History Catching Up with the Present? State-Society Relations and the Argentine Crisis

Abstract

This article complements the view that socio-political elements underpin the causes of the current crisis by focusing on the 'Latin Americanisation' of Argentina through the acuteness of social tensions. This is attributed to economic and political change since the 1930s, through an increasingly 'politicised state', captured by self-interested actors and alienated from civil society. Based on a brief theoretical overview of state-society relations in Latin America, the essay examines how Argentina's political economy set it apart from the rest of the region until only recently. The article argues that due to dramatic changes beginning with the last military regime (1976-83), Argentina is becoming more like the rest of Latin America in its pattern of state-society relations, and the current crisis is only the most dramatic reflection of this. It concludes that the challenge facing all Argentines is to take advantage of this 'good opportunity' to set the historical record straight, so to speak, and use the space these democratic institutions provide to resolve longstanding problems before the crisis turns into a tragedy.