Tobias Boos
Chainsaws, crypto, corruption.
Argentina between populism and the radical right

Tobias Boos’s research focuses on Latin America, particularly on issues of social structure, populism, and current political-economic developments. In this lecture, he analyzes the long-term consequences of Argentina’s severe economic crisis around the turn of the millennium. Following a period of economic recovery under the Kirchner administrations, which relied on state-directed development, despite initial improvements, sustainable redistribution failed to materialize. Since 2012, the country has once again been in a deep crisis marked by rising inflation, falling incomes, and an increasingly uncertain labor market. Neither the political shift to a liberal-economic government under Mauricio Macri, nor the subsequent return of a Kirchnerist coalition under Alberto Fernández brought any sustainable stabilization. The ungoing crises and the failure of various economic policy approaches led large segments of the population lose its confidence in the state’s ability to act. Against this backdrop, Javier Milei was elected president in 2023, promising a radical break with the existing system. His political project combines libertarian, right-wing populist, and techno-utopian elements, while also drawing on a long tradition of populist politics in Argentina. Developments in Argentina thus not only raise questions about the country’s future, but are also politically significant in an international context.