John Dewey, Juan Bautista Alberdi and Inter-American Philosophical Responses to Caudillismo

This essay draws on resources from across the Americas to understand and respond to the threat of fascism facing the Americas. It surveys warnings by Latinx analysist that that the current US president strives to be a caudillo gringo or a US leader working squarely within the tradition of Latin American fascist dictators. It then examines arguments by two American philosophers—John Dewey from the United States and Juan Bautista Alberdi from Argentina – about how caudillismo and fascism take root within democracies in order to glean guidance on how we might remedy the current anti-democratic threat. Perhaps the most critical insight drawn from these Inter-American philosophers is that liberal political institutions alone can’t correct these problems because fascism and caudillismo are symptoms of deeper disorders within democratic culture that can only be rectified by fostering democratic community and changing the conditions that precipitated the regime.