Right-wing radicalization and fusionism in contemporary Argentina

Abstract

This article contributes to our understanding of the emergence and dazzling growth of a radicalized right-wing party in Argentina. To this end, we recover the concept of fusionism that emerged in the debates of US conservatism in the 1960s. The concept of fusionism is not only useful at a descriptive level, but also helps to perceive and comprehend a political dynamic that implies, at the same time, a complex merge of traditions (ideas, discourses, practices, tones, attitudes, sensibilities) and a process of radicalization of the political camp. In order to explain this dynamic, we propose a brief review of the two families of the right-wing camp in Argentina throughout the twentieth century. Then, we show how the grassroots of these two families became closer in recent decades and the way in which an electoral representation of this political subject was built.