Political culture and political stability in Argentina

Calvert, Susan Ann (1987) Political culture and political stability in Argentina. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Sixty areas ago Argentina was widely believed to be a stable nation which had achieved a successful transition to parliamentary democracy. Her economic development was seen as comparable to that of Canada and Australia. Six successful displacements of civilian governments and more than three decades of economic stagnation have led to a new interpretation of Argentina as one of the world's great anomalies.Interest in the exceptional distance between apparent potential and actual achievement in the Argentine case has spawned numerous explanations. These have all too frequently been unidimensional. Many have stressed Argentina's peripheral position in the international economy to the conclusion of other factors. Those which have emphasised political culture have tended to be simplistic.The thesis starts by critically reviewing existing explanations of political and economic instability. It argues that the way a specific political system functions rests on many factors and that explanations must be multidimensional. In so doing it emphasises the contribution of two competing views of Argentina's particular situation to her pattern of political succession. Argentina is viewed as inheriting and nurturing two contrasting cultural legacies which have interacted in ways which are fundamentally destabilising. The model of two cultures is systematically applied to various features of Argentine political life: the concept of legitimate political action; personalism; individualism and the emphasis on kinship; economic values; and the phenomenon of nationalism. It concludes that Argentina's two cultures continue to be expressed in her politics and their explanatory relevance remains. (D82111)

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