The “normalization” of Argentine Politics

On 24 October 1999, Fernando de la Rua of the opposition Alliance for Jobs, Justice, and Education was elected president of Argentina, defeating Eduardo Duhalde of the incumbent Justicialista (or Peronist) Party (PJ) by a margin of 49 percent to 38 percent. Former economics minister Domingo Cavallo, running on the center-right Action for the Republic party ticket, finished third with 10 percent. The election was unprecedented in several respects. De la Rua’s assumption of the presidency marked the first time that Argentine democracy had survived two consecutive transfers of power from one party to another, as well as the first time that a Peronist had been removed from national office by democratic means. In addition, the new Alliance government, which is made up of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) and the center-left Front for a Country in Solidarity (FREPASO), is the first real coalition government in Argentina’s modern democratic history. Perhaps the most striking change, however, was the routine—even boring—character of the election. De la Rua, a conventional politician without any of the charisma or “outsider” appeal of his predecessor Carlos Menem, ran a bland campaign that centered on clean government and institutional integrity. And in stark contrast to 1989, when hyperinflation and mass looting forced Raúl Alfonsín to hand over the presidency to Menem six months before the end of his term, the 1999 transition took place without a hitch and virtually without controversy. In short, a central characteristic of the 1999 election— Argentina’s tenth national election since the collapse of military rule Steven Levitsky, assistant professor of government at Harvard University, is the author (with David Collier) of “Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research,” published in April 1997 in World Politics. His essay “Fujimori and Post-Party Politics in Peru” appeared in the July 1999 issue of the Journal of Democracy.