnpostwarrecovery.Havingbegunessentiallyas a romanticist Gonzalez Prada to ing paralleled many others in positivist analysis, kind of education.Alhis emphasison education,a special, "scientific" what distasteful for he regardedas an Comte thoughfinding personally felt the scientific that approachproarbitrarytinge, Gonzalez Prada This position was argued vided the solution to Peruvianregeneration. even more stronglyby such men as Mariano Cornejo and Alejandro Deustua.Again, althoughby no means acceptingin entiretythe tenets of positivism,they followed the generalintellectualtrend.19 They were concerned as well with the position of the Indian. as Rejectingthe inclinationof the Mexicansto regardnon-Caucasians in their writings.Although inferiorbeings, they were less paternalistic the Peruvian Indians, conceding the low level of life characterizing they saw this as the product of circumstancesimposed by the white man. Racial inequalityhad been inheritedfrom the colonial era, it was argued,and the parasiticalsocial role of the Indianshad been imposed by the whites. Thus it was possible for a variety of reforms to be proposed,not excludingCornejo'sinsistencethat illiteratesshould have the right to vote-an exceedinglyradicalproposalin Peru at that time. The Bolivianpositivistssharedin the Peruvianconcernover the wartime fiasco against Chile as well as the secondaryposition of the Indians. Comingto nationalprominence throughthe Liberalparty movementin Although 1889, they attainedno little influencewithin the government. of positivisticscience unableto developwhatwas termeda reconciliation and humanisticphilosophy,they remainedinfluentialfor some years, droppingfrom prominenceonly in the 1920's. Furthersouth, the Chileansand Argentineswere concernedwith a differentset of questions.In both countriesthe intellectualinfluenceof by rival schools, and incessantpolemicswere positivismwas represented exchangedbetweenthe orthodoxand heterodoxpositivists.In Chile of brothersstood for orthodox Comteanposithe 1860's the Lagarrigue
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 opposingschool acceptedonly portionsof it, tendingto follow the ideas enunciatedby Lastarriain his final years. Controversy ragedwithinthe Academyof Belles Lettresand other culturalorganizations for a full generation.The heterodox group, concerned by the logical problemsof reconcilingprogresswith order, never escaped an underlyingsuspicion that positivismmight well lead to the reification of absolutistgovernment; the commitment to positivism,indeed to Mill as well to Spencerand to Comte, was less than wholehearted. The Argentinesdivided similarly;unconvincedthat the personaltendenciesexemplifiedby Juan Manuel Rosas had fully istic, arbitrary been uprootedfrom Argentinesoil, they differedwidely in their interpretations. Traditional Comtean positivism was advocated by those affiliatedwith the Normal School at Parana.Establishedby Sarmiento in 1870, it soughta totally new and differentorder, arguingthat Rosas and the tendencieshe personifiedhad been eradicated.It was felt that of a unifiednation were no longer problemsrelatedto the construction of an basic;the important thingwas to bringabout a greaterstimulation brandof positivism.Men like J. Alfredo Ferreiraspent "individualistic" years arguingin favor of original, creative approaches.Following in Alberdiand others, partthe intellectual pathstrod earlierby Echeverria, while many aspects the experimental and innovationalwere underlined, of positivism were discardedas irrelevant. Perhapsnowherein the hemispherewas the assimilationof positivismmoreextraordinary than in Brazil,whereit was adoptedwith very The Brazilianssaw positivismas permittinga further little alteration.20 developmentalong existing lines; it did not representfor them, as it the past in did in the SpanishAmericanrepublics,a meansof destroying order to introducesomethingwholly new. BenjaminConstantfounded the PositivistSocietyin 1871, and withinthe decade a positivistchurch was in operation.Comte'sReligion of Humanitywas received approvingly, and the Temple of Humanity became a center of orthodox Comteaninfluence.Brazilianpositivistsalso became stronglyweddedto the movement urging the overthrow of the Empire. Calling for a republic"which in no way resembleda democraticor repre"positivist sentativeregime,they saw it as providinga means of stable, effective, rationalmanagementof national affairs. For a few months after the forced abdicationof 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 governmentalresponsibility,but the military soon asserted its strength,and positivismrecededrapidlyfrom its temporary position of national political prominence. Throughoutthe Latin Americanportion of the hemisphere,then, of immefor the attainment positivismwas adoptedas a new instrument diate nationalpolitical goals, all the while offeringa philosophicbasis for what was intended,exceptin Brazil,to be a new and differentorder. With time, disillusionment slowly set in. Oligarchicalinterestsby and continued to large monopolizepublic affairs;increasedeconomicwealth was not a,ccompaniedby its equitable distribution,and individual interestsrehmained narrowlyselfish.Colonialismseemed to be reappearin North American guise, while true politicalliberalismand democing remained more the racy exceptionthan the rule. Violence and disorder survived as before, conditions generally seemed unresponsiveto the positivistapproachand, with the comingof the twentiethcentury,Latin American intellectuals turned once more to their search for some miraculous set of ideas which might prove the great panacea, the definitivesolution to problemswhich yet remained embeddedin the substance of the past. The TwentiethCentury.Perhapsthe most overwhelming characterturnhas been istic of LatinAmericanpoliticalthoughtsincethe century's of characterizing the virtualimpossibility it neatly and conveniently.As and technological positivismdeclined,the adventof economic,industrial 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 extremesof fascism. One can find philosophicspeculationon a highly abstractplane, as well as pragmatic which are strong politicalprograms on policy proposals but uncertainin overall ideological content. To describethoughtin this period, one must accept the'task of examining individualtrends and developments. Two ratherbasicallydistinctivekinds of thoughtcan be identified. The first verges on the purely philosophical,while the second is more directlyconnectedwith political analysis.With the former-mentioned only in passing-one notes such elements as existentialism, neoThomism,and humanism.Existentialist thoughthas been derivedfrom and others. No single Latin American Unamuno, Bergson, Kierkegaard, has emerged as the leading existentialistthinker, but the collective intellectual has been strengthNeo-Thomism impacthas been significant. ened through the writings of Jacques Maritain, while such papal

