Identities, Discourse and Politic. The Articulation and Consolidation of the Menemism Significant Chain about Socio-Economic Regime of Convertibility (1991-1995)

Abstract

The work analyzes the modality of political legitimation of the menemism. In this context, it addresses the issue through a new conceptual framework of discursive character based on the Theory of Hegemony of Ernesto Laclau in joint with some concepts from lacanian psychoanalysis. According to it is maintained, the key element that explains the ample and lasting political support to the menemist project by his hegemonic coalition lay in the institution and subsequent success of the Convertibility Plan. This socioeconomic Regime worked like a empty significant, in the terms of Laclau, that allowed to articulate and consolidate the ample menemist hegemony, through the satisfaction of a plurality of equivalent social demands. As well, it affirms that the Convertibility managed to build itself in a point of capiton, in the lacanian sense, that worked like a partial object cause of desire invested as a source of enjoyment. In that frame, the Master Significant, articulated with an ample significant chain, produced a collective identification which helped to generate an affective attachment around the Menem´s speech, helping to explain the political support to the menemism between 1991 and 1995.