The Unresolved Tensions of Post-Neoliberal Argentina: Inequalities, Structures, and Compensations (2003–2015)

Dvoskin N.; Pizzo F.; Segre Maturano J.; Gruschetsky S.; Fraga R. · Forum for Social Economics (2026) · DOI: 10.1080/07360932.2026.2628899

Resumen

This paper examines the limits of Argentina’s post-neoliberal project in addressing social demands after the 2001 collapse. Neoliberal reforms of the 1990s deepened inequality through labor market deregulation, privatization, and welfare retrenchment, leaving large sectors excluded from formal employment and adequate income. While Kirchnerist governments (2003–2015) sought to reverse these trends through compensatory policies, they failed to tackle the structural roots of exclusion or redefine state–market relations. Using official data, public discourses, and surveys, the paper argues that these measures mitigated inequality but lacked political legitimacy: beneficiaries perceived them as temporary, while the excluded viewed them as unfair. The expansion of income transfers without broad social consensus, combined with inconsistent economic performance, fueled discontent and paved the way for conservative backlash under Macri (2015–2019) and Milei (2023–). Rather than replacing macroeconomic explanations, this paper complements them by highlighting the disarticulation between economic models and their social and political legitimacy.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de San Martín