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Uruguay Neo-Batllism, 1947-51
From the beginning of the 1940s, and especially after
creation of the wage councils, real wages increased, which
meant
an improvement in the living standards of the working
class and
dynamism in the internal market. The period of increased
industrial development lasted from 1945 to 1955; total
production
practically doubled during this time. Agriculture also
experienced a boom. Social legislation was improved, the
pension
system was expanded, and the state bureaucracy grew.
Resorts near
Montevideo were developed through the sale of lots on the
installment plan, and Punta del Este became an
international
tourist attraction. Gold reserves in BROU reached their
highest
level ever. In 1950, when Uruguay again won the World Cup
in
soccer, it was already known as the "Switzerland of South
America."
Batllism returned to power with the victory of the
presidential ticket of Tomás Berreta (1947) and Luis
Batlle
Berres (1947-51) in the 1946 elections. Berreta's
administration
was brief--he died six months after taking office and was
succeeded by his vice president, Batlle Berres.
Batlle Berres, a nephew of José Batlle y Ordóñez,
represented
the most popular faction of Batllism, later to be known as
Unity
and Reform (Unidad y Reforma), or List 15 because of the
list
number under which it would participate in successive
elections.
He gradually became estranged from his cousins--Lorenzo
and
César, Batlle y Ordóñez's sons--who promoted a more
conservative
vision from their newspaper, El Día, and who would
later
form a new Colorado Party faction--List 14. Batlle Berres
founded
his own newspaper (Acción) in 1948, bought a radio
station, and surrounded himself with young politicians.
His
ideological-political agenda, adapted to the changes in
his
country and the world, became known as neo-Batllism. He
rejected
the communist and populist-authoritarian experiences of
other
Latin American countries, especially that of Juan Domingo
Perón
in Argentina. Batlle Berres formed a multiclass movement
that
promoted compromise and conciliation. He believed the
state's
role was to safeguard social peace and to correct, through
adequate measures, the "unfair differences" created by the
socioeconomic structure. In contrast with Peronism,
neo-Batllism
respected the political autonomy of the workers' movement,
accepted social cooperation, and rejected the kind of
corporative
structure that characterized Mexico's governing party.
Batlle Berres was an enthusiastic supporter of economic
development based on
import-substitution industrialization (see Glossary)
and agricultural expansion. He applied
interventionist
and statist economic measures to promote such development
and did
not abide by the IMF's austerity recommendations. He
supported
agriculture and industry through credits and subsidies, as
well
as control over the nation's currency, a fact that brought
him
into conflict with ranchers. BROU, which controlled sales
of
foreign currency, paid less for foreign currency earned
from
livestock raising to favor industrial requirements for raw
materials and machinery. This differential exchange rate
policy
stimulated the development of light industry, more than 90
percent of which was directed toward the internal market.
Nevertheless, the state guaranteed profitable prices for
agriculture and stimulated imports of agricultural
machinery. New
crops were developed to supply industry with raw
materials, and
surpluses were exported. By contrast, livestock raising
continued
to stagnate.
An earlier agreement with Britain obliged the
government to
acquire some British enterprises to cancel its outstanding
debt
to Britain. The state's economic role was thus increased
through
the creation of new public service enterprises, including
Montevideo's tramways, railroads, and water system.
Another potentially significant event in the
socioeconomic
realm was the creation of the National Land Settlement
Institute
in 1948. It was designed to stimulate land subdivision and
agricultural and livestock settlements and was authorized
to
purchase and expropriate land. But action was limited
because of
a lack of funds, and significant agrarian reform never
took
place. However, in order to favor lower-income groups,
subsidies
were set for various basic food items, and in 1947 the
National
Subsistence Council was created to control the price of
basic
items.
The traditional parties maintained their differences,
which
were reflected in the significant variations in their
platforms.
The Political Parties Law, which allowed party factions to
accumulate votes, guaranteed the predominance of the
Colorado
Party. Together, the Colorados and Blancos continued to
capture
almost 90 percent of the votes. But because of the splits
in his
own party, Batlle Berres was forced to seek political
support
from other factions. Paradoxically, he sought a "patriotic
coincidence" with Herrera and gave cabinet posts to some
leading
figures of Terrism, past enemies within his own party.
Conservative sectors, particularly landowners, opposed
or
distrusted the growing bureaucracy, the expansion of
social
legislation, and the policy of income redistribution that
favored
the industrial sector to the detriment of the rural
sector. In
1950 Benito Nardone--an anticommunist radio personality
supported
by Juan Domingo R. Bordaberry, one of the directors of the
Rural
Federation (and father of Juan María Bordaberry Arocena;
president, 1972-76)--created the Federal League for Rural
Action
(Liga Federal de Acción Rural--LFAR). The Ruralist faction
thus
created attempted to unite the disenchanted rural
middle-class
constituencies, especially wool producers, from both
traditional
parties. He proposed a free-market economic model in
contrast to
Luis Batlle Berres's statist model.
Unity and Reform won the 1950 elections. Its
presidential
candidate was a Batllist, Andrés Martínez Trueba
(1951-55), who
quickly put forward a new constitutional amendment, this
time to
make good on Batlle y Ordóñez's dream of a purely plural
executive, the colegiado. He was supported by
Herrera, who
was seeking to enhance both his personal power and Blanco
political power and to recover the ground lost in the 1942
coup.
He was also supported by conservative Colorado factions
who
feared Batlle Berres's becoming president again.
The new constitution was approved by plebiscite in 1951
and
went into effect in 1952. It reestablished the
colegiado
as the National Council of Government (Consejo Nacional de
Gobierno). The council had nine members, six from the
dominant
faction of the majority party and three from the party
receiving
the second highest number of votes--two from its leading
faction
and one from it second-ranking faction. The presidency was
to
rotate each year among the six members of the majority
party. The
constitution mandated coparticipation in directing
autonomous
entities and ministries, using a three-and-two system
(three
members appointed by the majority party on the council and
two by
the minority party). Uruguay enjoyed unprecedented
prosperity at
this time, and the establishment of a purely collegial,
Swissstyle executive reinforced the country's title as the
"Switzerland of South America."
Data as of December 1990
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