Argentina Today: The Cultural Mood

Democracy has returned to Argentina against a backdrop of profound changes in international and national life. To cite but a few: the intensification of power-bloc rivalry; revolutionary changes in the technology of information; the realignment of world views; high-tech militarization; and global financial jitters. On the domestic front: a drastic reduction in the numerical and political strength of the working class; the constraints imposed by the large debt; and the disappearance of a long-standing formula that equated free elections with Peronist governments. All these are rough indicators of how different Argentina is today from what it was just ten years ago.

Many of the new circumstances are tough. Yet some of the old social...