Abstract

BOSCH, Graciela. El "tercer estado" de los plebeyos como objeto de conocimiento en el imaginario de la élite intelectual: Argentina a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX. Cuad.Sur, Let. [online]. 2005, n.35-36, pp. 183-200. ISSN 1668-7426.

During the end of the XIX and beginning of the XXth century, some regenerationist oriented theories conceived by the argentine intellectual elite pretended an interpretation of the working class in a pre-modern key. The regenerationism found in José Rodo, Miguel Cané and Manuel Gálvez is represented by an unbending conception of social stratification. To this effect, Jose Rodo has considered that the qualitative aspect, implicit in the spiritual evolution of mankind, and the quantitative aspect of democracy are incompatible, without the elite's tutelage over the "multitudes." Following this line of thought, Miguel Cane made a rigid separation, creating a hierarchy amongst the sphere of material production on one hand, and a cultural-political sphere on the other hand. In this way, he conceived a program of citizen access to what is public, thanks to and excluding people destined to the world of work and necessity. Finally, Manuel Galvez attributed to himself the messianic leadership towards the awakening of popular conscience, by means of a program destined to replace the liberal system, based on the State constitution, by another, for the foundation of a nationality whose roots should be searched amongst de "rustic and miserable" considered as their unconscious bearers.

Keywords : Regenerationism; "Commoners' third estate"; Political tutelage.