The decades between 1920 and 1940 saw the emergence of an unprecedented amount of attention to Machiavelli in Argentine political thought. His works and legacy were the object of controversy and debate, and his “revival” often came up in texts and writings devoted to the study and analysis of his ideas. In Chapter 2, it was seen that some controversies revolved around the nature of politics, the ways of addressing and studying it, its place and meaning in human affairs, and its defining and decisive phenomena. Another aspect of the discussion was related to doctrinal and ideological definitions. What was the tradition or current of thought in which Machiavelli should be inscribed? Was he a key figure for liberalism or anti-liberalism? Is it possible to define him as a republican? If the answer is affirmative, what relation was there between his republicanism, liberalism, and democracy? Was Machiavelli's authoritarianism based on his praise of the prince? Or was it also an aspect of his republican convictions? Argentine intellectual output analyzed all these questions.

It is revealing to link the degree of attention paid to Machiavelli with political developments in Argentina between 1910 and 1945, approximately. During these years, the consensus that had been formed about the liberal project of the Nation, enshrined in the 1853–60 Constitution, fell apart, and consequently, a current of anti-liberalism (in a range of different expressions, to be explored in this chapter) gained importance in political thought. In the realm of political life, the crisis of liberal Argentina followed a tortuous path. In 1912, secret, mandatory, universal (male) suffrage was established; in 1930, the democratic experience was upended by a coup (the first of five in Argentina during the twentieth century), but efforts to install an authoritarian regime failed. This led to constitutional restoration in 1932, marked by institutional and electoral distortion (electoral fraud being the order of the day). The period wound up with a fresh coup attempt in 1943, whose outcome was the return to an electoral system in 1946, when Juan Domingo Peron was elected president. It has been pointed out that the crisis and instability that were features of public life during this period could well be conceived of as a “Machiavellian moment,” given the reflection and political and ideological debates they sparked in the context of a global scenario defined as “the storm of the world.”