Juan Domingo Perón: democrat or dictator?
is extremely significant because it obviously shows that he acquired power democratically rather than by force, in the way a dictator would. Not only did he win but he also won with a big majority which further shows that he had great popularity, beating combined opposition parties. However, at the same time evidence shows that Perón ran Argentina by dictatorial means: he often used force to remove his opposition, the act of a dictator. If we accept that a dictator is ‘a ruler who has complete power in a country, especially power which was obtained by force and is used unfairly or cruelly’, it is perfectly obvious that he won his power and mandate in no uncertain terms in the February 1946 elections in a transparent and democratic way. But, by closing down an opposition newspaper, he could be seen by many as ‘dictatorial’ because Perón was exploiting or abusing power to obtain an unfair advantage — which is clearly undemocratic. He was also famous for labelling opposition as traitors to the country, and he often imprisoned opposition figures. So, there is evidence to suggest he was a dictator, or behaved dictatorially, the balance of the evidence suggests that he was a democratic president.
Bibliography
Dávilla, J. (2013) Dictatorship in South America . New Jersey Mainwaring, S. & Pérez-Liñán, A. (2014) Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: emergence, survival and fall. Cambridge
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