Neither a “fissure” nor “moral degradation”: an empirical test of the political narrative in Argentina

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24215/16696581e074

Keywords:

culture change, polarization, political culture.

Abstract

In these years, a line of discourse that emphasizes alleged cultural shortcomings of Argentines has gained resonance in our country. These narratives have focused on the existence of a "fissure" or sharp political division in society and, more recently, on aspects such as the apparent moral degradation of the country and the inclination of its citizens to depend on the State in detriment of personal effort. Using the databases of the World Values Survey and, complementarily, Latinobarómetro, the paper empirically contrasts the basic assumptions of these narratives examining how the attitudes and values of Argentines have evolved over the past three decades on a set of key economic and cultural issues The analysis focuses on the society as a whole and some of its social groups, such as politicized people, partisan voters and geographic regions. It applies, in particular, the method developed by DiMaggio, Evans and Bryson for the study of mass political polarization. The empirical evidence shows that the assumptions of these discourses have no correlation in reality and that, in recent years, Argentines tended to converge, rather than diverge, on fundamental issues.

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Author Biography

José Eduardo Jorge, Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Social; Universidad Nacional de La Plata

José Eduardo Jorge es titular del Seminario Comunicación y Cultura Política de la Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Social de la UNLP. Dirige el proyecto de investigación “La Cultura Política de la Democracia. Argentina y América Latina en Perspectiva Comparada”, de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Dirigió asimismo los proyectos “Cultura Política Argentina, Confianza Social y Valores Democráticos” (2016-2017), “Comunidad Cívica y Cultura Política en el Gran La Plata” (UNLP. 2014-2015), “Cultura Política y Medios de Comunicación en la Región del Gran La Plata” (UNLP, 2012-2013), “Comunicación y Cultura Política en el Gran La Plata” (UNLP, 2006-2008), “Medios, Ciudadanía y Democracia” (UNNOBA, 2011-2012) y “La Cultura Política en el Noroeste Bonaerense” (UNNOBA, 2008-2011). Autor del libro “Cultura Política y Democracia en Argentina” (Edulp, 2010) y de numerosos artículos académicos sobre cultura política. Se ha desempeñado desde 1983 como consultor PNUD, periodista político, asesor en comunicación de instituciones públicas y director de encuestas de opinión

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Published

2018-07-20

How to Cite

Jorge, J. E. (2018). Neither a “fissure” nor “moral degradation”: an empirical test of the political narrative in Argentina. Question/Cuestión, 1(59), e074. https://doi.org/10.24215/16696581e074

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