Compare and contrast Peronism and

Kirchnerism

Table of contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................3
What is Peronism.............................................................................................3
What is Kirchnerism.........................................................................................6
Comparison and contrast.................................................................................7
Economic growth..........................................................................................7
Foreign policy...............................................................................................7
The Ideology.................................................................................................8
Women Power...............................................................................................9
Democracy and Economy...........................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................11
References.....................................................................................................12

Introduction
Argentina, a Latin American country has been in the lime light due to the alltime facing severe political and economic turbulence and nonetheless, led by
the Peronist party since 1947, the country has been moving to a course of
collision.
The history of Argentine has been punctuated by heaps of periods that have
from booming prosperity have led to a disaster. The political government has
been dominated by the Peronist party that was formed by Juan Peron and
later on moved by the Kirchners.
The considered paper will highlight the brief discussion on the question of
what is defined as Peronism and Kirchnerism. The paper will also look into
the political and economic structure reaffirms that was the main comparison
of the time that these two same yet different ideologies were controlling the
country.

What is Peronism
Peronism is the political arena of the Argentine and is based on the
perceptions and thinking of Juan Peron and is derived from the Spanish word
meaning social justice. Peronism is a mixture of many things. Its not just a
political party, yet it is a disorganised organisation that has been looking for

the productivity in the political power of Argentina. The idealistic pillars that
lead the Peronist symbols are economic stability, social justice and political
sovereignty (Bello, 2015). The military leader elect president in 1946 and
overthrown yet returned strongly was able to mobilize the people by undying
loyal support of workers working in industries and the poor people. This
amorphous movement is the populist organization winning elections till
2010. After the death of Peron, the every candidate has been allowed to fit in
the unfettered election only to boost the ideology of Peron (The Red Pheonix,
2012).
This phase of the ideology can be linked to as the third position due to the
means of political stability and the rejection towards communism and
capitalism. This ideology also aims to espouse corporatism that leads to the
mediation between the different classes of the Argentine society. The state
has the responsibility to negotiate if any conflict arises between the workers
(Brennan, 1998).
It is also viewed as a different ideology that is ill-defined due to the
contradictory sentiments that are defined in the era of Peronism. In the 21 st
century, the legacy of the Peron have been surpassed the structure from a
single political party to a landscape in the Argentine political movement.
However this traditional movement has taken the sympathy from the strong
working class and unions across Argentina and has been proletarian as a
characterized nature (Matthew B. Karush, 2010).
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The prime legacy of Peronism is not just an ideological thought but defies the
classifications of left-right class in the society. This includes the military,
labour, union leaders, even the middle class sector and also executive
business men, not to mention the youth. Yet the ideological movement has
been working hard to eviscerate the era of Peron, but has not been
successfully able to attempt the call.
Yet, it is also noted that Peronism has no doctrine that is systemically
idealized, mainly due to the fact that what actually was the thought of Peron
was the pragmatist as Peron was the authority and a big supporter of the
stabilized economy and anti- communist. In short, it was basically an
ideology hodge-podge as Peron himself was not comfortable working in the
bordello of messy system. He wanted to modernize the Argentine state by
implementing new laws of working. The new laws also enfranchised the right
to vote for women. He started to develop industrial changes by providing a
vast-economic structure leading to new roads, providing communication and
other utilities, thus creating employment and gaining his political patronage
(Davies, 2007).
Looking at the opponents perspective, Peronism is an ideology of authority.
Peron was thus very much compared to be a dictator and was at the same
time accused of demagoguery to regain his policies and turning himself as a
national embodiment of Argentine. His regime had a dissent of opponents
that were accusing him on many areas like being unpatriotic. His character
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was like a corporatist that faced a few attacks from the socialist wings of
using his administrative rights to exploit class. While on the other side, the
conservatives were accusing him of using his modernization thinking and felt
that his change might threat the apparent of the Peronist movement. Lastly,
the liberals on the other side were shouting at the dictatorial arbitrariness.
On the other hand the defenders of the movement describes the moves of
Peron as populist and believed that it will increase the interest of the social
masses and the vulnerable strata that can hold the administrative powers of
Peron in the long term political career and can socially integrate the nonalignment and the anti-imperialist movements across the country.
It is also the fact that since the formation in 1947, the candidates from the
Peronist party have won more presidential elections. As of the figures of
2012, Peron is the only candidate that has won as many as three elections
for president (Hennessy, 1999).

