Affectionate Mothers and the Colossal Machine: Feminism, Social Assistance and the State in Uruguay, 1910-1932

2001 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Ehrick
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
The State ◽  
Liberal Feminism ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

In 1910, the Uruguayan Public Assistance Law established the concept of universal poor relief, declaring that “anyone … indigent or lacking resources has the right to free assistance at the expense of the state.” Nothing better than this law qualifies Uruguay for its distinction as the ‘first welfare state’ in Latin America. As in other countries, much of the first social assistance legislation targeted poor women and children and relied on elite women for much of its implementation. In the Uruguayan case, the primary intersections between public assistance and private philanthropy were the secular “ladies’ committees” (comités de damas), charitable organizations without direct ties to the Catholic Church. These organizations were also an important catalyst for liberal feminism in Uruguay, whose chronology—from the foundation of the National Women's Council in 1916 through the women's suffrage law of 1932—closely parallels the history of the early Uruguayan welfare state. Following a discussion of the formation of the National Public Assistance and its significance for class and gender politics in Uruguay, this article will summarize the evolving relationship between the Uruguayan social assistance bureaucracy and one of these groups, theSociedad“La Bonne Garde,” an organization that worked with young unmarried mothers. It then discusses how a formal and direct relationship with the state helped make the Bonne Garde and other groups like it a principal point of entry for many elite women in the early phases of Uruguayan liberal feminism. Finally, this article shows how processes set in motion in the 1910s resulted in a relative marginalization of elite women from both state welfare and organized liberal feminism in the 1920s. Through an examination of the history of these ladies’ committees, we gain new insight into both welfare state formation in its earliest Latin American example as well as some of the elements and circumstances which helped shape liberal feminism in Uruguay.

To Serve the Nation

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-518
Author(s):  
Christine Ehrick
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Young Female ◽  
The State ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Domestic Servants ◽  
Private Organization ◽  
The Catholic Church

This article looks at the construction and evolution of Latin America’s first “welfare state” through the lens of social assistance. What one sees in Uruguay during these years is a modernization of paternalism, whereby the state assumed some of the roles previously played by the elite and, to a lesser extent, the Catholic Church, protecting and assisting society’s “weak” without fundamentally challenging or altering class or gender inequalities or hierarchies. The article focuses on the Asociación La Bonne Garde, a state-subsidized, ostensibly private organization that housed pregnant juveniles and placed them as domestic servants in the homes of the more well-to-do. Exploring the relationships between the elite women who ran this organization, their poor juvenile wards, and state bureaucrats and other reformers illustrates the establishment and evolution of this state-sponsored paternalism as well as the ways in which the young female wards attempted to manipulate this system to their own ends.

scholarly journals The relevance of public policies for the sustainability of community media: Lessons from Argentina

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-90
Author(s):  
Mara Soledad Segura ◽  
Alejandro Linares ◽  
Agustn Espada ◽  
Vernica Longo ◽  
Ana Laura Hidalgo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
Audiovisual Communication ◽  
Community Media ◽  
Communication Services ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Promotion Policies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Extreme Media

Since 2004 and for the first time in the history of broadcasting in the region, a dozen Latin American countries have acknowledged community radio and television stations as legal providers of audiovisual communication services. In Argentina, a law passed in 2009 not only awarded legal recognition to the sector, it also provided a promotion mechanism for community media. In this respect, it was one of the most ambitious ones in the region. The driving question is: How relevant are public policies for the sustainability of community media in Argentina? The argument is: even though the sector of community media has developed and persisted for decades in illegal conditions imposed by the state, the legalization and promotion policies carried out by the state from the perspective of human rights in a context of extreme media ownership concentration have been critical to the growth and sustainability of non-profit media.

