Opinion polls and surveys in the BANADE archives: a productive use of governmental technologies by the last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983)

JULIA RISLER; LAURA SCHENQUER

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Jessica Stites Mor - University of British Columbia Okanagan

Año: 2019 vol. 44 p. 225 - 242

Surveys and opinion polls were systematically carried out by thelast military dictatorship in Argentina (1976?1983), becoming themain source to comprehend public opinion. Governmental andmilitary institutions with intelligence services focused on thepopulation carried out polls on collective moods, producedreports on the ´psychosocial situation´, and designed communicationstrategies as well as propaganda campaigns to revert thetrend of negative opinion. This article analyzes opinion polls andsurveys carried out in 1981, which have not been systematicallystudied yet. The polls and surveys can be found in the BANADEarchives. These documents open a new dimension of analysis,which leads to the hypothesis that the last military dictatorshipin Argentina governed not only through constant repression butalso through a productive plan, as systematic as the suppressiveplan, aiming at the regulation of behavior to achieve useful outcomes(compliance, support, obedience, etc.).** Al igual que el artículo publicado en Sociohistórica, este trabajo se basa en la documentación hallada en el Archivo Nacional de la Memoria (Fondo BANADE-CONADEP). No obstante, el material fue utilizado con fines diferentes: en Sociohistórica se trabajó sobre la utilización de estos documentos para analizar la dimensión productiva de la dictadura y la construcción de consenso, y para esta revista (CJLA) se problematizó el significado de los documentos provenientes de los ´archivos de la represión´ y los usos para realizar investigaciones en ciencias sociales. * La revista Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies se encuentra en los catálogos MIAR y Latindex.