📰 Argentina · page 4

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Argentina, Elections in Argentina

In the 20th century, Argentina experienced significant political turmoil and democratic reversals.[193][194]256 Between 1930 and 1976, the armed forces overthrew six governments in Argentina;[194] and the country alternated periods of democracy (1912–1930, 1946–1955, and 1973–1976) with periods of restricted democracy and military rule.[193]257 Following a transition that began in 1983,[195] full-scale democracy in Argentina was reestablished.[193][194]258 Argentina's democracy endured through the 2001–02 crisis and to the present day; it is regarded as more robust than both its pre-1983 predecessors and other democracies in Latin America.[194]259 According to International IDEA's Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices and Democracy Tracker, Argentina performs in the mid-range on overall democratic measures, with particular strengths in freedom of religion, inclusive suffrage, and civic engagement.[196]260 Moreover, according to the V-Dem Democracy indices, Argentina in 2023 was the second most electoral democratic country in Latin America.[197]261

Government

Main article: Government of Argentina, Ministries of the Argentine Republic

Argentina is a federal constitutional republic and representative democracy.[198]262 The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the Constitution of Argentina, the country's supreme legal document.263 The seat of government is the city of Buenos Aires corpus, as designated by Congress.[199]264 Suffrage is universal, equal, secret and mandatory.[200][202]265

The federal government is composed of three branches.266 The Legislative branch consists of the bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.267 The Congress makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties and has the power of the purse and of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.[203]268 The Chamber of Deputies represents the people and has 257 voting members elected to a four-year term.269 Seats are apportioned among the provinces by population every tenth year.[204] as of 2014 ten provinces have just five deputies while the Buenos Aires Province, being the most populous one, has 70.270 The Chamber of Senators represents the provinces, and has 72 members elected at-large to six-year terms, with each province having three seats; one-third of Senate seats are up for election every other year.[205]271 At least one-third of the candidates presented by the parties must be women.272

In the Executive branch, the President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law—subject to Congressional override—and appoints the members of the Cabinet and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.[206]273 The President is elected directly by the vote of the people, serves a four-year term and may be elected to office no more than twice in a row.[207]274

The Judicial branch includes the Supreme Court and lower federal courts interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.[208]275 The Judicial is independent of the Executive and the Legislative.276 The Supreme Court has seven members appointed by the President—subject to Senate approval—who serve for life.277 The lower courts' judges are proposed by the Council of Magistracy (a secretariat composed of representatives of judges, lawyers, researchers, the Executive and the Legislative), and appointed by the president on Senate approval.[209]278

Provinces

Main article: Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is a federation of twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires.279 Provinces are divided for administration purposes into departments and municipalities, except for Buenos Aires Province, which is divided into partidos.280 The City of Buenos Aires is divided into communes.281

Provinces hold all the power that they chose not to delegate to the federal government;[210] they must be representative republics and must not contradict the Constitution.[211]282 Beyond this they are fully autonomous: they enact their own constitutions,[212] freely organise their local governments,[213] and own and manage their natural and financial resources.[214]283 Some provinces have bicameral legislatures, while others have unicameral ones.[216]284

La Pampa and Chaco became provinces in 1951.285 Misiones did so in 1953, and Formosa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, in 1955.286 The last national territory, Tierra del Fuego, became the Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province in 1990.[217]287 It has three components, although two are nominal because they are not under Argentine sovereignty.288 The first is the Argentine part of Tierra del Fuego; the second is an area of Antarctica claimed by Argentina that overlaps with similar areas claimed by the UK and Chile; the third comprises the two disputed British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.[218]289

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Argentina

Foreign policy is handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, which answers to the President.290 The country is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies of the world, and a founding member of the UN, WBG, WTO and OAS.291 In 2012 Argentina was elected again to a two-year non-permanent position on the United Nations Security Council and is participating in major peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Cyprus, Western Sahara and the Middle East.[219]292 Argentina is described as a middle power.[220]293

