What is peronism?

Saúl Borobio — Museum Casa Rosada, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23051299

Peronism, also called justicialism, is a political movement originating in Argentina in the mid-1940s. The term refers to Juan Perón, former president of Argentina (1946–1955, 1973–1974) and founder of the movement. Peronism is an ideology based on the concept of social justice, which defends, among other things, the principles of equality, social equity and equal opportunities. Peronism is a fundamental element of Argentine politics. There is today a strong polarization characterizing Argentine politics with peronists against anti-peronists. We must also point out that  Peronist parties won 10 general elections between 1946 and 2023.

It is hard to tell whether it is a left-wing or right-wing ideology because of the different political currents that Peronism encompasses, including ones that are in complete opposition to each other. Peronism has benefited from an “ideological flexibility”, especially after the death of its founder in 1974. Peronism is often considered to be the major populist movement in Latin America. When it comes to economics, Peronism was originally favorable to a welfare state and industrialization. As always, I want to emphasize that the goal of this article is not to determine the positive and negative effects of populism or Peronism. Likewise, it is important to clarify that Latin American populism and Western or European populism, for example, are different. Indeed, populism in Latin America has its own characteristics that differentiate it from the forms of populism that we know in the West, although there are also similarities.

History

To understand the rise of Peronism in Argentina, we must go back in time. In the early 1930s, many economic changes occurred in the country: the government began a process of industrialization with the aim of meeting domestic demand for value-added products. On the one hand, the slowdown in international trade due to the global economic crisis and on the other hand, the shortage of foreign currencies causing a reduction in imports have led the government to implement protectionist policies. However, the wealth was not well distributed by the conservative government, leading to numerous worker protests in the 1940s.

Colonel Perón belonged to a group of soldiers who organized the 1943 coup (1943 Argentine revolution) to put an end to the conservative government, accused of fraud in elections and corruption. After the coup, a military dictatorship was established in which Perón created and headed the Secretary of Labor and Social Security, allowing him to establish relationships with trade unions and other workers organizations. As Secretary of Labor, Perón expanded the pension and paid leave regime. His influence and popularity within the government allowed him to be appointed vice-president and Minister of War in 1944. Progressively, the government’s policies started to focus on workers and their demands. Obviously the employers were not really pleased by these new policies. Although Perón had the support of the working-class, the government, faced with the elites' pressure, imprisoned Perón on October 9, 1945. Perón's incarceration gave rise to massive protests in the country, especially in Buenos Aires. For fear of seeing the protests escalate to conflict, the government decided to release Peron. On October 17, Perón gave a speech in front of the Plaza de Mayo, downtown Buenos Aires. Many consider that Peronism was born on this day.

“The time has now come, as always, for your Secretary of State for Labor and Welfare, who has fought and will always fight by your side, to celebrate this project which constitutes my life's ambition: that all workers be a little happier.”

speech by Juan Peron, October 17, 1945

(translation from Spanish)

In the general elections called by the army in 1946, Perón's party won with 55% of the vote. During his first presidential term, Perón was extremely popular, especially among the working-class. With his wife Eva, the couple represented a strong symbol of social justice. Peron managed to develop a true cult of personality. When his wife died in 1952, very shortly after his re-election, the latter was literally sanctified. 

Eva's death in the early 1950s marked the decline of the Peronist prosperity era. Argentina almost no longer exported meat and agricultural products to Europe and allows an American company to exploit its oil, freezing wages and completely ignoring the two fundamental principles of Peronism: social justice and economic nationalism. After two coup attempts, a third in 1955 (“Liberating Revolution”) succeeded in defeating Perón, who had to go into exile. A new civic-military dictatorship of Catholic nationalist ideology this time was installed and the Peronist party was banned. It was not until 1972 and the return of democracy that Perón returned to his country. 

Perón’s death: end of Peronism?

Perón won the general election for the third time in 1973, but died the following year. The post-Perón era is characterized by the creation of various factions/branches within the Peronist movement, some of which resorted to violence, such as revolutionary Peronism. In 1976, a new coup (the 1976 civil-military coup) ended democracy and a military junta was installed, supported by Kissinger, the United States Secretary of State, and thus Nixon's administration.

With the return of democracy in Argentina in 1983, the international community was surprised to see that the Peronist party did not win the general elections. The victory of the socialist Raul Alfonsin put an end to the traditional confrontation between the Peronists and the military. 

As mentioned previously, after the death of Perón, several factions developed within Peronism, among these the menenism : the right-wing Peronism of Carlos Menem, president of Argentina between 2005 and 2021 or the kirchnerism, the center-left Peronism of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchnez, former Argentine presidents between 2003 and 2007 and between 2007 and 2015, respectively. 

If traditional Peronism was a left-wing ideology, today, and in a totally paradoxical way, Peronism can be left-wing as well as right-wing. Indeed, during the 2003 general elections, three Peronists (from three different Peronist factions) faced each other: Carlos Menem, Nestor Kirchner and Adolph Rodriguez Saa. 

In the 21st century, there are three major political forces in the Argentine political space: Peronism, which can be left-wing or right-wing; socialism (Marxist, socio-democrat) and the liberal/conservative right. 

Bibliography

Armony, Victor. “Populisme et néopopulisme en Argentine : de Juan Perón à Carlos Menem.” Politique et Sociétés 21, no. 2 (2002): 51–77. https://doi.org/10.7202/000479ar.

ina.fr. “Argentine : comprendre l’influence passée et présente de Juan Perón | INA.” Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/peron-peronismo-argentine-election-politique-javier-milei.

Ostiguy, Pierre. “Gauches péroniste et non péroniste dans le système de partis argentin.” Revue internationale de politique comparée 12, no. 3 (2005): 299–330. https://doi.org/10.3917/ripc.123.0299.

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