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The roots of the Argentine collapse
of 2001/2002 are deeply embedded in the past. At the beginning of the twentieth
century, Argentina was a prosperous country. Together with Canada and Australia,
Argentina was an anomaly in that these underdeveloped countries profited
from the first wave of globalization as manufacturers of commodities. However,
while the other two countries managed to build up modern industrial economies,
Argentina's "ranching society" consolidated an "agrarian-rentier"
culture. After the political crisis of 1930, which led to the establishment
of a right-wing civilian-military dictatorship, and particularly after the
Second World War, the country started to fall into an economic stagnation
that developed into the present crisis. Two maladies, caused by bad political
decisions, can be singled out as ultimate causes of the economic collapse.
The first malady developed between 1955 and 1973: the failure of the Peronist
model of industrial autarchy. As a result, commodity exports deteriorated
and the country lacked the capital to maintain the industrialization process.
At the same time, Peronism eliminated the democratic, pluralist system provided
by the Constitution. Two antagonistic blocs, Peronism and anti-Peronism,
developed which undermined any possibility of a democracy based on societal
consensus and laid the ground for the civilian-military dictatorships that
followed. The second malady set in with the second wave of globalization
in the 1970s. The ruling elites embraced the neoliberal model, but at the
same time the worst elements of the rentier culture survived. Thus, instead
of building a true market economy, a "market society" evolved
which combined deregulation, privatization, and increasing foreign debt
with systematic corruption. This system survived after political democracy
was reestablished in 1983. Thus Argentina's decline continued until 2002
and - in a country that had once been prosperous - left more than half the
population impoverished. In the exceptional circumstances of a "global
crisis" new President Kirchner, who took office in 2003, has initiated
a revolution "from above." The economic policy of conservative
neoliberalism has been replaced by a neo-developmentalist economic program.
The revolution "from above" is an attractive proposition to Argentine
society but requires a sound material foundation. Sustained growth can be
achieved only if the new government manages to found a new economic logic,
eliminate rentier structures, and build a "working society." |
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