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 Revolución del Parque, a 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 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.

Under the administration of Sáenz Peña, a law was written to allow for secret universal suffrage, which permitted the free elections of 1916.

In 1931, following the previous year's military coup, the conservatives returned to power under the banner of the National Democratic Party, leading the Concordancia coalition.

The traditional conservative forces were politically marginalized following World War II and the rise of Peronism, and after 1955 the PDN fell apart.