Kirchner’s Argentina: between populism and centre-left

SEBASTIÁN BARROS

Londres

Workshop; Workshop: “Left of Centre Governments in Latin America: Current Practices and Future Prospects; 2005

Institute for the Study of the Americas and London School of Economics and Political Science

When one examines Argentina in the last thirty years two issues appear as the key topics to look at. The first issue is what I will broadly call the democratic question, which not only makes reference to party politics and elections, but also to questions about national unity and the political inclusion of popular sectors, both implied in the notion of democracy. The second issue is about the models of economic development at stake in these thirty years. It is easy to see the similarity with the line of argument of the conference discussion paper and the proposal to discuss Latin America in a “post transition to democracy and post neoliberalism” context. I will argue that the process we are going through in Argentina nowadays is precisely a re-articulation of these two issues, the democratic question and the economic model of development, and the discursive treatment they received in the last thirty years. I will take both issues as a starting point for my presentation about Kirchner’s government in Argentina. I will then proceed to briefly examine what in the discussion paper was called ideological retreat and loss of identity suffered by LOC movements and parties when in power. My final argument will be that Kirchner is caught between populist and leftist discourses, and that more than retreat and loss in relation to identity in his case we should talk about an aggressive discursive strategy and the attempt to articulate a new identity around certain LOC contents.