Political Polarization in Times of Crisis: La grieta and Its Impact on Argentine Democracy during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The article discusses how the Argentine socio‑political polarization known as la grieta has influenced the country’s politics and impacted democratic standards during the Covid‑19 pandemic. It uses qualitative data to present the nature of Argentine socio‑political polarization, the outbreak of the Covid‑19 pandemic in Argentina and new areas of polarization that emerged in the country under the pandemic situation, mainly the quarantine measures and vaccination campaign. The paper also takes a look on potential challenges for the Argentine democracy in a post‑pandemic reality.

Keywords

• Argentina
• Covid‑19
• democracy
• polarization
• la grieta