ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an interpretation of the rise and consolidation of Kirchnerism, an instance of party-rooted populism. It starts with the analysis of the relevant critical antecedents, by underlining how the Peronist Justicialist Party, in contrast to other political projects, was able to maintain its linkages with labour market outsiders, although the latter were penalised precisely by the neoliberal policies implemented by the Peronists during the nineties. Identitarian and organisational factors explain this apparent paradox. Then the chapter analyses the 2001 collapse and the peak of the Argentine protest cycle, characterised by extreme fragmentation due to the particularistic demands advanced and the ideological and tactical divisions within the anti-neoliberal contentious camp. Section 4.5 gives an account of the reasons for the success achieved by the party-rooted populist political project led by Néstor Kirchner, who patiently built a vast governmental coalition cemented by his ‘recycling’ of the statist ideology of the ‘old’ Peronism. Kirchner was able to retain most of the Peronist apparatus, which was crucial for electoral purposes. He also retained both ‘mainstream’ and ‘dissident’ unions and some ‘moderate’ social movements, by satisfying most of their particularistic demands and offering them an unprecedented political centrality. The chapter then focuses on the evolution of Kirchnerism under Cristina Fernández’ two terms and explores how her ‘leaderistic’ strategy decisively contributed to the final rupture of the broad and heterogeneous coalition patiently built by her husband and predecessor. A brief concluding section summarises the findings.
