Accountability Struggles in Democratic Argentina: Civic Engagement from the Human Rights Movement to the Néstor Kirchner Administration

Abstract

Argentina’s current democratic period, inaugurated in 1983, differs from previous experiences by the emergence of a more sophisticated and demanding citizenry determined to translate ideals of democratic representation into a concern for governmental accountability. The article starts with the appearance of a human rights movement during the last dictatorship, highlighting its contribution to a new democratic political culture organized around a concern for rights and constitutionalism. Section two focuses on the second generation of accountability actors, i.e. initiatives organized around the demand to improve government transparency. The third part deals with the crisis of 2001–2, with the sudden eruption of mass protests demanding the resignation of all elected officials and the subsequent establishment of popular assemblies in several major cities. The final section deals with the aftermath of the crisis, and specifically with the fate of social accountability politics under the presidency of Néstor Kirchner. In English, extensive summary in Russian.