Argentina

The majority of Argentina’s population are of European descent (German, Italian and Spanish), and the country is home to Indigenous Peoples (Mapuche, Tehuelche, Qom, Wichí and Guaraní). The Indigenous Peoples have faced violent attacks, with many killed by Spanish colonizers. Since the middle of the 19th century, Argentina has faced repeated economic crises which have resulted in political instability, including several military coups d’état. Argentina is challenged by endemic corruption, low levels of public trust, political polarization and hyper-presidentialism, all of which have led to increasingly weak institutions. Over the years, Argentina’s democratic performance has varied in line with fluctuating economic shocks that have produced anti-government sentiments and great ideological swings in the population. This is exemplified by the democratic decline - when in one week, Argentina had five different presidents in office - that began with the country’s 2001 recession, which sparked a wave of protests against the government. The political instability and polarization witnessed in Argentina today is rooted in former President Juan Peron’s Peronist movement, which is often characterized as pro-poor and pro-working class. Peron’s approach to politics has had a lasting impact in a country where socio-economic factors such as education, income and class shape political identities. Divisions tend to fall between Peronists and non-Peronists, as well as within parties, between supporters of economically liberal and more conservative policies. While there are several emerging parties, Argentina’s political landscape is dominated by the centre-left Justicialist Party (JP), the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) and - over the last decade - the centre-right alternative front Change, who have become an increasingly important political actor in challenging JP supremacy. This has contributed to the persistence of strong class cleavages, and divisions in Argentine society have deepened with each economic crisis, as poverty rises and political polarization intensifies.

In the coming years, the government’s compliance to International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement will need to be closely monitored, as any misstep could set the economy in default. Democracy is threatened by the growing economic crisis, which has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. Corruption also remains a significant challenge, as systematic attempts to curb it have been undermined by politicization and ineffectiveness in the judicial system. The steep decline in adherence to the rule of law further challenges democratic governance in Argentina, especially following the use of emergency powers and the imposition of one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, which human rights organizations denounced for being violently enforced and for its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities. Limitations on freedom of expression have also been strongly criticized and caused journalists to raise concerns about the future of the free press in Argentina.