The connections between the Argentine entrepreneurial class and the Peronista regime were subjected to an economic policy that was basically a policy of income distribution. Reactions on the part of employers of wage labor, particular within industry, were dominated by a fundamental ambivalence that kept this sector from adopting a single position in relation to the regime. In fact, it is evident that the privileged relationship that Perón established with the working class relegated the entrepreneurial class to a less preponderant role than it had enjoyed in the past. But this very fact made the industrial sector a fundamental axis of public policies, since it was directly responsible for the production of basic consumer goods and a prime source of employment, inseparable elements of a virtuous circle that sustained the "New Argentina's" political consensus. If the need to preserve and increase support to workers tended to raise wage levels, the closing of the national market for the sake of competitive importation provided a captive market for national industry. The individual and corporate behavior of entrepreneurs generally sought to increase the benefits conceded them by the national State while at the same time attempting to keep workers' growing influence within industry in check.
Argentine industry; Argentine entrepreneurial class; peronismo