Democracy in Argentina: Hope and Disillusion

This is a study of the social, political and economic development that took place in Argentina under President Raul Alfonsin, offering a new approach to the democritization process and economic adjustment of the 1980s. The objective is to analyse a period in Argentina's history that contains the key to understanding the changes undergone by the Argentinian state and economy in the 1980s. The book argues that the crisis of the Argentinian state deepened under Alfonsin due to a particular combination of economic and political circumstances. The run on the austral in February 1989, followed by hyper-inflation, imposed a specific restructuring which was eventually undertaken by the Peronist Menem government. The author argues that President Carlos Menem was able to carry this out because Alfonsin had failed to impose an alternative restructuring to that of the 1976 military dictatorship. To understand Alfonsin's failure, the book analyses the political factors that influence economic decison-making and theways such factores are inextricably interreleated. In Argentina the important political factors were the trade union, international creditors and the armed forces. Although the radical government of Alfonsin was unable to resolve the crisis of the Argentinian state, this book suggests that as result of its policies on human rights violations, which undermined the political role of the Armed forces, it was able to set Argentina on the path towards consolidating democracy.

Laura Tedesco is lecturer in politics in the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK.