Designaciones y organización partidaria: el partido de redes gubernamentales en el peronismo kirchnerista

Abstract

This article contributes to the understanding of the organizational structures of peronism, Argentine dominant political force, on the basis of a study on partisan appointments. It presents the main findings of a research on the scope, the workings, the motivations, and the criteria of partisan appointments in the Argentine state, with particular attention to Néstor Kirchner administration (2003-2007). The more general argument contends that appointments became in this period a crucial tool to control the state apparatus while, at the same time, they made it possible to renovate Peronist partisan elites under the leadership of the president. The data, obtained from a large series of expert interviews, make it possible to offer a new theoretical framework for the understanding of party-government linkages in contemporary Argentine democracy.