ABSTRACT
The intellectuals and politicians concerned in Argentina with the “social question” at the beginning of the twentieth century were influenced by two currents of thought that had emerged in Europe in the second half of the previous century: positivist neo-Krausism and the German Historical School. This allowed a first rapprochement between the local representatives of the two movements: schematically, between Hipólito Yrigoyen and the rising radicalism on the one hand and Alejandro Bunge and the intellectuals gathered around the Revista de Economía Argentina, on the other. But the proposals which started to be heard for a greater intervention in favor of the industry would end up clashing with the Krausist ideology which prevailed among those who held the political power since 1916: while the men linked to Bunge decreed the exhaustion of the primary exporter model and the need to move towards a more diversified economic structure, the Radicals were interested in the maintenance of the “social harmony.” At the same time, Bunge and his group started to look for a way to put their ideas into practice; for this purpose, they allied themselves with important business associations such as the Argentine Industrial Union.
