The Senses of the State within Kirchnerist Identity

Abstract

In this article, we consider the ways of understanding the State within the Kirchnerist identity, focusing both on the presidential speeches given by Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and on the voices of the activists. We first address the presidential speeches, and then analyze the interviews we conducted with some Kirchnerist groups from different regions of the country. The main question we try to assess is the ability of Kirchnerism to endure as a political identity. It is crucial for the conformation of this identity to make sense of the State as a political articulation, which can repair losses and entails a tendency to include and represent all Argentinians. Our hypothesis is that the chance for Kirchnerism to last as a political identity depends, in part, on the consolidation of this particular sense of the State.