Radical party, middle classes and democratization in Tulio Halperín Donghi

Abstract

Many works analyzed the way in which Tulio Halperín Donghi explored Peronism. However, studies that looked over how the author examined the first mass movement in Argentine history are scarcer. This article aims to contribute in that direction: its objective is to explore the way in which Halperín Donghi analyzed the transformations undergone by the Radical Civic Union during the first three decades of the twentieth century. We reconstruct the main hypotheses expressed by him throughout his intellectual career. We consider that these hypothesis, besides a source of inspiration for future inquiries, open a way to explore some problems that are at the center of the author's reflections from a new point of view, such as the course of the relation between the middle class and the universal suffrage democracy, and the democratization effects on politics and the Argentine society.