ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the paradoxical configuration of the Argentinian state and society clearly indicates that, throughout its turbulent history, Argentina has never managed to develop a comprehensive and inclusive dominant ideology. It argues that the structural linkage of the factors has been the single most important cause for the contemporary stagnation of Argentinian society, and its concomitant inability to constitute stable forms of dominant discourses and institutionalized government. In 1891 the Union Civica Radical (UCR) was formed, the first national political party organization to be constituted in Argentina with the aim of achieving state power through democratic elections. Peronism can be seen as a comprehensive attempt to develop a stable hegemonic bloc and a dominant ideology in Argentina. Political practice of Peronism, the most important attempt in Argentina's history to create an incorporating dominant discourse, resulted in the most serious and lasting political cleavage faced by twentieth-century Argentina, the Peronist versus the anti-Peronist confrontation.
