Politics In Argentina Research Articles

Intellectuals and democracy: the Argentine magazine Contorno (1953–1959)

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the relationship between Argentine intellectuals and democracy between 1958 and 1962. In the Argentine magazine Contorno (1953-1959), renowned figures such as Ismael and David Viñas, Noé Jitrik, and León Rozitchner aimed to rethink the role of intellectuals in the face of democratization. Contorno initially supported Arturo Frondizi’s presidency (1958–1962), as they regarded it as a valuable political experience distanced from Peronism (1946–1955) and Revolución Libertadora (1955–1958). While the magazine published a series of essays regarding the post-Peronist cultural and political scenario, some of its members were also part of Frondizi’s campaign and administration. However, Contorno finally contested this democratic experience. They deeply critiqued the traición Frondizi, as the government’s political and economic policies radically differed from its initial election promises. Studying Contorno allows us not only to review an oscillatory period of Argentine politics but also to reconsider the always-problematic links between intellectuals and democracy.

A Pious Paradox

The divergent trajectories in the legalization of same-sex marriage amidst disparate levels of religiosity challenges conventional wisdom about the relationship between religion, state, and society. Contrary to the conventional belief that higher religiosity in countries fosters conservative views and resistance to progressive social reforms, Argentina and Chile present an intriguing anomaly. Utilizing data from the World Values Survey and examining the historical, political, and social contexts of each country, this paper seeks to understand why Argentina, with its higher religiosity and constitutional favoritism towards Catholicism, became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010, while Chile, less religious but more socially conservative, followed much later in 2021. The paper explores the divergent pre and post-dictatorship economic philosophies, governmental structures, sociopolitical landscapes and the distinct roles of the Catholic Church in 21st century Chilean and Argentine politics. It argues that in Argentina, individual political views and a vibrant civil society have developed independently of religious beliefs, fostering a political culture more open to progressive social reform. Conversely, Chile’s entrenched neoliberal policies and the Catholic Church’s sustained influence in Chilean civil society align with more conservative social values, impeding similar progress. These findings challenge the assumption that higher levels of religiosity necessarily correlate with social conservatism and underscore the complex interplay between religion, government, and social values. This research not only illuminates the nuanced dynamics at play in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Latin America but also suggests broader implications for understanding the impact of religiosity on political and social attitudes globally.

The Catholic Effervescence: Catholic Church, Society and Politics in Argentina between 1955 and 1976

The Catholic Effervescence: Catholic Church, Society and Politics in Argentina between 1955 and 1976

Beyond Sex: Pornographic Journalism, Violence, and Politics in Argentina’s Transition to Democracy

After 1983, with the end of the military dictatorship and the return to democracy, nudity and sex became ubiquitous in Argentina. As society was eroticised and sexuality politicised, a debate about limits, excesses, correctness, and standards arose, in which pornography was central. In addition to the increasing production, access to, and circulation of sexually explicit materials and the debates and tensions around it, the pornographic pervaded culture in more unexpected but no less conspicuous ways during the transition to democracy. Pornography, as a disruptive genre and transgressive cultural construct, provided a flexible and dramatic allegory to address difficult and pressing subjects that were unrelated to sex. This essay examines the concepts of “pornographic journalism”, “pornocracia”, and “pornographic democracy” and explores the use of “obscene” in descriptions of the dictatorship, state repression, and the Catholic Church. The analysis shows how commentators at opposite sides of the ideological spectrum conjured the conventions, tropes, leitmotifs, and expectations of pornography to make an elaborate interpretation of those institutions and voice harsh criticism against them.

Mourners who can not mourn: Argentina's Parque de la Memoria as a spatial threshold of memory

In this paper I explore the subtle regulation of cultural practice in Argentina's Parque de la Memoria. I interpret the Parque de la Memoria, or memory park, as a spatial threshold. When family members of the desaparecidos enter the park they enter the memory of the spatial threshold as what remains (of what remained) of the violent attempt by the Argentine military regime to spatialise political order. The desaparecidos, or disappeared, were to be captured and performatively constituted in the space of exception as the embodiment of a terrorist subversion that threatened Argentina's re-founding as a Western, Christian civilisation. To resist the temptation to leave a flower at the monument as the memory of the spatial threshold between the sacred and profane, life and death, the city and the river, is to hold open the possibility for an alternative politics by maintaining potentiality's link to impotentiality as the ability to not-mourn. It is in this potentiality, not-yet-actualised and thus not exhausted, that space is opened for a post-dictatorship politics in Argentina that would reach beyond the exhausted notions of the need for reconciliation with, or the redemption of, the disappearances of the disappeared.

