Argentine society today does not compare to that of the 1880s either. The unions have lost some of their power from the glory days of populism, but the organized working class has reconstituted itself behind the large body of the permanently unemployed. The ranks of the disemployed grew during the neoliberal privatization schemes of President Carlos Menem. Then the prolonged economic downturn from 1997 through 2001 expanded the jobless population even more. The IMF riots, the looting of the supermarkets, the blocking of highways, and the marches on the public squares gave this class a new sense of empowerment. The middle class tolerated—even sympathized with—them for a while; politicians like Néstor and Cristina negotiate informally with them. Public spending has provided a safety net for this more or less permanently impoverished sector of society like never before. This fact explains the redistributive tendencies of today’s body politic. It is not textbook neoliberalism but political expediency.
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