Mutation or crisis of the Argentine political parties? An analysis of the peronist party in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina

This paper is about the changes that the Peronist Party in the Province of Buenos Aires has undergone, taking into account that Argentina has been crossed by a deep process of mutation in its representative system. This political party, like others, has lost its central function of channeling citizen’s preferences and providing a stable political identity to its adherents. In this sense, the Province of Buenos Aires (the district with the heaviest electoral weight) is a good example of these changes caused in the organizational structure and the peronist identity. At the same time, we also note the persistence over the time of local and provincial leaders who belong to its structure, which allows thinking about a kind of “hegemony” of this party.
Through the analysis of interviews with local and provincial leaders, militants and citizens of the Province of Buenos Aires, we will analyze (i) the extent of the changes in the representative format in the Peronist Party, explaining how it currently appears more like a party linked to the various structures of the state (being a state party, it can acquire resources in order to discipline the opponent actors and convince its adherents) rather than a representative of an identity (peronist) with a definitive program and (ii) the increasing dependence of the party apparatus on the popularity leaderships –provincial and local-whose citizen valuation and mass media image, allows the party structure to reproduce in the provincial scene.