POLITICAL CONFLICT, ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND THE PROBLEM OF MINORITIES IN LATE 19TH CENTURY ARGENTINA

Resumen

The article examines the links between political unrest and electoral regulations in Argentina between 1870 and 1912. Traditionally, historiography has focused on reforms of national legislation in 1912, which included for the first time the representation of the first minority through the incomplete list system. However, this approach disregards the electoral innovations that took place in the previous decades in the provincial level, mainly in the powerful Buenos Aires, that must be considered to understand the history of political representation during that early stage of constitutional life. With this change in focus, we observe that such reforms were not derived from pressures for democratization of the political system, but from concerns about how to process peacefully process political conflict and competition for power.