Die Macht der Institution

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
The State ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

This volume examines Arnold Gehlen’s theory of the state from his philosophy of the state in the 1920s via his political and cultural anthropology to his impressive critique of the post-war welfare state. The systematic analyses the book contains by leading scholars in the social sciences and the humanities examine the interplay between the theory and history of the state with reference to the broader context of the history of ideas. Students and researchers as well as other readers interested in this subject will find this book offers an informative overview of how one of the most wide-ranging and profound thinkers of the twentieth century understands the state. With contributions by Oliver Agard, Heike Delitz, Joachim Fischer, Andreas Höntsch, Tim Huyeng, Rastko Jovanov, Frank Kannetzky, Christine Magerski, Zeljko Radinkovic, Karl-Siegbert Rehberg and Christian Steuerwald.

scholarly journals Feminicide, Women's Bodies and Impunity

10.3823/2592 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cícero Ferreira Freitas ◽  
Modesto Leite Rolim Neto
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Vulnerability Factors ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Self Mutilation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

Background: One must take into account the conditions that develop the lives of several women who are at risk, above all, in terms of mental health. In addition, Latin American countries dominate the 10 ranking on feminicide. Objective: To understand the chaotic scenario that haunts the reality of many women around the world. Dark, bloody and restrained are common adjectives to the silent daily suffering they experience. Results: In general, there’s also a reluctance in some communities to acknowledge violence against women as a problem. Thus, it is noted that such taboos make it difficult to debate the topic. As a consequence, the chauvinism culture silences an already voiceless problem because of the lack of financial support experienced by these women to raise their children. At this stage, demanding justice and upholding the law guaranteeing the right to life of all citizens often seems to be the only way to punish the perpetrators of these women. Limitations: Although it is a current theme, faced with the situational framework, it is difficult to find evidence about this aspect, it's important to highlight that those vulnerability factors are also risk factors for mental health disorders following assault. It was found that factors such as age, personal characteristics such as the life history of each person, involvement with self-mutilation, participation and support in mental or social services suggest to be more important than the type of aggression as predictors of mental disorders health. Conclusion: At first sight it seems that it is impossible to give what you do not have for someone who does not want to, but this is only a psychological contradiction if you consider indifference and love, or anger and love, or hatred and love as opposing feelings, as long as those feelings can exist simultaneously. It is necessary for society to reclaim humanity for women to exercise freedom. Because based on what was seen are still cultural patterns, like misogyny, discrimination and the ideal of male superiority that support the guilty of the assaulted rather than the aggressor.

State Musical Populisms

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-138
Author(s):  
Pablo Palomino
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Latin American ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
Cultural Activism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Masses

This chapter shows the emergence of a regional sense of Latin America as part of the musical pedagogy of the nationalist states at the peak of the state-building efforts to organize, through a variety of instruments of cultural activism, what at the time were called “the masses.” It analyzes particularly the cases of Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina—the three largest countries of the time in population and economic development—from the 1910s through the 1950s. It proposes a comparative history of Latin American musical populisms, focusing in particular on policies of music education, broadcasting, censorship, and experiences of state-sponsored collective singing.

Turkish Industrial Relations at the Crossroads: Revisiting the History of Industrial Relations in the Early Post World War Two Period

2018 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 151-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Didem Özkiziltan ◽  
Aziz Çelik
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
World War ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Critical Juncture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Critical Account ◽  
The Right

AbstractThe 1961 constitutional reform in Turkey recognized the right to strike and granted other rights and freedoms related to the collective actions of labor. Conventional wisdom holds that Turkish trade unions became independent of the state power with class-based interests only after this reform. Across mainstream literature, this is considered, in historical institutionalist terms, as the first critical juncture in Turkey's industrial relations. This paper provides a critical account of the institutional continuity, development, and change that took place in Turkey's industrial relations starting from its establishment as a republic in 1923 until the end of the 1950s, by considering the socioeconomic and legal-political environment during these years. Considering the historical evidence employed, and under historical institutionalism, it is argued that the first critical juncture in the country's industrial relations occurred in 1947, when the ruling cliques permitted the establishment of trade unions. In this paper, it is purported that the consensus reached by the trade unions on the necessity of the right to strike from the mid-1950s onwards initiated a peaceful class struggle between Turkish labor and the state, which gradually steered the industrial relations toward the second critical juncture following the promulgation of the 1961 constitution.

