National Autonomist Party

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Julio A. Roca, principal figure of the National Autonomist Party

The National Autonomist Party (Partido Autonomista Nacional - PAN) was an Argentine political party during the 1880-1916 period. Created on March 15, 1874 by the union of the Autonomista Party of Adolfo Alsina and the National party of Nicolás Avellaneda. Its principal figure was Julio Argentino Roca, twice president of Argentina.

Representing the Porteño upper classes, the PAN ruled with a paternalistic leadership maintaining its grip on power through the so-called electoral machine, metaphor for electoral fraud^[1].

In economic matters it promoted the agricultural exports model, which favored the cattle and cereal producers of the pampas and was a key in the development of the Argentine Railroad.

After the 1890 Revolution an opposing movement started inside the PAN opposed to the policies of Roca, which became known as the National Autonomist Party (modern faction) (PAN - línea modernista), which proposed and institutional modernization of the country, with goals towards opening up a true democratic system without electoral fraud as a means of perpetuating the party's power. Most preeminent in this political current were Roque Sáenz Peña, Carlos Pellegrini, Ramón J. Cárcano, among others. Under the administration of Roque Sáenz Peña, a law was written to allow for universal suffrage, secret and mandatory, which permitted the free elections of 1916.

Its principal opposition was the Radical Civic Union (Unión Cívica Radical - UCR), created after the 1890 revolution. After the electoral reform of 1912, and the presidential elections of 1916, which was won by the UCR, the PAN disappeared from politics.

Presidents from the PAN: