THE MAKING OF CITIZENSHIP IN ARGENTINEAN LOCAL-POLITICS - BETWEEN MUNICIPALIZATION AND MUNICIPALISM

The new political and economic contest has significantly modified town ships' reality, at the levels of the political system, the management of government and the civil society in general. The transfer of attrib utions from higher levels of government to local ones is combined with growing social demands, and the sensation of political impotence and fragmentation. Likewise, the lack of representation of townships as lo cal communities in which participation makes sense and community bonds can be reconstructed deepens the complexity of this scenario. Townshi ps in Argentina, with a long tradition as the poor relative of politic s, are beginning to be considered as a primary domain of political exe rcise and citizen practice. Citizen action groups emerge at the crossr oads of a growing turn toward the local. They appear to encourage citi zenship in the local domain toward government and community, by exerci sing rights and responsibilities. They attempt ''to capitalize'' this municipalization and turn it into municipalism. Today, townships are t he field where politics keeps on being the art of giving oneself an id entity as a member of a political community.