The “Lay or Free” conflict in Argentinian universities in the Mid-20th Century. What role did entrepreneurial interests play?

Abstract

This article represents a new insight into the conflict in Argentina between 1955 and 1959 when the government autho­rized private universities to award professio­nal degrees. As the Catholic Church was the leading institution to maintain that proposal, the conflict appeared religious and was called «Lay or Free». People advocating for state public higher education defended traditional laicism of Argentinian education, considering that the new universities would be denomi­national and ideologically sectarian. On the other hand, people advocating private higher education maintained that state monopoly restricted liberty and religious teaching. The facts analyzed here allow us to conclude that the problem was more complex and that the enterprises that financed them promoted the intention to establish private universities due to their economic interests. The conflicts should have been called “Public or Private”, broader terms that better reflect not only the ideological and religious aspects of the problem but also the economic ones, related to the postwar trend, an epoch in which the North American entrepreneurially managed university model was spreading worldwide.