ABSTRACT
The literature on the transition to democracy in Argentina has become fairly extensive, but studies on the problems of consolidation are sparse. This chapter focuses on the lessons of transitions that have taken place in modern Argentina and that may be particularly relevant at present. It reviews some fairly interpretations in the literature of events that took place during the "blind years" preceding the elections of October 30, 1983, which gave way to the constitutional government of President Raul Alfonsin. In Argentina, just to point to one major difference, the military regime collapsed and had to surrender; this precipitated a transition conducted with a bare minimum of governing ability left to the regime. In Argentina, institutional political power converges on presidential leadership and on the party system, within the configuration suggested in the last paragraph. Presidential leadership evokes a ruler who must achieve a mixture of charisma, rationality, principles, and timing.