Abortion and Democracy: Contentious Body Politics in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

In the chaos of 2020, with a backdrop of the global Corona Virus (CoVid19) pandemic, and in the midst of the unprecedented and historical political movements throughout south and central America centring abortion rights politics, ‘Abortion and Democracy: Contentious Body Politics in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay’ came to be. Edited by Professor Barbara Sutton and Dr Nayla Luz Vacarezza, this important book astutely chronicles the struggles, challenges, and victories of recent abortion politics in Latin America. This edited collection is organized into four main parts examining abortion politics in Latin America’s Southern Cone of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. It explores how the demand for abortion rights shapes and has shaped political agendas in the region post-dictatorship and analyses how the issue, from the micro to the socio-political level, shapes individual experiences of abortion access, activism, and litigation. Chapters throughout the volume are based on qualitative interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, media analysis, statistical information, visual analysis, and historical-comparative approaches. The book concludes with reflections on where we can go from here with the lessons already learned from the successes and failures of what has come to be known as the ‘Green Tide’.

The Argentine political and economic paradox

Unlike most Latin American nations, Argentina experienced a situation of partisan political stability in a context of consistently deteriorating macroeconomic conditions. Other countries in the region, meanwhile, have suffered profound crises and political transformations with notable stability in macroeconomic indicators. That is why the article investigates the causes of this paradox experienced by Argentina and aims to identify the causes of this institutional political stability that is maintained despite the macroeconomic disorder, the strong polarization and the deterioration of the social situation. To carry out this task, the article details the situation of the countries of the region based on the study of various economic indicators and then describes the political and economic situation in Argentina.

Radical Nationalist and Philo-Fascist Movements in Argentina in the 1930s

As in many Western countries, in Argentina in the interwar period, an influential right-wing radical movement arose, close in its ideological and political characteristics to European fascism. Initially, it was an intellectual movement that was able to form a political movement that took an important place in Argentine politics, the extreme expression of which was the military-civilian coup of J. F. Uriburu in 1930. In the ideological baggage of the philo-fascists there were theses about the totalitarian state, about the struggle against liberalism and democracy, about the corporate state structure, anti-imperialism and anti-Semitism. The peculiarity of Argentina was such a phenomenon as clero-fascism, a trend that arose from the union of nationalism and Catholic integrism under the banner of right-wing authoritarianism, philo-fascism and clericalism. An attempt to launch right-wing, corporatist reforms during the Uriburu dictatorship failed primarily because of the reluctance of the Argentine ruling elite to change the development model. As a result, philo-fascist groups and movements were pushed out of the political scene, marginalized, but at the same time they retained intellectual and social influence in the country, which was reflected in the following years with the advent of Peronism in the political life of Argentina.

Covid-19 pandemic: subjectivities and politics in Argentina

This article analyzes the extent to which the pandemic, the confinement situation, the evaluation of the policies and attitudes of the leaders affected the subjectivities of Argentine citizens. Special attention is paid to the influence of the strong political polarization that existed previously and, also, to the ways in which the pandemic itself could have influenced political subjectivities. In addition, we have studied the reflections that, in a pandemic context, the majority of the population made about the meaning of their lives, also relating them to their political orientations. To carry out these analyses, a series of surveys were carried out throughout the year 2021 and a sample of semi-structured interviews in the months of April and May of that same year.

Theorising migration politics: do political regimes matter?

Research on the politics of migration has so far largely produced context-bound analyses that tie specific migration policies to specific political regimes. This introduction charts existing migration research, including its gaps and biases, and introduces new avenues for empirically grounded theory-building. We draw upon the rich collection of empirical cases assembled in this volume to demonstrate that political regimes – be they liberal or illiberal, democratic or authoritarian – do not strictly and mechanically determine migration politics. Instead, we argue that migration politics and political regimes co-produce each other. Studies of migration politics in Argentina, Tunisia, Japan and South Korea, the United States and Australia, the Philippines, China, and Saudi Arabia showcase the imbrication of migration politics with broader dynamics of regime change, state formation and nation-state ideology, and dissect the role of civil society, legal actors, employers, and international norms across democratic and un-democratic contexts. They reveal unexpected similarities in migration policies in different political regimes at a time when states across the globe are increasingly adopting illiberal practices and policies. Ultimately, we suggest that, beyond contextual variations, migration politics offers an ideal vantage point for understanding state transformations and political changes around the world.