A prominent Latin American and Southern Cone regional power, Argentina cofounded OEI and CELAC.294 It is also a founding member of the Mercosur block, having Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela corpus as partners.295 Since 2002 the country has emphasised its key role in Latin American integration, and the block—which has some supranational legislative functions—is its first international priority.[221]296

Argentina claims 965597 km2 in Antarctica, where it has the world's oldest continuous state presence, since 1904.[222]297 This overlaps claims by Chile and the United Kingdom, though all such claims fall under the provisions of the 1961 Antarctic Treaty, of which Argentina is a founding signatory and permanent consulting member, with the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat being based in Buenos Aires.[223]298

Argentina disputes sovereignty over the British possessions of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.[224][225]299 Argentina is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[226]300 Argentina is a major non-NATO ally since 1998[26] and an OECD candidate country since January 2022.[227]301

Military

Main article: Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic

The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the Argentine Armed Forces, as part of a legal framework that imposes a strict separation between national defence and internal security systems:[228][229] The National Defence System, an exclusive responsibility of the federal government,[230] coordinated by the Ministry of Defence, and comprising the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.[231]302 Ruled and monitored by Congress[232] through the Houses' Defence Committees,[233] it is organised on the essential principle of legitimate self-defence: the repelling of any external military aggression in order to guarantee freedom of the people, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity.[233]303 Its secondary missions include committing to multinational operations within the framework of the United Nations, participating in internal support missions, assisting friendly countries, and establishing a sub-regional defence system.[233]304

Military service is voluntary, with enlistment age between 18 and 24 years old and no conscription.[234]305 Argentina's defence has historically been one of the best equipped in the region, even managing its own weapon research facilities, shipyards, ordnance, tank and plane factories.[235]306 However, real military expenditures declined steadily after the defeat in the Falklands War and the defence budget in 2011 was only about 0.74% of GDP, a historical minimum,[236] below the Latin American average.307 Within the defence budget itself, funding for training and even basic maintenance has been significantly cut, a factor contributing to the accidental loss of the Argentine submarine San Juan in 2017.308 The result has been a steady erosion of Argentine military capabilities, with some arguing that Argentina had, by the end of the 2010s, ceased to be a capable military power.[237]309

The Interior Security System is jointly administered by the federal and subscribing provincial governments.[229]310 At the federal level it is coordinated by the Interior, Security and Justice ministries, and monitored by Congress.[229]311 It is enforced by the Federal Police; the Prefecture, which fulfills coast guard duties; the Gendarmerie, which serves border guard tasks; and the Airport Security Police.[238]312 At the provincial level it is coordinated by the respective internal security ministries and enforced by local police agencies.[229]313

Argentina was the only South American country to send warships and cargo planes in 1991 to the Gulf War under UN mandate and has remained involved in peacekeeping efforts in multiple locations such as UNPROFOR in Croatia corpus/Bosnia corpus, Gulf of Fonseca, UNFICYP in Cyprus corpus (where among Army and Marines troops the Air Force provided the UN Air contingent since 1994) and MINUSTAH in Haiti corpus.314 Argentina is the only Latin American country to maintain troops in Kosovo corpus during SFOR (and later EUFOR) operations where combat engineers of the Argentine Armed Forces are embedded in an Italian brigade.315

In 2007, an Argentine contingent including helicopters, boats and water purification plants was sent to help Bolivia corpus against their worst floods in decades.[239]316 In 2010 the Armed Forces were also involved in Haiti and Chile humanitarian responses after their respective earthquakes.[240]317

Economy

Main article: Economy of Argentina

See also: Industry in Argentina, Argentine foreign trade

Benefiting from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, a diversified industrial base, and an export-oriented agricultural sector, Argentina's economy is Latin America's third-largest,[241] and the second-largest in South America.[242]318 In 1913, Argentina was one of the wealthiest countries in the world by GDP per capita.[243]319 It has a "very high" rating on the Human Development Index[14] and ranks 66th by nominal GDP per capita,[244] with a considerable internal market size and a growing share of the high-tech sector.320 As a middle emerging economy and one of the world's top developing nations, it is a member of the G-20 major economies.[245][246]321

