Argentinas Government Structure and Domestic Society - Report Example

History and Political Science 22 October Argentina’s Government Structure and Domestic Society Introduction Each nation has diverse ways of political influence that impact heavily on the national government operations. The politics and the manner the government is structured either slows down or improves policymaking for the well being of the country. Argentina is not different, and its politics and government structure are designed by its sub national political power structures. Its government structure has close resemblance with that of the United States. It is a federal government with twenty three provinces and one federal district has executive, judicial, and legislative (a national congress and house representatives) arms of government (“Argentina” countryreports.org). The president and deputy president are elected by the people just as the House of Representatives. A province in Argentina equivalent to a single State in the United States, and serves a single constituency for all congressional (senate and house) elections. Each province has governor who is of substantial influence to the province’s politics and their representatives in the legislative branch. Provinces have their own constitutions, administrations and local authorities. The provincial administrations are in charge of the numerous municipal governments in the different regions or departments of a province. When the period of a dictatorship government ended in the last century, Argentina’s government and society has been trying to make transition to secure and build up its economic, political, and social aspects. The judiciary continues to enforce human rights to its citizens and confronts the past and present abuses of social violence perpetrators and organizers. In the provincial and municipal level, police authorities take action to prevent violent social unrests, with the help of religious and community representatives. The legislative branch has a role to effect federal policies that would encourage social agreements irrespective of their historical difference, especially in politics. However, the Argentine government continues to face various challenges to address the domestic conflicts, due to the political attitudes and developments in the provinces, and the nation in general. Major Social Divisions and their Relationships There is a correlation between Argentina’s social divisions and its political development that remains strong despite the past difficult period of government dictatorship. A people of a particular tribe or certain regions, especially if they have common characteristics tend to support a particular political ideology over the other. In Argentina, the major social divisions include class, ethnicity, region, religion, and language divisions among others. Class divisions Argentina is similar to other Latin American countries that have pronounced class divisions brought forth by the economic prosperity from the 20th century. Argentina has a class system of the elite upper group, middle and lower (urban marginal and workers) class. In the contemporary times, the gap between the rich and the poor continue to widen with the increasing social conflicts and economic difficulties. As of the 2005 census, the elite group consisted of 10% , lower class 40%, and the middle class 50% (35% already recovered and last15% adjusted with continuous recovery/transition from lower class), 46% were recoded as being economically active, yet 33.8 % of the population live in poverty (“Argentina” 10-12). The elite group can be traced over the past generations in the country when the European settlers came into North Latin America. They originally consisted of the large land owners, rural warlords, urban liberal elites, and wealthy military, but later with an improved economy and industrialization in the 20th century, the wealthy merchants, businessmen, and professionals joined the rank. They are the most powerful group that occupies high government positions, provincial government leadership and are mainly the financial supporters of political parties. The middle class are a very influential group in shaping the direction of politics the population in provinces and localities support. It was formed mainly by the descendants of Argentina’s immigrants who came at the end of 19th and early 20th century, settled at the urban areas to occupy jobs in the newly created industries, public, and commercial sectors of the economy (“Argentina”everyculture.com). Due to industrial growth in Argentina, the group experienced intergenerational social mobility. In the modern world, they are small and middle sized business owners, managers, professional non-manual workers with increased access to education, and home owners concentrated in the urban and semi urban areas. The country has a heterogamous middle class group, who are much politicised and demonstrate effective mobilization to issues surrounding the welfare of the nation and the population. According to Salmenkari, the middle class are mobilized around single issues like justice and security; create movements with great impact to shape the public opinion on policies through the great attention they receive from media coverage (5-7). The number of people below poverty level in Argentina increased over the last four decades, due to income decline and economic crisis, especially in the 80s and 90s. The group is highly unemployed and those who work are the majority in the informal sectors, with high probability of no benefits or employment protection. The majority of the indigenous people in the rural areas fall in this category and those who reside in the urban areas dwell in the impoverished suburbs under very poor conditions. The increased number was due to the downward mobility of the affected middle class in the recent region crisis, leading to a formation of what was called the ‘new poor.’ The North East and West Argentina’s provinces are characterized by higher poverty levels and demonstrate slow recovery than other regions. Right from Peron’s leadership, this group is often manipulated by the populist politicians to keep them in power. Unlike the elite’s who gave rise to the civilian government, the middle class shape up public political opinions, while the lower class is mobilized on varying issues based in human rights and survival. Though their political voice may be ignored, they are the strongholds and effectors of political results upon election. Religion Argentines have incorporated various religious believes over centuries. Considering the natives who first existed, there are some forms of indigenous beliefs in society, despite the increased Christianity. The greatest numbers of Argentines are Roman Catholics; a religious belief that has been retained since the European settlers came in the 19th century (“Argentina”everyculture.com). Early in the 17th century, the Jesuits and Franciscan missionaries had already gained ways into the Argentina. The Spanish conquerors brought with them the Roman Catholic religion, making it the largest church denomination in the country. Based on the 2001 survey, 88 and 7percent were Catholics and Protestants Christian respectively, while 1.5 %, 1% and 2.5 % comprised of Muslims, Jews and other religious groups respectively (“Argentina” encyclopedia.com). There was a great integration of politics and law of Argentina with the Catholic religion, until recent changes in