“Times of Extreme Broadcasting”: Argentine Socialism and Mass Culture during the Rise of Commercial Radio (1920–1945)

Compelled to grow politically through cultural and educational activities, Argentine socialists faced a difficult challenge in regard to mass culture in the beginnings of the twentieth century, since the new shows and media seemed to distract the people from more “enlightened” activities that were considered crucial tools for social transformation. However, despite common representations in the leftist culture literature, socialists engaged in different features of mass culture in their intent to grow in Argentine politics. This article analyzes the political positions and innovations in broadcasting regarding socialists in Argentina in the interwar period. By embracing the new dynamics of mass politics, socialists revealed themselves as pioneers in the use of radio broadcasting for political purposes. In this sense, the socialist interventions in radio provide a great opportunity for addressing the growing links between mass culture and mass politics in early twentieth-century Argentina.

‘Fantasies of Catastrophe’: Politics and Race in the Early Novels of Julio Cortázar

This paper examines politics and race in the early novels of Julio Cortázar - those written before Rayuela (1963), sometimes called his ‘Argentine trilogy’, and published after the author’s death. Despite Cortázar’s later public statements about the importance of an author’s engagement with politics, it is the analytical acumen in the realist aspects of these often fantastical novels, rather than a commitment to a stance, or a political message, that ensures the continued potency of his works as political fictions. Furthermore, recent critical investigations of race and racism in Argentina deepen our understanding of the author’s politics through reference to these questions. Cortázar admitted later in life that his former self shared many of the prejudices of his narrators and characters. We aim to nuance Beckman’s recent assertion that Cortázar displays ‘racist […] assumptions embedded within his vision of universality’ (2018) by setting these works against the background of race and politics in Argentina.

Unveiling Latin American White multiculturalism: Black women’s politics in Argentina and Costa Rica

ABSTRACT This article proposes theoretical and methodological approaches to researching Whiteness in two countries that embraced Whiteness over mestizaje and adopted ‘late multiculturalism’: Costa Rica and Argentina. We situate our analysis within critical race and Black feminist frameworks, which argue that the construction of White identity cannot exist without the construction of racialized others and that Black women’s experiences and knowledge offer critical vantage points from which to theorize social worlds. We employ a method of juxtaposition to analyze the collision between Black women’s political initiatives and anti-Black racist responses from a White national common sense. The Costa Rican case combines participant observation with critical discourse analysis of press coverage to assess the perception of, and experience of, the first Black woman Vice President, Epsy Campbell, vis-à-vis a White gaze. The Argentinian case includes an ethnographic examination of Black women’s experiences of racism during their participation in feminist organizing. Our analysis reveals the endurance of (foundational) White national ideologies despite the deployment of ‘multicultural’ discourses. We propose the concept of ‘White multiculturalism’ to explain how White Costa Ricans and Argentines simultaneously embrace multiculturalism through progressive policies and rhetoric while maintaining investments in homogeneous Whiteness through everyday institutional and interpersonal practices and interactions.

The archival riot:Travesti/Trans* audiovisual memory politics in twenty-first-century Argentina

This article analyzes the making of travesti/trans* memory politics in Argentina. Focused on audiovisual initiatives, archives, catalogs, novels, and digital activism, it studies how these policies emerged in the wider context of the archival and digital turn. While placing the dialogues with Argentine centrality of memory in social conflict and Latin American archival grassroots politics, this text addresses the role of remembrance in the production of travesti/trans* identity. This article argues that trans* memory initiatives acted as politics of belonging that worked in two levels: defining the limits of a common identitarian past, and reaching a wider cisgender audience to highlight the social violence that defined travesti/trans’ precarious lives. This article shows how by placing travesti/trans* memories in tension with national retelling of the past, they are building politics of belonging to legitimate their claims of social reparation to make new trans* futures possible.

