Tender and Terrible, Thrones and Scaffolds: Affections and Political Instability in José María Ramos Mejía's Las multitudes argentinas

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand the way in which affects appear and allow us to conceive a theory of political instability in José María Ramos Mejía's Las multitudes argentinas (1899). In this sense, what is of interest in relation to affects is how Ramos Mejía thinks of them as an excess impossible to govern in its totality. Moreover, it is argued that they account for the impossibility of governing the multitude and the limits of the meneur [leader]. The hypothesis is as follows: affections, far from occupying a marginal place, are a central element of ramosmejian thought and particularly of the leader-multitude link insofar as they point out its contingency. This hypothesis is developed in the three sections into which this paper is divided. In the first instance, I will focus on restoring the relevance and presence of affectivity in Las multitudes argentinas. From the example of love, it is argued that affections, far from being a secondary element, are central for Ramos Mejía. In a second instance, the problem of the unity of such affectivity is addressed, that is to say, the role of the leader is problematized. This role depends on a way of conceiving affection as a dynamic that starts from the first “anonymous” men who constitute the multitude up to the institution of the meneur. In a third instance, the leader-multitude link is analyzed. There it is pointed out that, approaching Las multitudes argentinas from an analogous debate in laclausian studies, we can identify elements that point to the impossibility of the government of the multitude and a principle of political instability based on the protagonism of the affective over the unity of the leader. Finally, the argument presented here is reinstated and I conclude with some final reflections.