Argentina: Political Parties & Elections

Argentina holds competitive multiparty elections under a system that combines mandatory voting with proportional representation for legislative seats. Since the return of democratic government in 1983, the country's party landscape has been shaped largely by the rivalry between Peronism, in its various incarnations, and a shifting array of opposition coalitions drawn from centrist, radical, and more recently libertarian traditions.

Peronism traces its roots to the Labour Party formed by trade unionists in 1945 to support Juan Peron's presidential candidacy; after Peron's election in 1946, the movement was reorganized as the Justicialist Party. Banned following the 1955 military coup, Peronist candidates continued to run under alternate party names for nearly two decades before the movement returned to open political life with Peron's re-election in 1973.

Following the restoration of democracy in 1983, the Radical Civic Union and the Justicialist Party alternated in power for much of the following decades, joined more recently by broader coalitions such as Together for Change and La Libertad Avanza. Argentine elections remain closely watched for their reflection of ongoing debates over economic policy, given the country's history of recurring financial crises.