What is Kirchnerism
The political group formed in the argentine by the supporters of Nestor
Kirchner, the late president after Peron. The legacy of Kirchner continued
from 2003 till 2015 with both Nestor and his wife Cristina Fernandez sharing
the presidential powers to continue the diverse symbol of continuation. It is
also understandable that Kirchners are the members of the Peronist party

that was founded by Peron in 1947. It, Peronism is a broad movement of

ideas, yet many Peronists in the new era oppose (Francisco, 2016).
A faction from within the Peronist party has been receiving limited support
from other small parties in Argentine like the Communist and also other
fractions of the Radical Civic Union and the Socialist party. One of the major
aims of this new movement is to provide stability and strength in the
Argentine and to build strong relation with other Latin countries to boost the
economic coordination. The economic model presented by the Kirchnerism
was hurting the bilateral relations and were at the same time multiplying
difficulties in improving the economic commerce (Lewis, 2014).
Yet, the country was facing severe setbacks from political and financial
sectors; the government was able to improve the lives of common Argentine.
Policies of social and subsidies were improving the economy and also the
judiciary was overhauled. Nestor Kirchner was a born leader who made
certain changes to restructure the massive debt of the country and managed
the funds properly.

Comparison and contrast

Economic growth
In the era of Juan Peron, the economy was stable with the formation of the
Institute of Promotion of Exchange (AIPE) and also the 5 year plan that
reshaped the infrastructure of railroads and the IT&T operations. The
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initiation of hydro-electric projects was a boost to the economy as the

industry of iron and steel expanded. Yet, Peron reforms failed due to the fact
that the radical implementation was not enough. The five year plan initiated
by Peron was favoured due to the increased output of agriculture over
industries that expanded the growth demand of agrarian products. Due to
the increased output, mutual trade agreements between Argentina and
countries like USA and Brazil were agreed to open the international market
from Argentinian products (Gerchunoff, 1989).
After the military coup and the inheritance of Nestor Kirchner, the country
yet again started to boost its export of agricultural goods which was one of
the major revenue for the country and allowed the government to post
surplus trade. With the rise of exports that accounted more than one-third of
the economic growth in Argentina, the government put a hold on the imports
to finance the propelled economy growth (Levitsky & Murillo, 2008).
Foreign policy
The revolutionary change in the Peron era provided a significant balance that
provided a balance share between the elites and unions of the industries.
After the dominating structure of Peron, the political support and the
authorative command over the armed forces enabled him to interfere in the
monopoly of information. He adopted several policies as a basic objective of
his regime (Turner & Miguens, 1983). The US relation was a stressing line as
his benevolent attitude was to facilitate the US investment in Argentina.

However the relation of Peron with the Soviet Unions was aimed to realize
the national agenda of trade. The foreign policy in the Peron era was rather
unstable and the continued emphasis was on managing a bilateral
relationship.
Since the return of the democratic structure in Argentina, the foreign policy
in the Kirchners era was the changing pattern for a political and
developmental system. The increased corporation between the neighbours
was the main aim to strength democracy and reduces the interruption of the
military from the Argentinian decisions (Tokatlian, 2015). Nestor Kirchner
wanted to regain the power and make Argentina back on the concert of
South America. Argentina under the Kirchners era was puzzled as the
policies were idealized by the divergence of words and had a very little
impact on the public. Ye the Kirchner played an important role in providing a
national identity to the people and reforming the state into a more South
American rather than Western European.
The Ideology
The understanding of the fact that Peron came to power to build a strong
economic and political stable country for the appealing reforms that needed
to be implement for the people. The rise of Peron was not just a single party
based candidate but the appeal of masses of voters. The hundreds of
speeches and the thinking of Peron were very difficult in understanding the
state of the role and the importance given by Peron to the economic and
political stability and the social justice applications. Peronism is a theory and
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humanism yet a political doctrine that is built for a sphere of opportunities

that grants future of many living in Argentina (Lewis, 1980). Peronism is in
the heart rather than in the head that is benefited to all.
Kirchnerism on the other hand is a relative consideration that had a strong
nationalist approach of managing the country. The Kirchner family was also
the insight of Peronist; but was managing the political style with a different
style that out dated the re-enacted of the military and the rivalry between
the groups of Peronists and Anti-Peronists. Kirchners totally emphasised on
prompting the laws and the environmental structure. The preference adopted
by Kirchner was an active approach on the economy due to the strategic
vision of limited investment for infrastructure and risk adopting mechanisms
to provide greater economic visions. The collaboration was supported by all
factors politically making the economic stability greater than ever (Malamud,
2011).
Women Power
Comparisons between the women power between Evita the second wife of
the founder of Peronist party Juan Peron and Cristina Kirchner is inevitable.
Both of them enjoyed the first name recognition in Argentina and the
massive amount of popularity among the privilege class. Both Evita and
Cristina have been addressing the local problems like education and boosting
economy and at the same time managing their relation with world economy
(Schmall, 2012).

