Will Menemism last?

Abstract

The process of implementing reforms of the Menem government shows a deep conviction about the need for the adopted program and the obstinacy in its implementation. Economic variables added to weakness and a credibility gap required the singular determination in the presidential actions that, seen through history, would make us expect questions about their legitimacy and resistance far superior to those that actually occurred.
The author explains how the instances of legitimation preceded the Menemism, being a product of the renewal process that transformed the Peronist Movement into a party. We will thus have politicians who win union spaces and appear "party economists". The spheres and modalities of confrontation are modified and trade union realignments and official co-optation of leaders are possible.
However, this is not enough to explain the softness of social resistance and the key would be in the transitional costs of the reform that, to a large extent, would have been paid in advance.