What are we talking about when we say modernization, bureaucratization, and military professionalization in Argentina at the beginning of the twentieth century?

historiographical problems and approaches to this issue

Abstract

In the last decade, some argentine historians have studied processes of modernization, bureaucratization and professionalization in the Army in Argentina in the early twentieth century, providing new knowledge in a disciplinary field mainly interested in ideology, political participation and repressive intervention of the Armed Forces. Without omitting the relevance of the latter, these historians understood the bureaucratic and professional conceptions and practices in the Army, focusing on the perspectives and experiences of the military. Such investigations can be compared with similar processes in other state institutions and actors of the time. Based on a critical historiographical analysis, it is proposed to recognize how these processes of modernization, bureaucratization and military professionalization were defined.