Democratization, politics and punishment in Argentina

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12664121
AutoresMáximo Sozzo (0000-0002-8999-6021, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen18
Número3
Páginas301-324
Fecha de publicación2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPunishment & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1462-4745 • E-ISSN: 1741-3095
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1462474516645689
OpenAlexW2415774696
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas27
Referencias citadas34

In this paper, I will analyze the metamorphosis of penal policy during the process of democratization of the last three decades in Argentina. The beginning of the transition was characterized by an elitist, formalist, and expert-driven mode of penal policy-making that produced several initiatives towards penal moderation. In this context, a certain contraction of punitiveness was produced. This pattern changed in the 1990s. In the context of the extreme neoliberal reforms, some initiatives had emerged oriented towards the increase of penal severity and extension, in an ambivalent landscape. But in the second half of this decade, penal populism emerged “from above” as a reaction of the elites that changed radically the mode of penal policy-making and fueled a great growth of punitiveness. After the crisis of 2001, there was a new wave of penal populism “from below” supported by strong social mobilizations around the figure of the victim. This radical mutation of the mode and orientation of penal policy-making generated an image of an epochal change that seemed to set up a new relationship between penalty and democracy. However, in the mid-2000s some symptoms of blockage of penal populism started to appear, creating tensions and contradictions still present today

Ambivalence · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Democratization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Punishment (psychology · Sociology · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Criminal Justice and Penology · History · Law · Social Psychology