The Priism that was vs. the Peronism that was not. Trade union autonomy-subordination as a factor in the success of the corporative models in Mexico and Argentina

Abstract

Economic development, together with the processes of incorporation of the labour movement into state dynamics in a context of ideological transition, resulted in the emergence of new forms of leadership during the 1930s and 1940s in Latin America. Taking the cases of Mexico and Argentina, through a comparative study approached from the perspective of historical institutionalism, this article questions the way in which the different trade union models generated by different forms of interest aggregation influenced the political trajectories of the two countries. Using process tracing, it shows how labour legislation conditioned the processes of interest aggregation, which, in turn, shaped trade union models that were more heteronomous with respect to the state in Mexico and more autonomous in Argentina. This difference was a decisive factor in the fact that, at a critical juncture, two similar political projects took divergent paths.