the constitution required the top country’s leadership to be sincere Catholic believers. The Catholic Church has played a critical role in shaping the past and present political ideology in Argentina. There are numerous local Catholic shrines well distributed across the country and large cathedral basilicas in the cities and urban centres. However, even with the changes in the statute, the constitution still holds that the federal government is Roman Catholic, but allow freedom of other religions and their political contests in election (“Argentina” argentour.com). The religion has consistently been used to sway the political issues and policies in Argentina, with several clashes between the Argentine government and Catholic Church, dating back from the May revolution in early 1800s and dirty war in 1980s. Catholic belief is a common shared religion between people of various social classes. However, Protestants are increasing with the Anglican and Methodist church among other orthodox and Pentecostal churches being the majority. More support for democracy allows other religious followers besides Catholics to contest in varying local, provincial, and national government elections. There seems to be a strong complicated state and Catholic Church relationship, which extends to grant the Catholic Church certain privileges and subsidiaries. Of late, there has been a strain with the national government, considering its support to policies (for example, gay marriage), which the general Christian faith does not support. Ethnicity Argentina is a country that consists of diverse people of different origins. What is interesting is the displacement and reduction of the early existing natives by the white settlers. In the modern Argentina, the whites of European descent are the majority (97%) in the population, while the rest of the population consists of the indigenous and non-white society (Obuka 4). The whites mainly consist of the Spaniards and Italians, though British, Irish, Germans, and Arabs also make up the white ethnics of Argentina. They are concentrated in capital, urban, and semi urban areas of the provinces and consist of the elite and middle class majority, though there is a proportion that constitutes the lower class. They are the majority group that follow Christian faith and beliefs. When a largely white Creole elite group developed from 1800s into the 20th century, conflicts developed with the descents of the peninsulares leading to the independence of Argentina. The white ethnicity has been able to spread political power and create diverse political parties and support groups. Argentina’s government has been dominated by the white elites from the time of Juan Manuel De Rosa’s military rule, all through to the leadership of Juan Domingo Peron, and currently Christina Fernandez. The indigenous group consists of the Mapuche mainly at the Southern regions of Argentina, Guarani, pilaga and Mocovies of north east Argentina, Wichi, and Tobas communities. This group consists of the highly illiterate people who struggle for State recognition of their rights as natives. Most of them engage in nomadism and farming in the rural interior Argentina. Few existing indigenous afro-Agentines and whites make up the lower social class and have low political power and influence in their exclusion of long term politics (Edwards 189). Most of these Indian natives and Africans have reduced in population following the assassinations carried on during the struggle of power domination in the 19th century, and labour force movements and protests for slave freedom. Their lack of a strong government and political integration has made the indigenous group to experience high rates of poverty, low economic development, and civilization. Most of them have their own cultural or indigenous beliefs other than Christianity, and speak different languages of their ancestry origins. Other groups consist of the Latin American immigrants from the neighbouring nations such as Uruguay, Brazil, and Bolivia, and their descendants who combine with the minority indigenous. Language As a country of Spaniard colonies, Spanish is the major and official language spoken by the citizens. The Argentine Spanish is different from Spain’s Spanish because of its incorporation of a distinct Italian tilt. There are also Italian, German, and Arabic speakers in the population, but English has also become famous with the increased civilization, globalization, democracy, and immigration into the land. People of indigenous society speak their native languages such as the Gulani, quechua, and other Amerindian languages. Languages spoken by the citizens reflect their diverse ethnicity. However, the provincial governments and their constitutions support other languages spoken by its major population or residing ethnicities, besides Spanish. Spanish language is a focal point indented to help the provinces unite together into a federal government. Regions They are the most politically pronounced divisions with well founded political party establishments that dictate the type of leadership the country and province governors and representatives should have. Argentina consists of six regional divisions that contain different provinces and support varying political ideologies; these are Patagonia, La Pampa, Central hills and Cuyo, North western, Chaco and Mesopotamia regions (“About” 6-8). There are numerous political parties at the provincial and national levels ,but only the majority like the Justicialist party (JP), Union Civica Radical (UCR), Republican Proposal (PRO) and Broad Progressive Fronts (FAP) manage to scoop enough support from the society. Peronism (Justicialist party) has gathered a lot of supporters since the populist leadership of the charismatic Juan Peron, with major oppositions from UCR, PRO, and Socialists Party among others. Although the peronism is highly fragmented, its huge number of supporters managed to elect the current president and majority of house representatives, through the Front for Victory party (FPV a peronist political party) and its allies (Argentina independent argentinaindependent.com). Chaco region of Argentina entails the poor indigenous communities in society, whose main economic activity is farming, and is currently a supporter of JP. The north western region consisting of the Salta, Tucuman, Catamarca and la Rioja is stronghold of the PJ too, unlike the divided political ideology of the La Pampa region. The Patagonia stretching from the Rio Negro to the Tiera Del Fuergo province is a unique region with diverse political ideologies. It consists of the comparative socialist party, FPV, and other alliances to win the gubernatorial seats in the provinces. Works Cited Argentina Independent. Argentinaindependent.com. 3 June, 2010. Web. 24 October 2013. “Argentina Government.” countryreports.org. n.d. Web. 22, October 2013. “Argentina.” pwc.com. n.d. Web. 22, October 2013. “Argentina Religion.” argentour.com. n.d. Web. 23 October 2013 “Argentina” encyclopedia.com. n.d. Web. 23 October, 2013. “About Argentina.” argentina.gob.ar. n.d. Web. 24 October 2013. Edwards, Kalu. “Coexistence international at Brandeis University: Country Studies Series: Argentina.” June, 2009. Web. 24 October, 2013. Edwards, Todd L. Argentina: A Global Studies Handbook. Carlifornia: ABC- CLIO, 2008. Print Salmenkari, Taru. “Political Opportunities and protest mobilization in Argentina.” Academia.edu. 4 December 2009. Web. 23 October 2013. Read More