Progressive Democratic Party

The Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) emerged in late 1914 as part of an effort to unite the scattered liberal and conservative political forces of Buenos Aires and the interior into a large national political party. The project, begun in 1912, was the essential complement to the electoral reform of President Roque Sáenz Peña, who sought to integrate radicalism into the political system, but also to defeat it at the polls. The death of Sáenz Peña and the succession of Vice President Victorino de la Plaza in 1914 left the movement without leadership. To make matters worse, the excessive number of potential presidential candidates, such as Lisandro de la Torre (1868–1939), Marcelino Ugarte, Julio A. Roca Jr., and Benito Villanueva (1856–1933), and the difficult clash between the liberal wing led by de la Torre and the conservative wing led by Ugarte, divided the party and permitted the victory of Hipólito Irigoyen (1852–1933) in 1916. The conservative wing left the province of Buenos Aires, and this led to the PDP being identified with de la Torre, though he had been just one leader among many. The 1916 defeat led to massive desertions from the party, and since then the PDP's strength has been concentrated in the city of Buenos Aires and in the province of Santa Fe, practically the only places where it still exists.

See alsoIrigoyen, Hipólito; Roca, Julio Argentino; Sáenz Peña, Roque; Torre, Lisandro de la; Ugarte, Marcelino.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marcor, Darío. La reforma política en la encrucijada: La experiencia demoprogresista en el Estado provincial santafesino. Santa Fe, Argentina: UNL (Universidad Nacional del Litoral), 1994.

Malamud, Carlos. "El Partido Demócrata Progresista: Un intento fallido de construir un partido nacional liberal-conservador." Desarrollo Económico 138 (1995): 289-308.

                                        Carlos Malamud