The discursive continuities of the Menemist rupture

SEBASTIÁN BARROS

Populism and the Mirror of Democracy

Verso

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2005; p. 250 - 273

Menemism is often understood as a watershed for Argentine politics. On the one hand, it is thought of as a break with the political past of the country that would be given by the contrast between Menem´s discourse and the previous articulating discourse, Alfonsinism. It is assumed that Menem represented a radical break with the way in which the political formation was structured during Alfonsín´s presidency - around a nodal point "democracy" articulated to notions of national unity and institutional change. On the other hand, the second radical break that Menemist discourse is supposed to have provoked is the break with traditional Peronism. It is assumed that Menem´s discourse changed its content after taking office, failing to comply with the Peronist voters´ mandate. Menem´s discourse would thus be different, and even in opposition, to the contents of Peronist discourse. In this article, these two assumptions will be discussed and showed to be wrong. In the first case, I will argue that Menem´s discourse had more in common with the discourse of democracy of Alfonsinism and the Peronist Renovation than it is usually accepted. In the second case, I will argue that Menem´s discourse had an important characteristic: the ambiguity of the elements and meanings that constituted the particular discourse. This allowed Menem to present himself as a Peronist even when he changed the content and meaning of the traditional Peronist discourse.