Argentina General Discussion: Shock Therapy

[Velasco]

Javier Milei sent his own "Enabling Act", seeking extraordinary powers to govern without Congress. "Shock Therapy" is not enough to describe the descent into authoritarianism that "Ómnibus Decrees" entail

[Velasco]

Maybe we should start clarifying concepts, because I feel we are living under a collective delusion. Also, from now on, I'll try to avoid commiseration. Argentina looks like a laboratory right now and no one in the world will ever feel safe from the reactionary pandemic in its multiple variants.  Save me your condescension, western folks: Trump, Milei and the bloodthirsty Netanyahu are everyehere.

• Milei is not a liberal. He believes neither in equal opportunities nor in the srparation of powers inherent to liberal democracies.

• Milei is not a "libertarian". He is authoritarian and advocates a form of government known as Minarchy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night-watchman_state#Philosophy

A night-watchman state, or minarchy, whose proponents are known as minarchists, is a model of a state that is limited and minimal, whose functions depend on libertarian theory. Right-libertarians support it only as an enforcer of the non-aggression principle by providing citizens with the military, the police, and courts, thereby protecting them from aggression, theft, breach of contract, fraud, and enforcing property  

That is to say, reducing the state to rubble, preserving only the repressive apparatus and the monopololy of force. In practice, this leads to an authoritarian form of government. Inevitably anarcho-capitalism and total deregulation will foster gross unequalities, with the subsequent social unrest. The state's only function under this system will be to preserve the privileges of the people able to pay for them.

XX Century Communists advocated Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Milei and the XXI Century Minarchists are seeking to implement the Dictatorship of the Markets and the Law of the Strongest. They won't hesitate in deploying the police and the military to enforce the new order and suppress all opposition.

I would never dare to make fun or minimize Milei's proposals as "crazy stuff". Quite possibly many Argentinians voted for him believing that he was not going to implement his full agenda, but Milei always makes clear he's serious. When Milei states he's going to implement a Shock Therapy,  he's serious. When the Human Capital ministry warns that protesters will lose payments and benefits, it is serious. When Milei sends the Enabling Act to Congress,  he's acting in all seriousness.

It's up to see if the Congress and other institutions will be effective counterweights to Milei,  but stop treating him as a clown. Milei is serious.

[Velasco]

[
We probably don't agree ideologically, but most of this post is true. Milei's ideology ("anarco-capitalist in principle, minarchist for practical reasons" in his own words) is as dangerous as any other "utopian" ideology that underestimates the complexity of human nature (like Marxism).

But that's another reason I resist to compare Milei to Trump or Bolsonaro. Milei comes from the academic world; he actually believes what he says (essentially the destruction of the State) and would apply it completely and without hesitation if he had enough power.

I prefer to think of Milei as a temporary necessary craziness to bring Argentina back to the "almost developed nations" club after decades of overspending, clientelism and corruption. But on the other hand, it's never a good idea to have a fanatic ideologue leading a country...

I made my point referring to a generic "reactionary wave" (or "pandemic"). Javier Milei, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro,  Benjamin Netanyahu, Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin are singular characters. They are all rightwingers and share a staunch reactionarism, but they express it in different ways.

In terms of economic policies Milei clearly differs with Trump's protectionist statements, but in the end both share the aversion to tax the rich. In terms of geopolitical alignment, Milei states he's a staunch ally of the US and Israel and enemy of Russia. However, it's notorious the ambivalence of Trump towards Putin (not to mention Putin and Netanyahu were 'special friends'). There’s also a significant difference between Milei and Putin with regards the state's intervention in economy, but Russia is nowadays a capitalist country and in no way Putin can be characterized as a communist.

I guess it's more comforting to think about Milei as a neccessary evil, but you'll have to admit that he poses a real threat of authoritarian involution, as you concur with me that he's absolutely serious.

We don't need to share a common ideology to realize about it, just to share common values or ideas about democracy and a basic knowledge in contemporary history. The fascination that normal rightwingers feel towards Milei is worthy of note.

With regards to utopian ideologies, there's a fundamental difference between Karl Marx and the likes of Milton Friedman. Marx made actually an accurate diagnosis of economic relations in the contemporary world. Regardless of whether his political recipes were wrong, Marx's influence transcends his ideology or school of thought.

We have seen already the failure of the 'real socialism' utopia. I hope that Argentina can escape from the horrors of a minarchist dystopia

[Velasco]

That's actually a rather sensible measure considering the state of Argentina's finances but the schadenfreude is delicious.

I could feel empathy towards that Venezuelan student coming drom the future, but maybe another student from Peru could have warned Argentinians about the dangers of voting for someone who will turn the country inside out in the authoritarian fashion of Fujimori. You can say whatever you want about Massa, but he's not like Maduro

[Velasco]

That's actually a rather sensible measure considering the state of Argentina's finances but the schadenfreude is delicious.

I could feel empathy towards that Venezuelan student coming drom the future, but maybe another student from Peru could have warned Argentinians about the dangers of voting for someone who will turn the country inside out in the authoritarian fashion of Fujimori. You can say whatever you want about Massa, but he's not like Maduro

Peruvians generally support the policies of our central bank, which current form started after reforms by Fujimori. Before that, we had Alan Garcia and hiperinflation and a situation similar to Fernandez's Argetina. I don't think most peruvians would persuade people to vote for Massa.
The issues most related to Fujimori was corruption, Grupo Colina (a paramilitary group), forced sterilizations and the impulse of 'chicha culture' and 'trash television' (Laura Bozzo became popular in the 90s). I don't think Milei has show sings to support a paramilitary group or forced sterilizations.

Milei has shown clear signs that he will be ready to suppress opposition resorting to the police and the military,  as well as he is demanding extraordinary powers to govern bypasing the parliament. In that respect he can resemble Fujimori and other right-wing authoritarian leaders in Latin America. Of course it's unlikely Milei will embark in forced sterilizations and nowadays there's nothing resembling the Shining Path in Argentina.  On the other hand, crumbling economies are good breeding grounds for authoritarianism. I hope there's enough people in Peru rejecting Fujimori's legacy.

Anyway my point was that Argentina is not like Venezuela (or Peru, for that matter). Resorting to comparisons between Maduro and other leaders left-of-the-centre (Massa is not a leftist, but whatever) is an usual form of demagoguery in both sides of the Atlantic (Spain and Latin America). I see more sinilarities between Milei and Fujimori compared to Massa and Maduro, but that's not very relevant. Authoritarianism is never a good solution, neither in Peru nor in Venezuela

[Velasco]

I don't know if that's post-election analysis or new polling, but Milei's popularity among young voters is not surprising to me. Someone who is selling anti-establishment slogans and turnjng everything inside out is likely to be more attractive to them than a career politician bred in the old peronist machine