Essay On Advice For A Dictatorship

In response to unfavorable domestic conditions, Argentina’s military government sought self-promotion through invasion of the Falklands, yet failed to secure its own power and thus paved the way for a new political and economic order.

In his article Advice for a Dictator, German politician Joseph Goebbels wrote, “A dictatorship requires three things: a man, an idea, and a following ready to live for the man and the idea, and if necessary to die for them” (Goebbels). Here Goebbels states the bare minimum required for a dictatorship to rule a country, but for a dictatorship to run a country, it must have unity; dictators require a unified body of people to have power over, and a unified staff of advisors to help maintain that power (13). From 1976 to 1983, the Argentine Republic was ruled by a dictatorship formally known as the National Reorganization Process. The National Reorganization Process lacked unity, and thus, was a flawed dictatorship. In 1955 the National Reorganization Process led a military coup on Peron, the former president of Argentina. The coup succeeded and as a result, the National Reorganization Process was the governing body of Argentina, and the dictatorship was in full control of its people. However, soon after the coup, Argentina returned to a state of corruption due to a division of the population into left-wing guerrillas and right-wing militants (4, p. 366). This split of the population reduced the power of the dictatorship, and subsequently caused the Dirty War, a seven year internal conflict (5, p. 4-5). Following the split and the dictatorial loss of power, changes were made in the administration of the National Reorganization Process. The dictatorship of Argentina was run mostly independently...

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...or a new political and economic order. Political reforms began rapidly after the power vacuum began. Three months after the last military leader, Argentina was hosting democratic election; on October 30, 1983, Argentines went to the polls to choose their leaders. The 1983 Argentine General Election was the first chance votes had to elect their leaders in about a decade, and 85.6% of Argentines took that chance. Raul Alfonsin, of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), won the Presidential Election. The UCR also won the senate majority. Finally, the government of Argentina was united again. Alfonsin inherited a country in shambles, yet he worked day in and day out to restate Argentina as a world power. He then later handed the Presidency to Carlos Menem, the winner of the 1988 election. After Alfonsin laid the groundwork to Argentina’s great reforms, Menem was able to finish