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The ideology that was framed by Juan Peron has been followed by Kirchner to
protect the collapse of economy and gain benefit from the global trade
benefits. Kirchner is very well taking the advantage of inspiration from world
class economy like China and also the policies implemented by the old
leftists like Peron. Both the Perons and Kirchners are busy in stimulating the
economy by the tumult of the world markets. Cristina has been widely seen
as a comparative face of Evita but she needs to change the history and her
profound love for Argentina is coming true (Goni, 2012).
Yet, Kirchner era is the most powerful as compared to the era of Evita, she
had the power and the heart which Evita was lacking. The popularity factor is
increased and the opposition had been side-lined by Kirchner due to the
master mind approaches of her husband, Nestor who committed himself for
the micromanaging of Argentina.
Democracy and Economy
Peronism was on the stage of Argentina politics since 1947 and has been the
symbol of social inclusion of the people. This symbology has been the defacto in understanding Argentinas predicament. It all started when Juan
Peron mobilized a group of more than 300,000 for his release and leading all
his way rolling his sleeves into the Presidential election .
Peronism is the controversial ideology that is underpinned by the theory of
helping the poor. This ideology helped Peron to establish social security

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measures, subsidy of many products and also bittering the lives of the
people of Argentina and laid the foundation of dignity of poverty.
After a long and devastating positing of military rule, the power was again
transformed to the democratic structure and the era of Kirchner started. The
philosophy was simple, to centralise the government from all the influences.
The immediate negotiation with the world leaders and financial institutes
was to reduce the economic situations in the country (Calatrava, 2012). The
motives were clear, but to gain the advantage was chronically difficult. The
steps taken by Kirchner are to promote the social infrastructure and reduce
the poverty to maintain the economic freedom.

Conclusion
The Argentinian state was very fortunate to have leaders like Nestor Kirchner
who after the falling economy in the Peron era represented the vast
economic collective working classes who answered the dictators in the
military to stay back from the political arena and stand side by side of the
democratic parties to make the country stable. Yet again the revolution is
about to re-emerge in the country and the stability is meaningfully coming to
a proletarian internationalism.
In Argentina, the responsibility lies in the hands of Peronists to lead the
people of today as they have been given the responsibility to look into the
bigger picture of achieving economic goals that are tearing the nation.

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Democracy cannot lead the country but Peronism can take Argentina, but it
is very difficult to know which Peronism will.

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References
Bello, 2015. The persistence of Peronism. The Economist.
Brennan, J.P., 1998. Peronism and Argentina. Rowman & Littlefield.
Davies, L.H., 2007. Projections of Peronism in Argentine Autobiography,
Biography and Fiction. Univeristy of Wales Press.
Francisco, C., 2016. Kirchnerism in Argentina: A Populist Dispute for
Hegemony." International Critical Thought, 6(2), pp.227-44.
Gerchunoff, P.a.C.D.A., 1989. Peronist Economic Policies, 194655. Palgrave
Macmillan UK.
Goni, U., 2012. Cristina Kirchner: she's not just another Evita. The Guardian.
Hennessy, H., 1999. Insight Guide Argentina. Langenscheidt Publishing
Group.
Levitsky, S. & Murillo, M.V., 2008. Argentina: From Kirchner to Kirchner.
Journal of Democracy, 19(2), pp.16-30.
Lewis, P.H., 1980. Was Pern a Fascist? An Inquiry into the Nature of Fascism.
The Journal of Politics, 42(1), pp.242-56.
Lewis, D.K., 2014. The Hsitory of Argentina. 2nd ed. ABC-CLIO.
Malamud, A., 2011. Argentine foreign policy under the Kirchners: ideological,
pragmatic, or simply peronist? Latin American Foreign Policies, pp.87-102.
Matthew B. Karush, O.C., 2010. The New Cultural History of Peronism: Power
and Identity in Mid-Twentieth-Century Argentina. Duke University Press.
Schmall, E., 2012. Back to Peronism. [Online] Available at:
http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2012/back-peronism.
The Red Pheonix, 2012. Juan Pern and Social-Fascism in Argentina. The Red
Pheonix.
Tokatlian, R.R.&.J.G., 2015. Opinion: foreign policy during the Kirchnerite era.
Buenos Aires Herald, (4953).
Turner, F. & Miguens, J.E., 1983. Juan Peron and the Reshaping of Argentina.
University of Pittsburgh.
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