Call for papers - Between protest and adaptation. The Playing Field for Institution Building in Chile and Argentina, 1850-1914

Formal institutions and policies shape the evolution of countries, promoting or hindering intentional changes. While democratic institutions, based on the principle of limited government, do not guarantee equal access or influence to the former, they set a precedent from which to address them within a network of correlations of disputing forces; furthermore, weaknesses in limited government do not at the same time mean uncontested control over them. Rather, these institutions are the product of factors such as heterogeneous interests, different distributions and endowments of resources, different worldviews and ideologies, and a distribution of power among political actors that can rarely be assumed uniformly.

For Carl Schmitt, the 19th century represented the creation of two worlds in tension: the imperium (the world of sovereignty) and the dominium (the world of property). The factors that influence the dynamics of this modern political economy are far from exhaustively understood.

The oligarchic political regimes of Chile and Argentina during the 1850-1914 period, characterized by being relatively closed, are a little explored case of the complex process of action and reaction between the dominium and the imperium, which necessarily intervenes in the construction and accommodation of the resulting policies and institutions. As is evident in the interrelated spaces of ideas, political, economic and socio-cultural, conflict, understood as the clash of interests and positions, rather than harmony, would characterize the oligarchic period of both countries. Hegemony (albeit contested) rather than absolute domination would better explain the resulting institutions and policies.

Revista Historia Social y de las Mentalidades invites researchers to participate with a contribution for this thematic issue that will underline and contribute to the understanding of the different crucial dialectic games of contestation and accommodation, that essentially shaped the institutions during the oligarchic period in Chile and Argentina: the game of ideas, the political game, the economic game and the socio-cultural game.  Articles will be received between 25th of June 2020 and 7th of march 2021. The editorial standards are available at the following link: http://www.revistas.usach.cl/ojs/index.php/historiasocial/about/submissions.

Coordinators
Dr. Alfonso Dingemans, USACH
Dra. © Carla Rivera, USACH