Electoral reform and federal intervention: persistence of the principles of unanimity and consent, Salta 1912-1918

Abstract

In this article we propose to analyse the behaviour of the electorate and the strategies of the political leaders of the province of Salta to resolve the tension produced within the oligarchic power structure, the forced extension of political rights in a society thought to be 'naturally' unequal. Simultaneously we are interested in giving an account of the implications of the rise to government of Yrigoyenist radicalism and the Federal Intervention of 1918, which make explicit the questioning of the ingrained way of 'doing' and 'thinking' electoral competition in the local social space. We wonder to what extent the old principles of unanimity and consent that accompanied the local political game will be questioned in the new scenario posed by the irruption of national politics and the expansion of electoral rights, considered as rights of individuals against a local political culture that had processed suffrage as a corporate and unanimous gesture.