Martin Böhmer is a Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires and the National University of Río Negro. Principal Investigator of the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC)
“Authoritarian Libertarianism in Argentina”
High inflation, unprecedented levels of poverty, the depletion of the federal reserve, high foreign debt, the rising threat of organized crime, drug related violence, and high levels of citizen distrust in democratic institutions (the Judiciary included) almost paralyzed the previous administration.
Years of populism left both national and provincial governments exhausted. Privileges, subsidies, clientelism, economic protections marred by corruption and corporatism incapacitated the market state capabilities to create wealth and to promote equality.
Out of that mutiny emerged a weird creature: an authoritarian conservative libertarian. President Milei is showing all the signs of his predecessors: the certainty of his convictions, the lack of empathy, the willingness to sacrifice means to ends, and the preference for content over procedure. But since he does not have an organized political organization, an inability to build coalitions results in an incapacity to get the votes he needs to put forward the reforms to the Argentine legal system that he so loudly promised.
From this follows his attempt to govern by executive decree and his proposal of a bill that would reform the most important aspects of the legal system. To this he couples intemperate tantrums against his fellow politicians (whom he calls “the caste”). But what in him is hyperbolic can be traced to mannerisms long found in Argentina, and, more broadly, in the region´s long rendezvous with authoritarian rule.
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Schell Center for International Human Rights