Republic and Right-Wing Politics in Argentina. Republican Traditions and Democracy. From UCEDÉ to PRO

RODRIGUEZ, GABRIELA

Argentina's Right-Wing Universe During the Democratic Period (1983-2023). Processes, Actors and Issues

Routledge

Lugar: Abingdon-on-Thames; Año: 2023; p. 109 - 121

This chapter analyses the presence of the concept of "the republic" and of republican traditions in the legitimation strategies followed by right-wing political-party elites in Argentina since the democratic transition that began in 1983. The first sec- tion summarises how, in Argentina, the conceptual history of the "republic" conceptual history is closely intertwined with key moments of its political history: the May Revolution of 1810, the process of national organisation between 1853 and 1880, and the emergence of national popular movements, Radicalism and Peronism, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The second section compares the cases of UCEDÉ and PRO, located in the centre-right in the ideological geometric spectrum, which held and still holds, electoral and cultural relevance in the Argentine democracy. The last section provides an answer to the following question: why have right-wing political forces made "the republic" the pillar of their critiques against Alfonsinism (1983-1989) and Kirchnerism (2003-2015), two vernacular versions of social democracy and left-wing populism?