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as Leo XIII's RerumNovarumhave been influential, statements providfor the recent formationof ChristianDemoing intellectualinspiration cratic political parties. Chilean President Eduardo Frei has been a spokesmanfor such views over the years,21while Brazil'sAlceu Amoroso Lima has followed a similarintellectualcourse. Humanisticwriters have adopted elementsfrom such diverse figuresas Krause, Unamuno and Nietzsche, with Mexico in particularnoted for such writers as Samuel Ramos and Antonio Caso. Withoutdenigrating such writings,it is nonethelesstrue that they have tended to be somewhatless than fundamentally importanton the political scene. More avowedly political writings,however, have been substantialin volume as well as diversity.Among the more pervasive influenceshas been that of Marxism.It has stressedthe importanceof the role of the state, while the emphasis on a planned approach to economic problemshas been somewhat akin to that of the positivists earlier,althoughaddingthe element of class struggleto its analysis.22 has been Going further,the divisionbetweensocialismand communism each has in a of while turn shown variety indigenousadaptaperceptible, tions. Communismitself has had an exceedinglyuneven development certain unchangingfeatures.23The throughthe years, notwithstanding affiliation of Communist leaders with the international movement, in most cases tacticalas well as ideologicaldirectionemanating accepting from Moscow, has given this a flavor of opportunism which has in the its run reduced somewhat the breadth of long appeal. Ideological divisionshave becomedeeperwithinthe past decade,reflecting both the Sino-Sovietsplit and the impactof the fidelistavariantwhich emergedin Cuba. Most of the writingby Latin American Communistshas come frompoliticalactivistswho provideparty-linepolemics;amongthese are Blas Roca and Juan Marinello of Cuba, the Machado brothers of Venezuela,and Luis Carlos Prestes of Brazil. The socialistelementhas been perhapsmore strikingintellectually. of socialismhave been pennedby such men Althoughclassic treatments as Argentina's Alfredo Palacios,the greatesthistoricalimpacthas 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 America," 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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as nationalrevolutionary from partymovementswhich are characterized or aprista. The prototypeof such organizations, the PeruvianAPRA revolucionaria (Alianza popular americana),includes the contributions Jose Carlos Mariategui,as well as of the of an intellectualforerunner, movement'scaudillo, Victor Raiil Haya de la Torre.24The latter has added personalinterpretations, perhapsthe best known being his ideas of relativismand pluralismin his discussionon historicaltime-space.25 Elsewhere,prominentpolitical figureshave adapted comparableviews to national circumstances;among these are R6mulo Betancourt of Venezuela,Jose Figueresof Costa Rica, Juan Bosch of the Dominican Republic and, with the added element of Yankeephobia,Guatemala's Juan Jose Arevalo. Such men have suggesteda kind of criollo socialism which is identifiedbroadly with Latin America'snon-Communist left, whichstressesan emphasison agrarianism a liberalreformism embracing and, in some cases, indigenismo. of European Moving to the opposite extreme,variousadaptations fascismhave also existed, the leadingexample of which is the justicialismo of JuanPer6n. Based in partupon the ideas of conflicttakenfrom
Hegel and Marx, justicialismo described itself as representing a third

