Clientelist practices, political identities and social movements: The configuration of the political scene in La Matanza (Buenos Aires)

As we are aware today, forms of participation and political identities are the result of an expansion and mutation of the democratic political system, which is not only exclusive of Argentine; the political crisis of 2001 was a point of inflexion in political parties, in the relations between citizens and politicians, and meant the implosion of new social actors (social movements, piqueteros organizations, etc.), with new links and political identities. In this sense, the present paper is intended to put in discussion the different forms of participation in the district of La Matanza (the greatest of Buenos Aires), taking into account the following aspects: the link between clientelism and social movements, regarding  how these networks operate in action protest, demonstrations, etc., in function of encouraging or not such practices; the modes of implementation of social policies at the local level, promote or discourage clientelism; the links between the local leaderships (mayor, leading politicians, leaders, etc), and clientelist practices. Finally, we will analyze the existence of people, who still express a strong identity towards a party membership - either by the remembrance of a tradition, "favors" derived from the presence of territorial, top leaders and mediators, or both-