Argentina is the largest producer in the world of yerba mate (due to the large domestic consumption of mate), one of the five largest producers in the world of soybeans, maize, sunflower seed, lemon and pear, one of the ten largest producers in the world of barley, grape, artichoke, tobacco and cotton, and one of the 15 largest producers in the world of wheat, sugarcane, sorghum and grapefruit.322 It is the largest producer in South America of wheat, sunflower seed, barley, lemon and pear.[247][248]323 In wine, Argentina is usually among the ten largest producers in the world.[249]324 Argentina is a traditional meat exporter, having been, in 2019, the 4th world producer of beef, with a production of 3 million tons (only behind US, Brazil and China), the 4th world producer of honey, and the 10th world producer of wool, in addition to other relevant productions.[250][251]325

The mining industry of Argentina is less prominent compared to other countries but stands out as the fourth-largest producer of lithium,[252] the 11th-largest of silver[253] and 17th-largest of gold[254] worldwide.326 Argentina excels in natural gas production, being the largest producer in South America and the 18th-largest globally.327 Argentina produces an average of 500,000 barrels/day of petroleum, despite the under-utilisation of the Vaca Muerta field due to technical and financial limitations in resource extraction.[255][256]328

as of 2012, manufacturing accounted for 20.3% of GDP—the largest sector in Argentina's economy.[257]329 Well-integrated into Argentine agriculture, half of the industrial exports have rural origin.[257]330 With a 6.5% production growth rate as of 2011,[258] the diversified manufacturing sector rests on a steadily growing network of industrial parks, 314 in 2013.[259][260]331 In 2012, the leading sectors by volume were: food processing, beverages and tobacco products; motor vehicles and auto parts; textiles and leather; refinery products and biodiesel; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; steel, aluminium and iron; industrial and farm machinery; home appliances and furniture; plastics and tires; glass and cement; and recording and print media.[257]332 Argentina has since long been one of the top five wine-producing countries in the world.[257]333

Argentina ranks 85th out of 180 countries in the Transparency International's 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index,[261] an improvement of 22 positions over its 2014 rankings.[262]334 Argentina settled its long-standing debt default crisis in 2016 with the so-called vulture funds after the election of Mauricio Macri, allowing Argentina to enter capital markets for the first time in a decade.[263]335 The government of Argentina defaulted in May 2020 by failing to pay a $500 million bill by its due date to its creditors.336 Negotiations for the restructuring of $66 billion of its debt continue.[264]337

High inflation—a weakness of the Argentine economy for decades—has become a trouble once again,[265] recently peaking at 220% in 2024.[266]338 Approximately 43% of the Argentina's population lived below the poverty line in 2023.[267]339 To deter it and support the peso, the government imposed foreign currency control.[268]340 Income distribution, having improved since 2002, is classified as "medium", although it is still considerably unequal.[13]341

On 10 December 2023, Javier Milei was sworn in as president.342 He pursued deregulation policies to alleviate the national economic crisis.[269][270]343 In January 2024, Argentina's poverty rate reached 57.4%, the highest poverty rate in the country since 2004.[271]344 By the second semester of 2024, however, poverty levels had fallen sharply to 38%, the lowest since 2022.[272]345 In November 2024, Argentina's monthly inflation rate slowed to 2.4%, the lowest in over four years.346 Annual inflation was expected to end 2024 closer to 100%.[273]347 In 2025, the inflation rate was 31.5%.[274]348 As of June 2026, the expected inflation rate is 2.2%.[275]349 Economic activity has also begun to recover after the severe recession at the beginning of 2024.350 The economy expanded in 2025 by 4.4%.[276]351