balancethe four elementsof materpositionwhichwould harmoniously and Whiledebateeven today individualism. ialism,idealism,collectivism, revolvesabout the natureof the peronistaregimeand the validityof its fascism, the leading student of justicialismoin a telling analysis has a concludedthat it was no more than a pseudo-ideology, representing form of opportunismwhich permittedPer6n to interpretevents and formulate policy on the basis of wholly personal and expedient
judgments.26

Writingswhich fall into the fascist categoryinclude large doses of artificial thought.Includedare many loosely arguedjustifiintellectually cations of broadlyunrepresentative regimes.Typical was the rationaliin Venezuela as zation of Juan Vicente G6mez' personal dictatorship latter was to of the the son Laureano Vallenilla Lanz; expressedby of reiterate similar statements in defense of the authoritarianism Marcos Perez Jimenez. Of slightly greatermerit were the writingsin
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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supportof the Vargas regime in Brazil.27For several years after 1937 the "Novo Estado" was discussed as representinga kind of "authoritarian democracy" providinga balance between liberty and authority. Minister of Justice Francisco Campos in 1940 published Vargas' 0 estadonacional,creditingthe regimewith a fascist outlook.Few took this very seriously,however,even aside from the fact that the necessities of wartimealliances soon demandeda cessation of such analyses. Severalotherintellectual groupsof thoughtcan be cited briefly.The engendered by North Americanpolicies in the Carib"Yankeephobia" bean early in the centurygave rise to a largelyirrationaland polemical body of writingswhich nonethelesswas widely read. The attacks of Eduardo Prado, Manuel Ugarte, Rufino Blanco-Fombona,and Isidro Fabela were not lacking in vitriol and indignation,althoughthe philosophic meritswere generallyminimal.A more recent body of thought, also related to current political and socio-economicproblems, is the ideologyof development. Havingemergedsince the conclusionof World War II, it includes notably Mexico's Victor Urquidi, Brazil's Celso Furtado,and UNECLA economistRaul Prebisch.North Americansare also becomingincreasingly awareof such writings,an excellentsummary in the workof Hirschman.28 of whichappears One finalgroupof writings can also be singledout; this centerson problemsof culturalchange and racial assimilation.The indigenismoof Mexico and several Andean countriesis typical,while an Afro-American variantcomes from Brazil, dating back to Da Cunha and receiving its greatest contemporary impetusfrom GilbertoFreyrewith his emphasison regionaland cultural Somewhatsimilarideas appearin FernandoOrtiz'discusdevelopment. sions of the sugar economy in Cuba. Twentieth century intellectual contributionsto political thought, strikingin theirdiversityand relativelack of cohesion,have rangedover a broad spectrum; likewise, foreign influences have been diverse. most of the thought,however,is the continuingeffortto find Underlying some rationaleupon which progressand developmentmay be sought. At least implicitly,writershave reiteratedwhat they feel to be a need for a distinctive, original,and uniquelyindigenousset of ideas which will timeless in prove validity and constructivein hemisphericsignificance. It is this spirit,along with other tendenciesto be discussedbelow, 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. Hirschman (ed.), Latin American Issues; Essays and Comments (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1961).

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stands out in this century'scontinuingintellectualinquiry. IV Overthe yearstherehas been ambivalence on the partof manywho have studiedLatin Americanthoughtand intellectualcurrents.Harold E. Davis has put it well when observingthat the frequentreactionhas been either one of "presenting the thought as a pale, attenuated,corruptedversion of Europeansocial philosophy,having little connection withrealitiesof the LatinAmericanscene or, goingto the otherextreme, naively picturing a thought which has no roots in the past, either Certainly any effort to characterizethe European or American."29 literaturemust consider the relative degree of originality.Given the impact of European and occasional North American contributions, originalityis often minimal. In view of the historic and geographic A studentof LatinAmericanphilosothis is unsurprising. circumstances, of Latin American has thoughtas being manifestedby the spoken phy
proclivity of many pensadores to prefer "not . . the creative development of the content of philosophy but rather . . . support which philo-

