The Beginnings of Social and Political Polarization in Argentina. Reconsidering the 2008 Agrarian Conflict

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the social and political polarization in recent Argentina started by 2008 during an intense conflict between agrarian business associations and the national government led by Cristina Fernandez. It is supposed that the dispute between these actors produced a new political position-takings within the people, changes in their electoral behaviors as well as in the political parties. During this confrontation, that paralyzed the country for almost five months, two poles with opposite meaning and symbols were configured. One of them mainly represented by the government, the other by a wideopposing sector. Based on this characterization, this article tries to describe and understand how this conflict produced significant social mobilization, fostered new cultural frames to decode politics, and polarized the political field. To accomplish this objective, first, the basic dimensions and bases of the struggle will be highlighted. Then, the paper will focus on the scalating process, paying attention to the interaction between the principal actors and the increasing people’s involvement, taking to the organization of two binary poles with different narratives. Finally, the de-scalating process will be examined in the light of the “Ley de Retenciones y Creación del Fondo de Redistribución Social” passed by the National Legislature. The paper is based on different second-hand sources -as national newspapers, mass media, and presidential speeches. A corpus of 450 pieces of news was mobilized to reconstruct the main keys to the conflict. From that write sources to maked a corpus of 450 notes in which to work for making the principal conflicts keys.