ABSTRACT

During the entire Radical administration, the demands of the military were on the front burner and constituted another important challenge to institutional stability. By 1983, the reign of terror had seemed to be on the point of disintegration under the weight of its obvious political, economic, and military failures, so it should have come as no surprise that the Radical Civic Union won the 1983 elections, campaigning on the platform of an essentially ethical message. Competition for union posts, in an atmosphere of the political defeat of the Peronistas and sanguine wage expectations, impelled union leaders to radicalize their demands. With the second phase of the Radical government's economic management under way, the new economic team launched another attempt to compromise with the unions and business, and the Economic and Social Conference came into being. The Radical party retained control of the Chamber of Deputies and maintained its electoral advantage over the Peronista party.