of the statusquo or reformsophicalpositionscould provideproponents of social, political,educational, economic ers with a basis for justification or religious programs."30 L. L. Bernardhas writtenthat problemsin the social scienceshave often been handledwith imaginationand ingenuity,and yet "the fact that this civilizationwas less well developedthan those of Europe and North America has made the Latin Americans in large measure dependentupon their distant neighborsfor much of the method and content of that part of their social sciences which is not of indigenous origin."31 Althoughthe searchfor a distinctlyAmericanphilosophyhas been a continuingphenomenon,little of real significancehas failed to owe a debt to some source outside Latin America itself. The major collective exception would lie in twentieth century advocatesof indigenismo;yet this has been limited,due in no smallpartto the irrelevance of Indianproblemsin many countries.The Latin Americanexperience has eitherdirectlyor indirectlybeen relatedto the philosophyand spirit commentedthat Spanish of Catholicism. HarveyL. Johnsonpertinently American culture was neither wholly European nor Indian. While
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.
29 Davis, Latin American Social Thought, p. 1.

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largelyCatholic,it has been differentin many ways from that of Spain. Indeed, the culture "tends to be humanistic. Ideologically, Spanish America has been influencedby the Enlightenment, by the American and French revolutions,by Existentialism,etc." A page later he also underlines the fact that SpanishAmericanculturecan best be understood and evaluatedin terms of its own history and present circumstances. This seems an obvious point, yet it bears repetitionhere.32 The preceding is merelyto emphasizethe derivative natureof much of the literaturewe have been discussing.One cannot fully understand Latin Americanpoliticalthoughtwithoutat the same time havingsome familiaritywith the foreign writingsupon which it has so often been based. Runningthrougha large portionof Latin Americanthoughthas been additionally a strain of optimism. Beginning with the creole rebellionagainstauthority,and continuingto the presenttime, one sees the continuingbelief that progressand developmentwill in one fashion or another be achieved. Today this emerges in the writings of Latin American students of developmentand socio-economicreform. Among the general characteristicsis the relatively influential positionof the Latin Americanpensador.Withouta detaileddiscussion of the pensador here, it can at least be said that the role and contribution have tendedto make a strongerand more immediateimpacton political affairsthanhas been the case in the UnitedStatesand, much of the time, in Europe as well. Occasionallythe Latin Americanwill be projected directly into political affairs, as with the Mexican cientificos or the Generationof '37 in Argentina.More frequently an individual may assumethe positionillustratedby Peru's Gonzalez Prada, who became the conscienceand spokesmanof his country;comparable examplesare Martiin Cuba, Rod6 in Uruguayand Dario in Nicaragua.Even aside from such cases, it can be said generallythat the pensador achieves widespread respect during his lifetime, while his views exert swift influenceon his country'scontemporary political and social life. The contentof the literature is significant for its intellectualrange. Although this may today be in the process of change, it has been true that Latin Americanshave been widely concernedwith historically different issues. Generalistsrather than specialists, they have many consideredbroad questionsof life, society and culture.As noted at the outset, it is frequentlydifficultto distinguishpurely "political,""economic" or other writingsby a given individual.More likely his inquiries
32 Harvey L. Johnson, "Some Aspects of Spanish American Culture," The Americas, 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 with or advocacyof ideas repretendencyto avoid close identification a or senting particularpolitical philosophicalschool. Positivismstands as the major exception, yet even there, given the widely differing and sometimescontradictory Euroteachingsof different interpretations most of the were eclectic. fairly pean positivists, prominentpensadores Latin Americanpoliticalthoughthas been consistentin its concern with the place of individualcountriesin the streamof history.National development,construedin the broadestsense, 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.

Therehas been a feelingthat, at least potentially,Latin Americancivilization has a role to play which might contributeto the marchof mankind. Occasionallythis has appearedas a sense of superiority;once aimedtowardthe life and ideas of the Old World,this later came to be directedmore towardthe United States. Without overstressing the point, it should be concludedthat the effort to identify an indigenous,singularlyAmerican approachto the problemsof humanitycontinues.Today this often takes the form of a somewhatamorphous"thirdposition"resting somewherebetween the understandinggiven to capitalism and to communism, seeking to combinethe best featuresof both while sheddingharmfulor destructive elements. Some might argue that the intellectual quest is overly ambitious, that it seeks a utopia which intellectualselsewhere have concludedto be beyondthe abilityof the humanmind. Yet it is through the blending of the cultural and the deepseated humanitarianism, with the material that speculativeinquiryby and the tangible, spiritual Latin Americanthinkersattemptsto realize its fullest development.