The Unexpected Effect of the 2001 Crisis: The Revival of Right‐Wing Mobilisation in Argentina

The mass protests of December 2001 were a turning point in Argentine politics. However, their effects in the mid‐ to long term have been less clear. This article argues that the 2001 crisis had two distinct consequences. The first, which was expected and immediate, was the stimulus given to left‐wing grassroots organisations. The other, unexpected and deferred, was the revitalisation of right‐wing collectives in subsequent years. The article uses a multiple technique approach.

Mariela Muñoz: Citizenship, Motherhood, and Transsexual Politics in Argentina (1943–2017)

Mariela Muñoz: Citizenship, Motherhood, and Transsexual Politics in Argentina (1943–2017)

At the Margins of Time and Place

At the Margins of Time and Place

“We Are Peronists, We Are Organic”: Discipline, Authority, and Loyalty in Argentine Populism

Since 1945, Argentine politics has been largely defined by Peronism, a populist movement established by General Juan Perón. While the ideology of Peronism has shifted and swerved over its seven-decade history, its central emphasis on loyalty has remained constant. This paper examines the notion of “organicity” (organicidad), a Peronist conception of obedience, to elucidate how populist movements valorize discipline and loyalty in order to unify their ranks around sentiment and ritual in the absence of more stable programmatic positions. The original sense of “organicity”, as Perón developed it in his early writings, equated to strict military notions of discipline, obedience, and insubordination. In other words, Perón understood loyalty as an organic conception of discipline that consisted of both unyielding deference for the leader and unwavering commitment to the Peronist Movement. Yet, at particular moments in Argentine political history, Peronist militants either find organicity and loyalty to be intrinsically incompatible, or vocalize definitions of organicity that seem to question the top-down structure of the movement celebrated in Perón’s writings. As a result, among Peronists there is disagreement over what it means to behave organically and loyally. This article draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork among Peronist militants to argue that populism’s authoritarian preoccupation with fealty attempts to obscure the internal contradictions that result from its lack of clear ideological commitments. However, an emphasis on loyalty cannot produce eternally harmonious uniformity. As Peronists come to view those holding alternate interpretations of their doctrine as heretical and traitorous, their accusations against their comrades reveal the intrinsic fragility of populist unity.

Левый вираж перонизма в «долгие» 1960-е гг.

The Argentinian 60s of the ХХ century were a time of growing political tension and the emergence of new ideological and political movements that constituted the era of revolutionary activism and ideological search. The key actor in this process was left-wing Peronism, which experienced a sharp evolution in the direction of Marxism, new left ideological currents, and the anti-imperialist unity of the «Third world» countries during these years. The rapprochement of the Peronist left with Marxism in its classical (Soviet), Maoist, Gramscian and even Trotskyist versions gave rise to the emergence of a fruitful current of the «new left», which had a decisive influence on Argentine social thought and political agenda. The 60s were key for the further history of Argentina, both politically, ideologically and socially. Left-wing Peronism brought a lot of new things to Argentine politics, both revolutionary violence and the desire to perceive ideas from other left-wing currents, not only Marxism, but also social Catholicism, «liberation theology» and terсermundism. Ideological and political processes within left-wing Peronism in the 60s, its interaction with the «new left», communists and socialists, castrism and Maoism, the development of its own concept of the national liberation revolution and national socialism is devoted to this work.

The Banality of Evil, Nunca Más and the Implicated Subject in Argentine Memory Spaces

ABSTRACT The ambiguous relations and subjectivities associated with the banality of evil are peripheral to a dominant human rights discourse oriented around the binary logics of perpetrators and victims and dictatorship and democracy. The absence of non-binary subjectivities reflects a conceptual gap relating to questions of shared responsibility posed by Hannah Arendt more than half a century ago. Despite its ongoing relevance for reflecting on the production of systematic suffering, the banality of evil remains an incomplete theoretical project. Here, I bring recent elaborations on Arendt’s notion of the banality of evil, particularly Michael Rothberg’s Implicated Subjects, to bear on Argentine memory politics. I highlight the potential for the notion of the implicated subject to expand Argentine memory studies beyond the perpetrator-victim binary of the Nunca Más human rights discourse. Conceptual art and artistic approaches to memory may provide fruitful avenues for future exploration of implicated subjectivities and horizons of responsibility.