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Uruguay The Consolidation of Political Democracy
The 1920s witnessed electoral struggles in which the
various
parties sought to consolidate the political peace achieved
in
1904. The National Party participated actively in
political life,
and although the Colorado Party was dominant, its
electoral
advantage was slight. Relative electoral parity and the
still
recent memory of the last armed uprising compelled
participants
to preserve electoral purity and to improve the
corresponding
legislation. In 1924 the Electoral Court was created to
prepare
and control national elections. The 1917 constitution
eliminated
restrictions on male suffrage and required elections
almost every
year to renew the various governmental bodies.
Each political party was internally divided because of
ideological, economic, and social differences. To the
existing
Colorado factions--Riverism and Vierism--were added the
Colorado
Party for Tradition (also known as Sosism), founded by
Julio
María Sosa in 1925, and the Advance Grouping (Agrupación
Avanzar), founded by Julio César Grauert in 1929. Splinter
groups
of the National Party included the Radical Blanco Party,
founded
by Lorenzo Carnelli in 1924, and Social Democracy, founded
by
Carlos Quijano in 1928. The small PSU also split in 1920,
and one
of its factions formed the Communist Party of Uruguay
(Partido
Comunista del Uruguay--PCU). The parties were divided into
"traditional" (Colorado Party and National Party) and
"minor," or
"ideological," parties (UCU, PSU, and PCU). The former, by
means
of a 1910 law that allowed a double simultaneous vote for
a party
and a faction of the party (sub-lema), became
"federations" of parties with different agendas and were
thus
able to attract followers from all sectors of society.
These contradictions forced Batlle y Ordóñez to make
electoral arrangements with his opponents within the
Colorado
Party to prevent the victory of the National Party. The
resultant
"politics of compromise" diluted his reformist agenda.
Baltasar
Brum (1919-23), one of Batlle y Ordóñez's followers and a
former
foreign minister, was succeeded as president by a
"neutral"
Colorado, José Serrato (1923-27), who turned over the
office to a
Riverist, Juan Campisteguy (1927-31).
It was difficult for adherents of Batllism to implement
their
agenda despite having the occasional support of other
political
sectors. Nevertheless, additional social reforms were
enacted. In
1920 compensation for accidents in the workplace and a
six-day
work week were made law. In 1923 a minimum rural wage was
passed,
although it was never enforced. A social security system
was
created in 1919 for public sector employees, and the
program was
extended to the private sector in 1928. Despite the
reforms, a
union movement, weak in numbers, was organized in several
umbrella organizations: the Uruguayan Syndicalist Union,
encompassing anarcho-syndicalists and communists, in 1923;
and
the communist General Confederation of Uruguayan Workers,
in
1929.
The only state enterprise created during these years
reflected the difficulties in expanding state control over
industry because of opposition from the conservatives.
Ranchers
complained that foreign refrigeration plants, which had
established quotas for shipments and for access of meat to
the
London market, did not pay a fair price for cattle. In
1928 the
government created National Refrigerating (Frigorífico
Nacional--
Frigonal) as a ranchers' cooperative supported by the
state and
governed by a board made up of representatives from the
government, the Rural Association, and the Rural
Federation.
Although the country had suffered the immediate
consequences
of the post-World War I crisis, a period of recovery had
quickly
followed. It was characterized by growing prosperity
sustained
mainly by United States loans. A continued increase in
population
accompanied economic prosperity. The 1920s saw the arrival
of the
last great wave of immigrants, consisting mainly of
Syrians,
Lebanese, and eastern Europeans. Between 1908 and 1930,
Montevideo's population doubled.
In 1930 Uruguay celebrated the centennial of the
promulgation
of its first constitution and won its first World Cup in
soccer.
Elections were held that year, the results of which were
to
presage difficulties, however. Batlle y Ordóñez died in
1929,
leaving no successor for his political group. The Blanco
leader,
Herrera, was defeated by a wide margin of votes for the
first
time. The electoral balance between the parties had been
broken.
By a few votes, the conservative Colorado Manini, a
Riverist
leader and newspaper publisher, failed to become
president.
Data as of December 1990
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