Mexico, Gilberto Bosques and the Refugees

2000 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Katz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Military ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
North Americans ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

In the eyes of many North Americans, Mexico is above all a country of immigration from which hundreds of thousands hope to pass across the border to find the promised land in the United States. What these North Americans do not realize is that for thousands of Latin Americans and for many U.S. intellectuals, Mexico after the revolution of 1910-1920 constituted the promised land. People persecuted for their political or religious beliefs—radicals, revolutionaries but liberals as well—could find refuge in Mexico when repressive regimes took over their country.In the 1920s such radical leaders as Víctor Raúl Haya De La Torre, César Augusto Sandino and Julio Antonio Mella found refuge in Mexico. This policy continued for many years even after the Mexican government turned to the right. Thousands of refugees from Latin American military dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay fled to Mexico. The history of that policy of the Mexican government has not yet been written.

Lombardo Toledano’s Struggles in the World of Labor

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Spenser
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Dialectical Materialism ◽  
The State ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Masses

Vicente Lombardo Toledano was born into a prosperous family in 1894 in Teziutlán, Puebla, and died in Mexico City in 1968. His life is a window into the history of the 20th century: the rise and fall of the old regime; the Mexican Revolution and the transformations that the revolution made in society; the intellectual and social reconstruction of the country under new parameters that included the rise of the labor movement to political prominence as well as the intervention of the trade unions in the construction and consolidation of the state; the dispute over the course of the nation in the tumultuous 1930s; and the configuration of the political and ideological left in Mexico. Lombardo Toledano’s life and work illustrate Mexico’s connections with the world during the Second World War and the Cold War. Lombardo Toledano belonged to the intellectual elite of men and women who considered themselves progressives, Marxists, and socialists; they believed in a bright future for humanity. He viewed himself as the conscious reflection of the unconscious movement of the masses. With unbridled energy and ideological fervor, he founded unions, parties, and newspapers. During the course of his life, he adhered to various beliefs, from Christianity to Marxism, raising dialectical materialism to the level of a theory of knowledge of absolute proportions in the same fashion that he previously did with idealism. In life, he aroused feelings of love and hate; he was the object of royal welcomes and the target of several attacks; national and international espionage agencies did not let him out of their sight. He was detained in and expelled from several countries and prevented from visiting others. Those who knew him still evoke his incendiary oratorical style, which others remember as soporific. His admirers praise him as the helmsman of Mexican and Latin American workers; others scorn the means he used to achieve his goals as opportunist. Lombardo Toledano believed that the Soviet Union had achieved a future that Mexico could not aspire to imitate. Mexico was a semifeudal and semicolonial country, hindered by imperialism in its economic development and the creation of a national bourgeoisie, without which it could not pass on to the next stage in the evolution of mankind and without which the working class and peasantry were doomed to underdevelopment. In his interpretation of history, the autonomy of the subordinate classes did not enter into the picture; rather it was the intellectual elites allied with the state who had the task of instilling class consciousness in them. No matter how prominent a personality he was in his time, today few remember the maestro Vicente Lombardo Toledano, despite the many streets and schools named after him. However, the story of his life reveals the vivid and contradictory history of the 20th century, with traces that remain in contemporary Mexico.

Prevention, Welfare, and Citizenship: The War on Tuberculosis and Infant Mortality in Germany, 1900-1930

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Frohman
Keyword(s):  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Hygiene ◽  
History Of Public Health ◽  
Infant Welfare ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
History Of ◽  
Medical Relief

There are many ways to approach the history of the welfare state, and one's understanding of the subject depends to a large degree on the path one takes and the questions that are asked along the way. This paper will take as its point of entry the social programs created to prosecute the war on tuberculosis and infant mortality in Germany from the turn of the last century through the 1920s, specifically the work of the tuberculosis welfare and infant welfare centers (Tuberkulose- and Säuglingsfürsorgestellen). Preventive social hygiene or medical relief programs (Gesundheitsfürsorge) to combat tuberculosis and infant mortality are central to the history of public health not only because of their role in the epidemiological transition in Germany and other western countries. These programs also have a much broader relevance because the refiguring of the rights and duties of citizenship entailed by the preventive project raises a set of questions concerning the relation between preventive social hygiene, individual freedom and well-being, and modernity that are paradigmatic for understanding the modern welfare state.

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