Abstract

The election of Raul Alfonsin to the presidency in 1983 marked not the end of a democratic transition, but its inception. It was not an episode in the normal functioning of a new political regime, but the first step towards its construction. Five years later, this process is far from over. Democracy remains a fragile and precarious rehearsal, a goal that has yet to be reached. In order to understand its frailty, it is necessary to review, if only briefly, the specific features of the political process from 1983 to the present against a background of sociological and economic constraints.