Inflation, unemployment and distributional conflict in Argentina, 1984-90

The cycle of various economic stabilisation efforts in Argentina during the 1980s has often been characterised as reflecting either policy confusion on the part of officials or their unwillingness to depart from an obsolete model of economic development. Hence, according to some, the alternation between orthodox and heterodox policy approaches has revealed an absence of either economic policy wisdom or political conviction. Less attention has been paid to the underlying real class-based conflict for income that has manifested itself in terms of high rates of inflation and, at times, hyperinflation. Interpreting the issue from this perspective allows us to appreciate the essential continuity of the process of neo-liberal reform of the Argentine political economy that commenced with the post-Peronist military coup in 1976 and has more recently culminated with the rise of the nominally Peronist regime of Carlos Menem.